The Future of The Bates

[JMO]

So we've played the game multiple times with the Duggars.  What will the future of this family in 5/10/20 years?  

I predict that the quick marriages will continue.  Another 2-3 married in the next 5 years, including Nathan and Tori, maybe Lawson as well.  In 10 years there will only be 8-9 kids left at home.  In 20, maybe 1-3 kids.  

I think Zach and Whitney will have a larger family.  8-10 kids.  Some more drifting towards fundie lite.  Will probably never know for sure. 

I think Erin will slow down.  Maybe 1-2 more kids over the next 10 years but that's it. They will stay fundie except for limiting family size.

Michael and Brandon will actively pursue blessings but time will tell.  They will stay fundie, although I do think the Institute will die out and he will need another job.

Alyssa and Jon will have 6 kids in 10-15 years but then be done.  She'll stay off the internet.

Nathan will marry quickly after finding a sweet Southern fundie gal.

Lawson will fall hard for a girl, probably another musician.  

Tori will marry Bobby.

I'm not sure if any of them will approach 19 kids, but I'm better at least one will have 12.  I'm not sure yet who that will be though.  

The littles will be much more independent as young adults.  10-15 years from now when the boys are teens and the girls are in their late teens/early 20's they will be left alone for long periods of time while their parents travel/enjoy retirement.  Erin or Zach will be called on to check on them while their parents are away but they will enjoy a lot more freedom and I'd expect at least one of them go away from fundie life.  Maybe a real college degree by then.  

 

Guesses, anyone else?

[VelociRapture]

@JMOOnly alteration needed to your guesses - a real Bachelors degree. Michael already earned an Associates from a legit school.

As for me, the only predictions I hope will come true are that Gil loses the lawsuit filed against him and the other Board Members. I also hope that IBLP implodes completely, is forced to close, and that it takes Gil and Kelly down with it somehow.

Oh. And no more babies from Cherin for a long time. If ever. They're adorable kids, but her health needs to come first. 

[Melissa1977]

I think Zach, Alyssa and probably Lawson and Carlin will have a fundie Lite life. Fundie because their ideas, but much more mainstream than Kelly and Gil. All of them will have big families but nothing weird (maybe 4 to 6 kids). I think they will homeschool but maybe some of them will use a co-op or even a Christian school.

Erin, Tori and Michael will stay very fundie but only Tori will be quiverful (but no way with 19 kids!). I see Erin stopping pregnancies, and Michael/Brandon don't seem very fertile. Homeschooling. 

I see IBLP failing. 

Maybe some middle kids will have some real college degree, who knows. Josie and Katie will go to college, probably Crown but one can hope. But I also see most of the boys, including Nathan, working in farming, building, etc (Jobs with no degree involved).

I don't see preachers among them. They seem very active and practical. Maybe girls can marry a preacher or a man working in a religious job, but I don't see the Bates boys doing that.

I feel for the little ones. Poor homeschooling, parents too tired to educate them, sister-moms married far from home... If some Bates can take a bad path, it's the little ones. I hope I'm wrong, but having that weak attachment with the parents since the birth is one of the worse things for a child's mind. 

[Casserole]

24 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

 

I feel for the little ones. Poor homeschooling, parents too tired to educate them, sister-moms married far from home... If some Bates can take a bad path, it's the little ones. I hope I'm wrong, but having that weak attachment with the parents since the birth is one of the worse things for a child's mind. 

Yeah, the littles are essentially second generation SOTDRT-ers already since Tori has been paid to teach them for at least a few years and she will continue until she moves away. They don't even have college educated Kelly teaching anymore. Their curriculum sucks, but Kelly at least seemed to have a better grasp on teaching compared to Michelle/the Rodriguii/etc. 

[marmalade]

Nothing will change until the Bateseseseses are off TV and Gil is bounced from the IBLP board. Not one or the other. Both. It's going to take a REAL wake-up call to jar this arm of the cult. Losing money and power could do it. 

[actuallyjessica]

Is this topic a trap?

[Arix]

2 hours ago, actuallyjessica said:

Is this topic a trap?

No, I think this is the place to post unfounded speculation.

[actuallyjessica]

1 hour ago, Arix said:

No, I think this is the place to post unfounded speculation.

Spoiler

 

[AliceInFundyland]

2 hours ago, Arix said:

No, I think this is the place to post unfounded speculation.

I can't decide if you are trying to be humorous or not.

[Arix]

53 minutes ago, AliceInFundyland said:

I can't decide if you are trying to be humorous or not.

 

1 hour ago, actuallyjessica said:

  Hide contents

 

I'm serious! Let me elaborate on my earlier statement: I think this thread and no other one, is the place to post unfounded speculation and wishful thinking.

[formergothardite]

10 hours ago, marmalade said:

Nothing will change until the Bateseseseses are off TV and Gil is bounced from the IBLP board. Not one or the other. Both. It's going to take a REAL wake-up call to jar this arm of the cult. Losing money and power could do it. 

I agree with this. They will all keep on the IBLP path until something shakes them off. They need incentive to start thinking about their horrible lifestyle, and there doesn't seem to be much of that right now. They might dress in more modern clothes, watch modern movies and have less kids, but they are going to keep the majority of their terrible beliefs.

IBLP collapsing in the lawsuit, the family making the front page of magazines like the Duggars did for being involved in some nasty, evil stuff and UP dropping them, I think that is what it will take for most of them to wake up and see that their lifestyle is rotten to the core. 

The youngest ones are pretty screwed. They have been barely parented, barely educated and are spending their childhood being exploited by their parents on television. They will deal with the trauma of losing their sister moms, who have done the real mothering, as the older ones get married. The youngest are the ones most likely to go wild and write a tell-all book. 

[nokidsmom]

12 hours ago, marmalade said:

Nothing will change until the Bateseseseses are off TV and Gil is bounced from the IBLP board. Not one or the other. Both. It's going to take a REAL wake-up call to jar this arm of the cult. Losing money and power could do it. 

Agree with this too.  In the past, they lost their first TV show, however brief it was, but still continued on their path.   They still get too much from Gil being on the Board and the power it brings.   Both need to go.

Frankly, seeing Gil and Kelly go down with IBLP, should it collapse, and I will thank the .   Feel bad for the kids, especially the younger ones, but unfortunately there's not a lot that can be be done about that.     Maybe a few will get a shot at a normal life, but I can see one or two getting angry one they realize the clusterfuck they were raised in and throw their parents under the bus in a tell-all book or TV appearance.   Why not?     Their parents exploited them on TV, turnabout might be fair play.  

ETA:   With some them barely educated, they are going to try to make money somehow.   If Gil's involvement with IBLP gets played up and makes the front page like their "friends" the Duggars, you can be darn sure they are going to feel the sting and try to distance themselves from it AND perhaps make money in the process.     Add some parental payback in the mix.  Gil and Kelly should be very, very afraid with this lawsuit and as it stands to destroy their " nice Christian Big Family" schtick.

[Melissa1977]

14 hours ago, Casserole said:

Yeah, the littles are essentially second generation SOTDRT-ers already since Tori has been paid to teach them for at least a few years and she will continue until she moves away. They don't even have college educated Kelly teaching anymore. Their curriculum sucks, but Kelly at least seemed to have a better grasp on teaching compared to Michelle/the Rodriguii/etc. 

The poor homeschooling is a big problem, but not the worst. It's highly probable that the young ones have personality disorders related with the lack of real parenting. Obviously older and middle ones can have disorders because the heavy training and abuse, but the little ones are also (if not more) damaged despite the lighter training. 

From all the kids, little ones are the most probable to take drugs, to have heavy damaging relationships or to have problems at work. 

I just thinking. I can be wrong. It would be nice that Callie Bates or Jenni Duggar go to college and turn left activists, or at least that just turn happy adults with nice lifes. But I see the worst future for the little ones, I'm sorry.

[RosyDaisy]

I speculate that there will be some very ugly and very public things about the IBLP lawsuit that will come to light. As in more than we already know.

[actuallyjessica]

If we're talking about our hopes and dreams VS what is realistic here...

I hope that all of them step the fuck away from the way they were raised in fundiedom, and pursue other things in life instead of being so repressed and stunted. None of the offspring asked to be raised the way they were, and know little to nothing more. So that's what I hope for, for them: more.

[Arix]

I predict that Erin and Chad move back to wherever Chad was from, Tori and Bobbi marry and move into Cherin's house. Tori paints the formerly pink room blue.

Alyssa has a boy, and no babies after that.

Michael has 3-5 kids.

 

Callie makes a break for it.

Lawson pulls a Zach, falls for a mostly secular gal and converts her.

[nokidsmom]

On 8/10/2016 at 9:53 AM, RosyDaisy said:

I speculate that there will be some very ugly and very public things about the IBLP lawsuit that will come to light. As in more than we already know.

I have long suspected that there's a lot more nasty stuff with IBLP than we know.    I am hoping this lawsuit seriously bares all.  

[Coconutwater]

I feel like Lawson is the one just playing the part for the show, I think he may be the one to break away when everything is over. He takes frequent trips to Nashville alone to record, is the only one with social media that's not associated with a courtship, and probably just waiting for the cameras to go off so he can just move to Nashville and pursue music full-time. I'm not saying he's drinking or going crazy, but if everything falls apart I see him leaving. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I've always thought the middles or youngers of both the Bates and duggar families had the best chance for leaving the cult and living a rather wild life. Especially the ones that are largely ignored. You ignore a child their whole life and the child doesn't securely attach to a parent, then you are just waiting for a volcano to erupt. 

[JMO]

1 hour ago, Arix said:

I predict that Erin and Chad move back to wherever Chad was from, Tori and Bobbi marry and move into Cherin's house. Tori paints the formerly pink room blue.

Alyssa has a boy, and no babies after that.

Michael has 3-5 kids.

 

Callie makes a break for it.

Lawson pulls a Zach, falls for a mostly secular gal and converts her.

I definitely think he will pick a more secular but Christian girl and I think he will willingly go more secular after marriage.. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

16 minutes ago, JMO said:

I definitely think he will pick a more secular but Christian girl and I think he will willingly go more secular after marriage.. 

This sounds awful but I think a lot of the fundie girls know what an annoying attention whore he is and don't want to court him. He will have to find a girl from Sonic that doesn't know his attention whoring ways.

[Melissa1977]

I'm a bit negative about some Bates. I see Lawson being fundie-but-mainstream, but he's sooooo self-centered that I feel for the future wife. 

 

[season of life]

I can see Erin and perhaps Alyssa stopping. I don't know Michael's fertility situation, so I can't speculate as to how big their family will be. Whitney and Zach may have 4 kids, max. I think Whitney, Alyssa, Erin, and Michael will homeschool.

[Melissa1977]

1 hour ago, season of life said:

I can see Erin and perhaps Alyssa stopping. I don't know Michael's fertility situation, so I can't speculate as to how big their family will be. Whitney and Zach may have 4 kids, max. I think Whitney, Alyssa, Erin, and Michael will homeschool.

I see Alyssa maybe using a co-op or something similar, maybe even taking kids to school in 10-15 years, when she realises she's not clever enough to teach teens. I don't see her staying at home all through the day homeschooling 4-6 kids. She is clear about how much she loves quiet time and she doesn't seem to like teaching, nor learning. I also see her allowing kids to join sports teams. 

Similar with Whitney. She will try homeschooling with the energy of the convert. She wants to be the perfect fundie mom. But I see her asking for help (co-op, schools, tutors) in the future. She will have 4 kids close in age, have a breakdown and wait some years for baby #5 or #6 and stopping.

I know some other fundies can't properly homeschool nor enjoy it, and they don't even think about an alternative. But these girls seem to love confortable lifes and their husbands seem to agree with them. 

Well, time will tell.

[Pianokeeper]

7 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

I see Alyssa maybe using a co-op or something similar, maybe even taking kids to school in 10-15 years, when she realises she's not clever enough to teach teens. I don't see her staying at home all through the day homeschooling 4-6 kids. She is clear about how much she loves quiet time and she doesn't seem to like teaching, nor learning. I also see her allowing kids to join sports teams. 

Similar with Whitney. She will try homeschooling with the energy of the convert. She wants to be the perfect fundie mom. But I see her asking for help (co-op, schools, tutors) in the future. She will have 4 kids close in age, have a breakdown and wait some years for baby #5 or #6 and stopping.

I know some other fundies can't properly homeschool nor enjoy it, and they don't even think about an alternative. But these girls seem to love confortable lifes and their husbands seem to agree with them. 

Well, time will tell.

Boy, ain't that the truth. What a nice way to say it.