Sorry for the messy rant but I need to get this off my chest, so my mother has four bio children (two are my half siblings) and four step children (my other half siblings), she had me and my sister in her mid to late thirties and my mother LOVED being pregnant, she said that if she hadn't been running out of time, her words, she would have had one or two more. Now, we suspect that my mother is neurodivergent as is all four of her children so maybe it was a sensory thing but she says that she loved the feeling of being pregnant and if she could have that feeling again, she would. This is just food for thought, maybe Jessica likes the feeling as my mum does, I am not sure.
My mother was and is much more attentive to her children than (judging off of the vlogs) Jessica is, and we never had our older siblings look after us unless it was needed as sometimes my mother had to work or pop into work, probably for no longer than an hour and sometimes our siblings picked us up from school (my father worked much later than our mum did), however, they were over 16 years old and only looked after me and my sister as my other siblings were old enough to look after themselves, if my parents wanted a date night or something, our uncle would look after us.
Okay so, I know we were very fortunate but we grew up in a six bedroom house, my oldest sibling lived with her mum (her choice), my second oldest sister had her own room as did my third oldest sister, my brother had his own room (only boy), my fourth oldest sister had her own room, my fifth oldest sister had her own room and me and my sister (she is one year and 3 months older than me) shared a room with my parents but they added in a wall so technically, it was one room but our own space, we were babies/toddlers at the time and probably were around four and five at the time my second oldest sister moved out so we than shared her room as it was bigger, a year or two later my third oldest sister moved out and we all had our own room. We grew up working class and had WAY less money than the Ballingers yet we could do that, I don't understand why the Ballingers can't, I don't think sharing is a bad thing but their sharing plan is too messy and cluttered. I also do not think that the only girl should share, especially not with a baby.
I loved growing up, I enjoyed an still do enjoy being apart of a big family but I don't think Jessica understands that it isn't a fun game of families you play in primary school, these are real children who need support, guidance, attention, etc and from my perspective, her and Chris are not on the same page at all, what exactly is their parenting style? My parents were the nurturing type, but I see Jessica as someone who thinks that her children will figure it out on their own and Chris as a more involved parent but quite soft? Maybe even a big kid? I don't think they discipline often or at all.
I also do not think the camera/growing up on YouTube is healthy at all. I have nothing against home schooling but I think it is obvious that they only do it so their children can be filmed more, I wonder if they think that is more important than their children's education which is why they are not doing appropriate work for their stage (I think in education, stage rather than age is a better way for children to learn).
Sorry again for this massive rant, I hope I didn't come off as too judgemental or harsh, I have been holding in my thoughts for a while. Please note that I haven't seen recent vlogs, I get most of my information off of here.