This isn’t the first time a member of the Duggar family has come under fire for their parenting decisions , but this time, people are pretty concerned about the safety of Joy-Anna Duggar ’s children. After Joy shared a video from one of her kiddos’ latest outdoor adventures, her followers are calling her out for “unsafe” parenting — mostly because the footage showed Joy riding around on an ATV with her 14-month-old son, Gunner, in her lap.
It all started with Joy’s new Instagram reel.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joy Forsyth (@joy4site)
The video showed her taking all three of her kids out to see horses — which also happened to be the first time her youngest, Gunner, had ever been able to see them up close.
To reach the area where the horses were, Joy rode an ATV with baby Gunner in her lap and her older children, Gideon and Evelyn, riding behind her.
Critics immediately took issue with Joy’s decision.
“No helmet???? With a toddler????? On an ATV????? While moving?!?!?!” one person wrote.
Another comment read, “Oh my goodness that is scary and dangerous.”
Others pointed out that the kids didn’t seem to be wearing shoes.
In one shot, 6-year-old Gideon can be seen walking around the field with the horses without wearing shoes, and more than one person pointed out that this could also be a safety hazard.
“It’s a good idea to have the kids wear shoes when walking near horses,” wrote one commenter.
Others defended Joy.
Some of her followers were happy to see kids playing outside with no shoes on — something they remembered fondly from their own childhoods.
“Many people commenting has never been on a farm or lived on one,” one person wrote, while another commended Joy on how she handled Evelyn freaking out about the horses.
“You did a great job with your little girl — validating her feelings and ‘rescuing’ her. She knows mama has her back!” the fan wrote.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joy Forsyth (@joy4site)
Earlier this year, Joy took to her YouTube channel to share a vlog answering questions from her followers, at one point stating that people who criticize her online " don’t really know me " — and that she doesn’t want strangers to “lump” her in with her siblings, either.
“I am my own person. I have my own opinions,” she said at the time. “I wish people would get to know me for me and not for my whole family, if that makes sense. I am an individual, not being lumped together as a whole family, but like, getting to know each one of my siblings individually.”
