There was a time when the less controversial members of the Duggar family could post just whatever they wanted on social media, and it would rack up likes and praise as though it were a wedding announcement or a funny video involving a kitten.
Needless to say, those days are done.
Now that the Duggars have been exposed as one of the most problematic families in the history of television, even the more innocent members of Jim Bob’s brood are receiving greater blowback than ever before.
Case in point, Jessa Duggar’s recent post about her new house.
In a new installment of her popular YouTube vlog, Jessa invited fans to “tour our new fixer upper.”
The video seemed innocuous enough, with Jessa merely showing fans the progress that’s taken place on “her clean canvas” of a three bedroom home over then course of the past few months.
“Aw! What a nice gift from your daddy,” one viewer commented on the video.
There was a time when Jessa might have ignored such a remark.
These days, however, she’s clearly fed up with the trolls and haters.
“That is so stupid and an outright lie,” Jessa replied to the comment.
Of course, the trash talk didn’t end there, and Jessa was forced to contend with a few more skeptics in the comments.
“How do you buy a house when you’re both unemployed?” one follower asked — which, to be fair, is a pretty good question.
Counting On has been canceled, and that seemed to be Jessa and Ben Seewald’s primary source of income.
But Jessa responded to the second critic as well, insisting that while she’s never mentioned it before, her husband is in fact gainfully employed.
“My husband works a full time job,” she replied.
“Matter of fact, since he graduated high school he has always worked a job–even while studying to get his college degree. Those are rumors that simply are not true.”
Jessa didn’t go into detail with regard to Ben’s full-time job, but last we checked in on his career prospects, he was undergoing training to become a preacher.
She clearly considers the matter closed, but we still have some questions.
Ben was working a full-time job during his years on Counting On but we never once saw him go to work?
Whatever Ben’s job is, it’s lucrative enough that he’s able to support three kids and buy a house on a single salary?
And apparently whatever Ben’s gig is, it leaves him with plenty of free time.
In her video, Jessa noted that Seewald has been taking a very hands-on role in the renovations.
In fact, she claimed that he’s been “heading up the project” in his free time, noting that he was “doing some of the work himself” and would “bring in other profession[al] crews” when he needed assistance.
It’s not hard to see why so many would be curious about Ben’s profession — they probably want to enter the same cushy field themselves!
So Jessa can blast critics all she wants — she’s been doing it a lot lately — but she should also expect this sort of thing.
After all, when you put so much of your personal life on the internet for public consumption, it’s only natural that fans would have follow-up questions like “how the hell do you pay for all of this?”
For years, insiders have claimed that Jim Bob gives his kids an allowance, and since he’s bullish on investing in real estate, he’s usually willing to shell out a little extra when the purchase of a house is involved.
There’s no shame in accepting that money — especially with all that JB has put his kids through — but perhaps Jessa should give her fans a little more credit when it comes to figuring out her financial situation.
