Counting On: Are Jim and Michelle reading internet comments?

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar surprised the world when they went to Instagram to wish their son-in-law, Derick Dillard, a happy birthday. The message probably seemed sweet for those who didn’t know that Derick, along with his wife Jill Duggar, had been excommunicated from the family. While some fans believe the families have left the problems behind, critics think the message was calculated, and disagree.

Counting On: Are Jim and Michelle reading internet comments?

After the message aired, the followers of the family were a little surprised. After all, Jim Bob and Michelle are clearly in the middle of a nice public battle with their son-in-law, even if the public feud seems a bit one-sided. Critics of the family assume that Jim Bob and Michelle are reading the comments on the internet, and their birthday message was a direct response to what everyone has been talking about for months.

If you think about it, the birthday message is pretty inappropriate. The family did not offer a birthday message to any of the other in-laws who joined the family. It’s also the first time they’ve publicly acknowledged Derick Dillard in years. The transparent motivation behind the birthday message has not met with critical acclaim, to say the least.

Bu gönderiyi Instagram’da gör

Family memories! 1/2 price bowling night, 💯 percent of the fun! 🎳

The Duggar Family (@duggarfam)’in paylaştığı bir gönderi (6 Mar, 2020, 11:03öö PST)

Counting On: Extending Jill Duggar An İnvitation To A Family Event Seems Pretty Calculated Now, Too

The Duggars are busy trying to fix their public image, apparently. The birthday message to Derick Dillard also coincided with Jill’s invitation to a family event. After fans realized that her family hadn’t recognized her in over two years, she suddenly appeared on the Instagram family page. To be honest, we don’t know if she simply wasn’t photographed at the events, or if she wasn’t invited at all.

Counting On the fans, once again, she found the timing rather suspicious. After all, Jill hadn’t shown up in a single family picture since 2017, but a few weeks after the followers talked about it, Jill Duggar suddenly found herself the center of attention. The simple timing seemed too random, and several followers suggested that the family is trying to minimize the damage caused by Derick’s public admissions to Instagram.

Counting On: Is The Recent Instagram Activity Doing More Harm Than Good?

While the Duggar family probably believed that sharing a little love online would help soothe the chatter about family struggles, it seems the opposite has been done. In fact, fans have been discussing the odd timing of both Jill Duggar’s sudden family involvement and the birthday message to Derick since they went live, and few people have anything good to say about it.

In fact, they may have done more harm than good to their image. The message seems fairly calculated, and also gives credence to the theory that the Duggar family has almost nothing to do with the Dillards. The message was so general that it seems pretty clear that Jim Bob and Michelle know very little about Derick. However, the words they offer their own children on their birthdays are also quite general.