Jed Duggar Can’t Read a Clock

This week, Jed Duggar and Katey Nakatsu welcomed their first child.

Most fans and critics alike were too caught up in the event itself or the newborn’s Kardashian-esque name to say much more.

But Jed and Katey shared a video chronicling their journey … which led to a startling revelation.

Jed is a grown man and now a married father, but he can’t tell time. That’s not a joke — he admitted it.

Jedidiah and Katey posted a birthing video to YouTube.

Much of the footage came before baby True was born, including a tour of the nursery.

Jed and Katey also had a small family celebration, including Jed’s twin Jeremiah wearing a shirt anticipating getting a new nephew.

Once at the hospital, Katey tried on a series of gowns that had different issues before she found the right one.

There was a lot of waiting done, all while listening to the baby’s heartbeat through the monitors.

At one point, while discussing things like food and how the contractions were progressing, Jed turned the camera to the clock on the wall.

The clock, as almost anyone can plainly tell, reads 9:25.

Now, you might be thinking that Jed simply misread the clock — sometimes, it’s easy to mistake one hand for another, for example.

But Jed didn’t make a mistake. He didn’t say a time at all. He asked someone else to read the clock for him.

Jed’s request was obliged, prompting his very pregnant wife to laugh.

If it were an isolated incident, it might be a goofy moment of someone being too excited or tired to think.

But Jed plainly admitted that it would take him more time to interpret an analog clock into a coherent time … which is normal for a young child, not for a grown man.

It’s no secret that the Duggar children were utterly failed by their cult-approved homeschooling.

Any educational system can fail through bad luck, special circumstances, or neglect.

But this isn’t really an incident of someone “slipping through the cracks.” These aren’t cracks — it’s a pit.

The Duggar children were taught IBLP-approved material growing up.

That meant a lot of harmful ideas about sex, gender, authority, and more.

Things that don’t directly relate to any of that … well, if it’s not in the bible and it’s not in IBLP pamphlets, who would even teach it to Jed?

Will Jed and Katey be condemning their child to homeschooling like Jed and his siblings were?

That decision will be a few years away.

We hope that Katey knows how to read a clock, because if there are no actual teachers in True’s life, she might be the only one who can teach that.

Some people struggle to read analog clocks through no fault of their own (or their educators).

Dyslexia can make reading anything a challenge. Many on the autistic spectrum find analog clocks frustrating. Others struggle with spatial reasoning.

But if any of those explanations fit Jed, it’s unlikely that he ever would have been diagnosed — because he grew up in a toxic cult.

Analog clocks are dying out, and fewer and people have fewer and fewer opportunities to read them — or need to read them, given the availability of digital clocks.

So perhaps people — us included — are being a little unfair to Jed who, despite being raised in a backwards cult, technically has lived most of his life in the 21st Century.

On the other hand … the way that he seemed so amused at being unable to read a clock at his big age is a little offputting.