Steve Maxwell speaks out against fun

[nelliebelle1197]

I think about the pepsi thing all the time. It's bizarre and depressing.

I have never been sure why they think it is a good thing to share.

[kpmom]

But this is the part that freaks me out the most:

"I told Steve a Pepsi would be a nice pick-me-up for some extra energy. He said, "Sure. Go ahead." "

He gave her permission to have a glass of pop? And neither of them found that a bit odd?

JenXer, are you absolutely sure you follow the Maxwells pretty closely? This is a woman who was not allowed to pick up the phone to order pizza for the family, but had to wait with baited breath for Steve to do it. And considered herself a good little wifey for not reminding him to do it, even though every fiber in her being wanted to. :pizza:

I believe they'd find it odd if Teri hadn't asked permission.

[JenXer]

It must be my Pepsi addled brain!

I don't remember the pizza thing but I do recall that if a male customer telephoned them the call would be given to one of the boys and if a female customer called, it would go to one of the girls.

And now I want pizza.

[kpmom]

And now I want pizza.

Pray that God will tell your headship to call and order some. Hey, while you're at it, pray mine will too!

[Lotus]

Steve is a tool for sure. Does Teri ask him when she can use the bathroom too? Yuck. I couldn't live in that household. I'm way too outspoken & would never put up with that. Seriously, what else does Teri have to get his permission on? I heard about the pizza thing as well.

JenXer, are you absolutely sure you follow the Maxwells pretty closely? This is a woman who was not allowed to pick up the phone to order pizza for the family, but had to wait with baited breath for Steve to do it. And considered herself a good little wifey for not reminding him to do it, even though every fiber in her being wanted to. :pizza:

I believe they'd find it odd if Teri hadn't asked permission.

[Phyllis Styne]

Maybe she was just nervous about being recorded/broadcast? I did notice that it was from 1999 but good ole Steve sounds exactly the same.

Did you talk to any of the Maxwells directly? If so, what was your impression of them?

To my discredit, no, I didn't. I blame, and this will sound overly dramatic, PTSD of a sort. It's probably time for me to explain why I find them so repulsive and yet can't look away. My folks raised us to believe we didn't need friends, we had family. They were different from the Maxwells in that they permitted us to go out by ourselves, a pretty weird thing for a 17-year-old, who had no real friends (duh) and who was just driving and this was in a part of town that wasn't all that great.

I have no idea why they were like that, but they were. They were also extreme about sexual misbehavior. If any of us came home with child or having impregnated some one, we were told no end of times that our dad would lie down on the floor, RIGHT THERE!, and die of shame. They also were hypercritical people. We were expected to know how our beliefs differed from us (Catholic) and why those beliefs were so wrong, the people were probably headed for hell.

They weren't mean people, they really did love us. But they were so like the Maxwell parents that I was pretty seriously tongue-tied when I saw the first of them in that church library thingie. The younger girls reminded me a lot of myself at those ages: pleasant smiles and perfectly willing to serve, but when the authorities came around, in this case that would be Sarah, they hopped to it.

So my impressions are probably colored by my own experience. Anna and Mary and Sarah seemed delighted to be playing with Abby, who showed up with her folks (this is embarrassing, I'm blanking on whether Bethany was there or just on the way). I wandered out of the talk partly to save my sanity and partly to see what the daughters were up to. There were only two other people in the lobby where the sales table was, and they were busy looking at library books. I watched the daughters and Abby for a few seconds, half-hoping one of them would look up at me and start a conversation. None of them did. They sincerely seemed way more interested in playing with the little girl than in sales when the parents and the brothers weren't around.

That impressed me well, since in our family we were fairly close and enjoyed time with little cousins who came to visit. The other thing that impressed me was how Mary's face, especially, lit up whenever she made eye contact with a prospective customer. She just looked like there wasn't anything else in the world that would make her happier than to take their cards (I don't remember a lot about types of payment I saw, but I do remember plastic).

[Dru]

Thank you for sharing that. I can see why the Maxwells would be extra hard for you to take.

[Phyllis Styne]

Thanks Dru, I've been debating whether to tell that ever since I started reading about them and lurking around FJ. Eventually we all found balance in life (well, not my folks, they were perfectly content with no friends but their own sets of siblings until their deaths) and I suppose I value my friends so highly now, because I still remember the insane loneliness of before. And I have to admit that my parents were barely one-tenth of the way on the exclusion/insularity spectrum in contrast to the Maxwells. To this day I don't understand the logic behind my parents or the Maxes. God made the world to be enjoyed, yes he also made it to be enjoyed conscientiously and responsibly and wants our obedience, but unless a person is called to a cloistered order there's no reason to be as limiting as some people are.