Defending the Duggar Parents’ PDA Pic

Photo: Jessa Seewald/Instagram

Whether you cringed looking at it or exclaimed, “So cute!,” the photo 19 Kids And Counting’s Jessa Seewald posted on Instagram Sunday of her parents making out has certainly gotten a lot of attention.

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In just one day the black and white image – recreating Jessa’s own passionate Nov. 5 kiss with new husband Ben Seewald – has been liked more than 96,000 times.

“My parents texted me this picture!” the reality star, 22, wrote about Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar’s copycat lip lock. “This year marks 30 years of marriage, and they’re still in that ‘honeymoon’ stage! It’s great to see older married couples still so madly in love! I love you Mom & Dad!”

And while the majority of comments about the image on Seewald’s Instagram were, of course, positive, remarks on stories posted about the re-creation elsewhere had decidedly more bite. “I almost lost my lunch!!” wrote Us Weekly reader Daffany Rose-Gilbert in one post typical of the responses on the site. And one of the more restrained readers on People leveled: “Well, this is awkward.”

But critics should consider where the couple is coming from before they judge, insists NYC psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert.

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“We don’t know if they’re copying or if they were simply inspired and were feeling the love,” Alpert tells Yahoo Parenting. “As couples age there’s often a push to reignite the more passionate times that once existed. Given how close knit the family is, the younger Duggar’s action could certainly have been seen as a good idea by the elder Duggars. I think there’s a danger in reading into a kiss too much.  Sometimes, after all, a kiss is simply a kiss.”

Dr. Wendy Walsh agrees some empathy is in order for the elder Duggars – but for a very different reason. “This picture is a way for the matriarch to say, ‘Hey, we can be sexy too!’” the clinical psychologist tells Yahoo Parenting.

Competing for relevance with your children in the world of reality TV is certainly something Kris Jenner, for example, knows well. The Kardashian momager’s strategy, say some, is to wear clothes in the exact same style as her trendsetting daughter Kim.

Paramount Pictures/YouTube

And who could forget the poster-mom for daughter envy: Amy Poehler’s character in Mean Girls?

For Michelle Duggar, “there probably was this feeling that, Uh oh, my daughter is getting all this attention,” explains Walsh. “She may even have worried that the young couple is going to get a spin-off.”

Then there’s the purist perspective: Mom and Dad were just trying to show their daughter that they are rallied behind her. Duggar fan raidersmom5 wrote on Seewald’s Instagram page: “I think it’s sweet that Jim Bob and Michelle took a picture showing support for their daughter!” Whether it was too close to home depends on perspective.