Counting On stars Kendra Duggar and her husband Joe Duggar are the latest members of the family to get unwelcomed parenting advice from online trolls. The couple, who are parents to 2-year-old son Garrett and 9-month-old daughter Addison, found themselves facing backlash after their recent “lake day” getaway raised concerns for their daughter’s safety.
View this post on Instagram
The worry among some fans was prompted Monday after the couple took to Instagram to document their family trip to the lake. Writing that “it’s always fun spending time together on the lake,” the accompanying gallery of images, while adorable, sparked concern after fans took notice of one image in particular. Among photos of Garret laughing as he relaxed on the boat was one of Addison on the boat without a life jacket — something some fans were quick to condemn.
Videos by PopCulture.com
That image sent off a flurry of responses in the comments section, with one person candidly asking, “Where is baby girl life jacket????: A second person suggested that the parents could possibly be breaking the law, noting, “I don’t know what state your (sic) in boating but you are for sure breaking the law by not having the baby in a life vest.” Somebody else commented, “as much as i hate to be negative please get lifejackets for every person on the water.” A fourth person was far more critical, writing, “Jesus God put a LIFE JACKET on. Your grandmother drowned. Do you not care about your kids at all?” Grandma Mary Duggar died in June of 2019 at the age of 78 of an accidental drowning at her Arkansas home.
While neither Duggar nor her husband responded to the backlash, some fans were eager to come to their defense. Hitting back at some of the negative comments, one person suggested that they were “sure when in motion the baby had a life jacket on.”
The parent shaming came just a month after fellow Duggar family members Jeremy Vuolo and Jinger (Duggar) Vuolo faced backlash over a similar scenario. On Instagram, they raised concerns after they shared a photo of Vuolo sitting on a boat with daughter Felicity in his lap. Felicity did not have a life jacket on, sparking some criticism in the comments section. In that scenario, the Vuolos did not respond to the backlash, and several fans had also suggested that the little one did not have a life jacket on simply because they were sitting in the boat and it was not in motion.
