Hi- My name is Helen and I'm addicted to....

shows about huge families! I have this really weird fetish for shows about giant families. I'm not entirely sure, but I think this is rooted in the fact that a lot of my growing up was spent as an only child. (I think my family would balk at this, so I guess that I should explain. I am the much youngest of three; my brother is 11 years older than me and my sister is 9 years older than me. To put this into clear perspective, my brother went to college when I was in first grade. I'm close to them and I love them, but I always wished I had a sibling who was closer to me in age.)

Needless to say, I love this crazy trend of reality shows about families. I love "John and Kate plus 8". I think Kate is a lunatic, but she seems to be improving. She won't let the kids get dirty and she yells at John a lot, but I enjoy them immensely. Ten years ago I was obsessed with those specials that Dianne Sawyer and Ann Curry did with the Dilley septuplets and McCaughey septuplets. My mom and I would watch the specials and discuss at commerical breaks while I was away at college. As I got back in my mind, I realize there was also an earlier obsession with the Dionne Quintuplets. They were the world's first surviving quintuplets who were born in Canada in the 1930s.

In the last few years, my large family obsession has fallen to the Duggars from Arkansas. I found the Duggars initially in their specials, "15 Kids and Moving". (They were also part of a larger series that I of course season passed called "Kids by the Dozen".) They look like they just fell off a FLDS compound ( and mormonism and the show "Big Love" is a whole other obsession). They are actually just Fundamentalist Christians, who wear prairie skirts and the girls never cut their giant braids, but hey whatever floats your boat. I loved all their wholesomeness, and adorable kids that just kept coming and coming. The kids always seemed sooooo well-behaved.

You can imagine my happiness and excitement when i found out they would be having their own series, delightfully called "17 Kids and Counting". I have watched four episodes so far. And I have to tell you, I'm afraid, very afraid. I guess I didn't want to know this much and I'm kind of weirded out. The oldest Duggar, Josh aged 20, got engaged in the third episode. Uh, ahem, he got engaged to his homeschool network sweetheart. She got a lovely half carat diamond. And now they get to hold hands. That's right people, they are "courting" and can hold hands. They are saving their first kiss for their wedding day. I'm pretty sure that Laura Ingalls got more action on her buggy rides with Almanzo Wilder on her buggy rides around DeSmet, South Dakota in 1880.

I've also seen a little misbehaving amongst the chillin's which secretly makes me happy.....

Can you name that Duggar?
http://health.discovery.com/convergence/duggars/duggargame.html