Why OutDaughtered Fans Are Worried About Parker Busby

Is everything okay with Parker Busby? Fans couldn't help but express their worry after Danielle Busby posted a picture of herself with her daughters in which Parker looked visibly distraught. The picture, which was posted on October 12 on Instagram, shows Danielle, Blayke, Hazel, Riley, Ava, and Olivia smiling, but Parker seems upset. 

"Parker always looks so sad," said one person in the comments of the photo (via TV Shows Ace), while another noted that she looked "a bit sulky." Some fans think Parker is just shy, but others are worried that Parker is suffering from severe anxiety.

Parker Busby's anxiety has been addressed on OutDaughtered before. In July, Parker was assessed by an occupational therapist on the show. Adam explained the decision to seek help. "I am glad we are taking this step," he said. "I am just hoping we come away from it with a better understanding of how we can help her."

The TLC couple explained that Parker seems to get stressed out easily and shuts down in stressful situations. "Parker hates new things and being in the spotlight," said Danielle.

At the session, the occupational therapist confirmed that Parker is, indeed, shy, especially in new situations. "Things that I think you can do is to just work on expanding those opportunities to play with other kids," suggested the therapist. "Taking her to the park, yoga, that can help her learn to... become calm."

A lot of fans were upset that the Busbys decided to have Parker's anxiety test shown on the show. "I think maybe the fact that the child suffers from anxiety should show the parents that they shouldn't be subjecting her to cameras and things like that," said one fan (via MEAWWW).

Another said, "This kid has anxiety. Why are they shoving cameras in her face while she gets her diagnosis." Yet another OutDaughtered viewer added, "I don't really see where that helped. They also shouldn't be talking about this in front of her. Maybe the cameras are just too much on your children and it's affecting their childhood."

Viewers of OutDaughtered have seen Parker struggle more than once. A TLC UK YouTube clip from October 2018 shows Parker panicking during a dental exam. Another clip from July shows the quint crying onstage as she and her sisters perform "Jingle Bells" during a school recital. 

Danielle has also revealed that Parker sometimes has trouble letting her parents out of her sight. An Instagram photo from January 2019 shows Parker refusing to let go of her mom. "Tried to sneak out the house for a date night... always gotta have someone pulling on me to stay home," she wrote. "And how funny... this time it's PK. How dare Mommy go on a date with her Daddy."

When season 6 of OutDaughtered premiered, viewers got to see the quints being tested to see if they were ready to be moved up to the next grade level (per MEAWWW). OutDaughtered fans have known for months, now, that in the fall of 2019 most of the quints started pre-K while Riley was promoted ahead to kindergarten, but what they didn't know until the season premiered was that Parker almost wasn't promoted with her siblings. Before the test, Danielle expressed her concern that Parker's anxiety would affect her performance, and it turned out she was correct. Riley, as we know, did extremely well on the test, but Parker seemed to struggle with hers, making her teacher hesitant about promoting her.

The Busbys were concerned that the quints would move up to the next grade level without Parker and had to make the decision about whether or not Parker should join them. We now know, of course, that Parker did indeed go on to pre-K, but it's clear that her anxiety is leading to some tough decision making for the Busbys.

The occupational therapist who saw Parker suggested that if Danielle and Adam Busby don't see an improvement in their daughter's anxiety levels they should bring her to a psychologist.

The Busbys haven't announced yet whether or not they will meet with a psychologist and have Parker go to therapy. For now, at least, it seems like they are implementing the strategies the occupational therapist suggested and are trying to get Parker's anxiety levels under control on their own.