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Those who watch OutDaughtered certainly can’t imagine what life is like for Adam and Danielle Busby. The loving parents have their 8-year-old daughter, Blayke, and 4-year-old quintuplet girls to raise — and they manage childrearing like professionals. Given the couple’s struggles with infertility, it was an even bigger shock to them that they now have so many kids. And fans have absolutely fallen in love with the different personalities of all the Busby quints as they’ve grown older, too.

Adam and Danielle seem to do their best to give each child as much attention as the others. But fans seem to think they’ve been unfairly hard on Riley. Here’s what fans are saying regarding Adam and Danielle’s behavior toward the quint.

Riley might be one of the smartest of Adam and Danielle’s kids

While it was difficult to tell the quintuplets apart initially, it’s now easier than ever, as they’re all developing their own looks and personalities. And one of the quints who truly stands out from the crowd is Riley. Riley is seemingly more mischievous than the others — and she may also be the smartest of Adam and Danielle’s kids, too. During a preschool evaluation, Riley’s intelligence was seemingly off the charts compared to her sisters.

In this OutDaughtered clip, Randi, the preschool teacher tells Adam and Danielle that Riley’s scored extremely high for someone her age. While the average score on the evaluation was 40, Riley came away with an 84. “If we can get her to scoring about an 84 on test three, I want us to really look at putting her in the advanced placement class, which is a really big deal,” Randi continued. And this had Danielle also reflecting on Riley’s seemingly wild behavior. “I’m starting to wonder if she’s bored and if that’s why she always acts up,” the mom added.

Danielle and Adam have both noted how Riley acts out

It seems Riley has been acting out for years, and fans have noticed how often Danielle and Adam seem to scold her as compared to the other quints. People notes during one episode of the show that aired back in 2017, Danielle also made negative comments regarding Riley’s behavior.

“Come on, you know better. You do this every night. Go sit. One minute!” Danielle scolded Riley after she turned her bottle upside down and spilled milk all over the floor. And Danielle then told the cameras, “The girls are at that age where they’re really testing boundaries, so we’ve starting doing time-out for when they’re bad. … Though Riley is usually the naughty one, she really does have a sweet, cuddly side to her. She wants to do good, but her personality just kind of gets in the way.”

Reddit users also recalled Danielle scolding Riley during a more recent episode where the Busbys took a trip to Hawaii. The Reddit user who started the thread noted that Danielle got upset with Riley for crying instead of drinking her milk and going to bed as directed. It appears all of the quints were acting up, however, so the user questioned why Danielle would focus more on Riley than the others.

Fans are concerned for the quintuplet

It may be the editing or it may be that Riley really is the most difficult quintuplet, but either way, fans are concerned that Adam and Danielle are being too harsh on the quint. As a Reddit user commented on the thread, “But I think that particular incident had a devastating effect on Riley; she was practically hysterical. It was disturbing to watch and really encapsulated, for me, their whole dynamic which I’d seen signs of for a long time.” And another wrote, “I don’t even want to watch the show anymore because of Danielle’s treatment of Riley and the way she talks poorly of Riley behind her back.”

Fans have also taken to Danielle’s Instagram to tell her she’s being unfair with her treatment of Riley. “Please don’t let everyone tell Riley she is the ‘bad’ girl,” a fan commented on this post. And another commented about Riley, “She is hurting and doesn’t know how to express it. … Ri is only acknowledged if she is bad, she is smart, so she knows if she behaves bad wow she is noticed and being called bad anyways why not [sic].”

Will this conflict be addressed in the upcoming season of OutDaughtered? We’re not sure, but we’ll find out this fall.

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