New Blog: Anna & Mary to take over Ma's (Teri's) chores

[Spartan89]

Sometimes I am absolutely amazed, at what sounds very "syrupy" sweet to me when I say it, but will bring the biggest, brightest smile to my child. Right now Anna, age six, is diligently working on learning to read and write. When she makes a particular letter well, perhaps a 'p,' I will say, "What a great 'p' that was, Anna!" Her face immediately lights up with pleasure! I can assure you that there are many, many letters on her page that are not made nicely and even this one I am praising is probably not perfect. I feel certain, though, that she is much more motivated to continue working to make her letters nicely by my "pleasant words" than she would be by my criticism of her poorly formed ones.

This bothers me so much. Terri seems legitimately shocked that Anna would respond positively to her encouragement....duh, she's a six year old learning to write, of course she needs praise instead of criticism! Just the fact that Terri had to write that out makes me sad for the Maxwell kids. Then she goes out of her way to assure the readers that Anna's letters were definitely not good. What a cruel woman. I imagine Anna responded so dramatically because praise is a rare occurrence in the Maxwell home.

[VodouDoll]

Right? Every time she writes about praising her kids she qualifies it by assuring her readers that they didn't really deserve it, but what can you do?

[Patsy]

Then she goes out of her way to assure the readers that Anna's letters were definitely not good.

Like she expects her readers to come from a place where they only encourage their kids if they're perfect. That's quite telling.

[darkplumaged]

You raise a rather interesting point. What would Steve do if a handpicked husband for Sarah (assuming there will someday be one) went astray, i.e. allowing Sarah to have a voice, having his own voice, not following Steve blindly, having a beer after work with his colleagues... I wonder what they would do? Would he still be the authority in Sarah's life? From what I understand of both Nathan and Christopher's weddings there was heavy emphasis on "no divorce." I wonder how that would be dealt with?

As passive-aggressively as possible, I'm sure.

But let's say Sarah's Steve-approved husband was from another state, and Sarah moved there after marriage. And let's say that her husband began to slowly become more normal, and Sarah didn't mind (even if she did, she'd submit to whatever he wanted). If Steve didn't see them on a regular basis, he wouldn't know about the husband's behavior, and he couldn't do anything.

Free Sarah!

[moreorlessnu]

If he had worked there a while, I expect it took the HR department a while to work out what to do with him. He says in a later corner that he had 'taken a stand' and had worried about being fired but was eventually was laid off with a payoff, I'm sure it would have taken a while to negotiate the amount and the confidentiality agreement that went with it. I don't doubt he would have played every power game in the book with them to get a good payout.

Very odd. Most Electrical Engineers would go crazy going from being able to do their engineering thing to doing (relatively) nothing at home.

As for the 'terminated' vs. being laid off, my guess is he got laid off, and received a severance in exchange for signing a release of claims. In essence, he agreed not to sue the company, and in exchange, the company gave him the severance.

The company might have been worried that he would turn around and sue the company for creating some type of unwelcome/hostile environment based on his religious beliefs. It's easier to just pay him X months of severance and be done with it, so as not to worry about any future law suits.

[emmiedahl]

Boeing had a huge round of layoffs several years ago. That would be a good excuse to get rid of a few crazies.

So they lived in the Seattle area? It must be hard to live an ascetic lifestyle there, what with all the awesome people and awesome food and the general awesomeness all around you. They would not be able to be half as batshit crazy if they still lived there.

Why yes I do like Seattle, why do you ask?

[treemom]

I think Terri has anxiety issues as well

[Lillybee]

The way Steve gets so much righteous anger over so many small things, I wonder if he is setting himself up for an early coronary or stroke. I wonder what will happen to this family if he does die young.

[deborahlynn1979]

Does anyone know how much money they make with their online ministry? Are they very popular? I wonder how they decided to start peddling their wares online in the first place. I really don't know much more about them than what I've read in this thread, but they are FASCINATING.

And horrifying.

(Don't forget horrifying.)

[Guest Anonymous]

Does anyone know how much money they make with their online ministry? Are they very popular? I wonder how they decided to start peddling their wares online in the first place. I really don't know much more about them than what I've read in this thread, but they are FASCINATING.

And horrifying.

(Don't forget horrifying.)

Well, they are not registered as a charity, but they solicit donations as well as selling their wares and they also have several businesses.

If you look over their blog you will see they are not short of cash. They own an enormous house, on a plot of land 4 x the size of their next door neighbours (yep, in a fit of boredom, I looked them up on google earth one day...)

They harp on about frugality and eat meatless burritos, and the girls wear dresses made from haberdashery weight fabric, but they have no shortage of high-end gadgets, computers, pro-level cameras, etc.

[Guest Anonymous]

The way Steve gets so much righteous anger over so many small things, I wonder if he is setting himself up for an early coronary or stroke. I wonder what will happen to this family if he does die young.

You know, I wanted to post about this yesterday, but thought it might be just me being morbid.... I am fascinated to think of what would happen if Steve died suddenly. In fact, I think it deserves its own thread. :D

[Jessica]

If you look over their blog you will see they are not short of cash. They own an enormous house, on a plot of land 4 x the size of their next door neighbours (yep, in a fit of boredom, I looked them up on google earth one day...)

Is that Uriah? :D

(No, I don't feel bad or stalker-y posting a Google Map image of their house. Don't post your home address on the internet for all the world to see if you want privacy!)

[VodouDoll]

OMG that is Uriah! Hi, Uriah! We love you!

[Guest Anonymous]

OMG that is Uriah! Hi, Uriah! We love you!

And now I have a mental image of a load of us Free Jingerites fangirling Uriah. We could attend a Maxwell event and cheer and scream and throw women's panties at him. Now *that* would probably give Steve a heart attack. If he won't go eat lunch with a woman, I can't imagine what the sight of a lacy thong would do to him.

[Guest Anonymous]

Yeah, that's what I found. If you look to the right, you will see that there are 4 houses next door/round the corner that take up the same amount of land as the Maxwell's plot.

When I was looking, I was trying to work out where the rest of the family lived, but I couldn't. :mrgreen:

I found the nursing home though.... it has only a small carpark, so I am assuming it doesn't have that many residents - poor beggars must find it hard to avoid the Maxwells when they do 'church' in the living room...

[zeebaneighba]

Voudou Doll wrote:

He took his moral stand at a job in Kansas, though.

He could have still been at Boeing. Wichita has a HUGE aviation presence - Airbus, Bombardier/Lear, Cessna, Hawker-Beechcraft, Spirit, plus many subsidiaries and suppliers are here. Spirit was spun off fro Boeing a while ago (not sure when; I've only been here 3 years). He could very well have been working at Boeing when he decided to 'leave" work.

[Justme]

I'm guessing that he received pretty good stock options while at Boening as was the norm for large, sucessful companies in the days of his employment. He probably made a nice chunk of change there.

That is a pretty big house! Don't forget, it's only a few years old. Chris bought the old family home and the reversal boys built the new home.

Do the girls have drivers licenses? I remember one blog that the boys didn't get them until they were needed for work. I'd have to guess the girls don't have them. Pretty sad to be nearly 30, live in the burbs and don't drive.

[kpmom]

That is a pretty big house! Don't forget, it's only a few years old. Chris bought the old family home and the reversal boys built the new home.

.

I love the reversal boys! Maybe the name of a (Xtian) rock group?

[clibbyjo]

For some reason I thought they had a smallish house. That house looks huge. The MOTH stuff must sell well.

I broke down and asked my sister(a fundie homeschooler who also sells at the same fairs) if she knew the Maxwell's. She said she had heard of them but never met them. John would make a great husband for my cute,fundie niece,because I know she is the one to rebel if any of them do and John can too.

[kpmom]

For some reason I thought they had a smallish house. That house looks huge. The MOTH stuff must sell well.

I broke down and asked my sister(a fundie homeschooler who also sells at the same fairs) if she knew the Maxwell's. She said she had heard of them but never met them. John would make a great husband for my cute,fundie niece,because I know she is the one to rebel if any of them do and John can too.

Did she wonder how you have heard of them?

[clibbyjo]

Did she wonder how you have heard of them?

I told her I drove a friend of mine to see them(I did,demgirl!)and asked if she knew of their chore charts.She knew of them. I wanted to ask about Doug so bad, but I can't do it all at once. She worked CHAP with Doug, she has to know him and all the regulars! I must not act as if I know all these "Super Christians"!

[JennJenn]

I love the reversal boys! Maybe the name of a (Xtian) rock group?

OMG!!! Totally great name! Can you imagine the song titles?!

[Guest Anonymous]

Uriah and the Reversal Boys....

Who runs that Twitter account... he could start promoting their first album on there. :lol:

[JennJenn]

Uriah and the Reversal Boys....

Who runs that Twitter account... he could start promoting their first album on there. :lol:

Every time someone says Reversal Boys I can't help but think of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. It could be a Reversal Boys mystery series. "When Will Mom Stop Crying?" "Why is Dad Such a Jackass?" "Will My Sister Sarah Ever Get Married?"

[Daisy4]

Yeah, that's what I found. If you look to the right, you will see that there are 4 houses next door/round the corner that take up the same amount of land as the Maxwell's plot.

When I was looking, I was trying to work out where the rest of the family lived, but I couldn't. :mrgreen:

411.com can be very useful for finding addresses of people if you know the city and state. Also, with a little bit of Maxwell history you will see that their current house is built on a plot of land that is connected to their old house. You would also find out that Christopher now lives in their old house. Knowing a little more history and reading the following post would tell you that Nathan owns the house across the street from their old house (AKA Christopher's house):

titus2.com/nathan-melanie.htm

Yeah, I'm a dork :geek: