There was a documentary about that

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I used to live in a town of about 800 people in the middle of Pa. One day I went shooting with the chief of police and a mutual friend. He pointed out the whore house (2 blocks from the elementary school), the local pedophiles a little further away, the transient camp by the creek, the people he'd kill just to make things safe if he missed the rapture. Really educational day.

Especially when indecently dressed is when a 16 year old girl's dress doesn't come down to her ankles....

They're wealthy and politically connected.

Critiquing the "normalness" of the Duggars on Arfcom is like having Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Helen Thomas judging a beauty contest. 

Count me in the big family crowd (although not as big as the Duggars). There are weird families of every type. I think the Duggars did a pretty good job showing that a huge family is not as weird as people think. I think the popularity of the show is that many people wish they were part of such a large family. I don't think they were watching because they thought it was a train wreck. The Duggars were pulling off something that was not supposed to be possible nowadays.

Here in France I have the benefit that it is a traditionally Catholic country so people still remember large families. It's rare to have large families here now, but not unheard of. It's been easier here than in the US to have a large family. I think a lot of people are glad that someone is having large families, even if it's not them themselves.

There are a lot of reasons to have a large family and a lot of benefits, although it does seem that most families that are large have religious reasons. The Trumps all seem to have a lot of kids (5? each). If the family is healthy and supportive, there is always a support group. There's always someone to play with, to help you, to do things with. You are an instant party wherever you go. You can do things that teams or classes normally do. And when the kids get older, you've got a lot of healthy-minded people to spend time with. It's very nice.

We intentionally did not have the older kids help raise the younger ones, although they would babysit sometimes. They are going to college, and have lived in different places and gone to various schools. They aren't sheltered. The opposite I'd say. Socialist public high schools in France aren't really the best environments I'd say. But to each his own.

I'm glad the Duggars helped diminish some stereotypes. At least they showed that huge families aren't that bad.

The whole situation seems odd but then again I’m looking at it from the perspective of a guy who comes from a very small American family.  My Danish family is much much larger.

I have trouble understanding the deeply religious types that make everyone in their family follow the faith. I’m more of a “live your own life” kind of a guy.

Can we stay out of people's bedrooms?

Their type of faith can't tolerate deviation from the status quo. It's a rigid code, based on discipline. If they let each kid do it their own way, none would stay within the structure preferred by dad. There was a time when that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.