Those who tuned into TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting and its spinoff Counting On know that Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar raised their 19 children with strict, fundamentalist Christian values. Not only did they homeschool their kids, stick to to modest clothing, and prohibit dancing, but the Duggars also forbade them from listening to popular music and watching most TV shows and movies. Jim Bob and Michelle’s adult children, however, including Jessa Duggar, are doing things differently with their own kids.
Jessa and her husband Ben Seewald have welcomed five little ones since tying the knot in 2014. They are Spurgeon, 8, Henry, 7, Ivy, almost 5, Fern, 3 1/2, and George, nearly 3 months. And judging by Jessa’s latest social media update, her kiddos are watching plenty of the Australian cartoon series Bluey.
Jessa recently shared a video on social media of Fern chatting about ‘Bluey.’
On March 13, the mom of five took to Instagram with an all-too-relatable update. Her video showed Fern drawing characters from Bluey while explaining what each doodle was. “Naur, Mum. What would give you the idear I’ve been watching too much Bingaur?” she captioned the sweet update.
Fern’s Australian accent was quickly evident.
“Let’s see your picture,” Jessa says in the video as she approaches her younger daughter. “Oh, Fern, I love your picture.”
“It’s Bluey picture!” Fern, who turns 3 in July, proudly exclaims. “And that’s Bingo.”
Jessa points out: “Wow, you really have an accent. Have you been watching a lot of Bluey?”
“Naur,” Fern replies, adorably proving her mom right.
Plenty of Instagram users could relate.
In the comments, Instagram users shared anecdotes of their own kids’ obsession with Bluey and subsequent Australian accents.
One person wrote, “Love it! My kids use the phrase ‘you’re being a cheeky monkey’ now 😂.”
Another follower commented, “Oh my gosh, that’s hysterical 😂 my daughter keeps saying ‘bush wee’ and asking if we can play cricket!”
Meanwhile, yet another Instagram user shared, “My kids get accents too after watching Bluey. My twins wanted to play pass the parcel at their birthday party last year but they said pass the pa sel I didn’t know what they were talking about. 😂.”
Other commenters shared how their kids adopted accents from different TV shows.
Other Instagram users reminisced about their children acquiring British accents from watching so much Peppa Pig.
“My son did this accent after watching peppa pig when he was little, he once asked me to ‘mend’ something that broke! Um, you mean fix?! 😂,” the parent wrote.
Another follower commented, “It reminds me of a time when my sweet Grace was about 3. We watch way too much Peppa Pig, and she came running in and, of course, in a British accent ‘Mommy can I go play in the garden?’ 😆 🤣 😂 I told my husband that’s it, no more Peppa Pig, lol!”
Yet another fan chimed in, “Oh I love this! All of our Australian kids get American accents when they watch too much TV and now it’s reversed 😂 Bluey is the best.”
Most TV shows and movies were off-limits to Jessa and her siblings when they were kids.
During a 2010 interview with CBS News, Jim Bob opened up about why he and Michelle decided to ditch their televisions at a marriage counselor’s advice and strictly limit what their children watched.
“He encouraged us to not have TV the first year. Then after our first year, someone gave us a TV and we got cable,” Jim Bob told the news outlet. “We quickly realized that we were addicted to TV. Our communication dropped off. We just stared at that TV and didn’t talk to each other. We pulled that TV out of the wall. That was one of the best decisions we ever made for our family.”
Jim Bob noted during a 2011 HuffPost interview that sometimes, the Duggar kids would be permitted to watch preapproved shows.
“We do watch DVDs — The Andy Griffith Show,” the Duggar patriarch said. “We are very selective about what we watch. We actually don’t watch broadcast TV.”