On the road again..... (Maxwells)

[OkToBeTakei]

:cray-cray: Poor wee boys :( These parents including Steve are making me feel ill.

[anjulibai]

That's much worse than I thought it would be....

[Palimpsest]

Yes. That was hard even to type up. Sorry about the added snark by me, I hope it doesn't detract too much. It's a coping mechanism.

We got out of there fast.

Teri's talk was benign and comforting in comparison, but who knows what goes on for the rest of the day.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Wow. Fascinating, and yet... yeah. Having read the books, I can imagine this is how it would go down. Bravo.

As for the little boys... I feel badly for them having to hear that their fathers are going to hell. I sympathize. And yet I can HOPE, that perhaps some of them end up having the reaction that I had to missionaries. Namely, I had people tell me with straight earnest faces that yes indeed, notable kind and hardworking pillars of the community who did so much for people and did "good works" every day were in fact going to hell, because they were not Christian. People who had done so much more than those missionaries ever would, in that location, were all damned. Because they didn't believe in Jesus.

I could not reconcile that, and my response was to conclude that it was the missionaries who were full of it and spreading a harmful message.

Perhaps some of the attendees at these things have their eyes opened.

Meanwhile when it comes to "The Beast" and the internet, I would love to see a meeting between Steve and some of those super right-winger rabbis involved in leading the "Internet Asifa" in NYC...

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Something else creepy to think about though - in 2008 the Muncks went to one of these conferences for the first time. And they were not repulsed, but rather PULLED INTO IT. They wanted more, and kept going back...

[thoughtful]

Nothing about the description of Steve's presentation, mocking of women, hard sell, and scolding about tardiness, surprises me at all.

Death, death, death, guilt, hell, asking for money. All dressed up in a facade of a nice "Christian" family.

Oh, and I would love to hear specifics of Mr. P's opinions of Steve's Biblical interpretation and theology.

[AuntCloud]

Mrs and Mr P, you win the Internet this week. So disturbing and sad. Hard to imagine people drove for hours just to be bullied and their parental decisions dissed in front of their children.

[thoughtful]

Something else creepy to think about though - in 2008 the Muncks went to one of these conferences for the first time. And they were not repulsed, but rather PULLED INTO IT. They wanted more, and kept going back...

I think that scare tactics work for some people, especially if one also claims to be the savior who has The Answer.

Your children will go to Hell if you don't apply my magic cure -- Steve Maxwell

Your children will be wild, you will resort to shrieking at them and beating them, AND they will go to Hell, if you don't apply my magic cure -- Michael Pearl

Diets, politicians, fake cures, teaching methods, religions, cults, dog training methods and gadgets, household items, you name it -- lots of things are sold this way. It's a whole school of advertising -- make the buyer frightened to be without your product, so they think they need it. Ring around the collar, Willie Horton, "cute, but he's scratching his head" -- it's all related.

Sometimes these things are harmless, and all that is lost is the buyer's money. But sometimes they are dangerous.

[Palimpsest]

Report from Greenfield, Part 4

Teri’s talk: Help for Harried Housewives.

Or whatever it was called. I’m burning out on the Maxwells.

I’m not going to get into the content much. It was pretty much an hour long infomercial for the chore packs and books. You know, there really isn’t anything particularly original about the Maxwell materials. I also think that schedules are good, lists are useful, and children can teach each other and help with chores. Chore packs seem a bit redundant, but if that works for you, then fine.

It is the extreme to which the Maxwells take all these things. That is what is nuts.

Perhaps the only positive thing I can say about the Maxwell message is that they do acknowledge, to a certain degree, that the life of a sheltered, quiverful, homeschooling, SAHM really rather stinks. Or at least Teri does. Sort of. Maybe.

It must be even stinkier when you are married to a control freak like Steve. I hope that statement doesn’t get Teri into trouble with Steve. He’ll need to change her presentation for her.

Here are a few notes, in no particular order.

Teri is quite a good speaker. I thought she spoke a bit too fast, and when she was telling us things that were *deep and meaningful* her voice got squeaky. Not nearly as shrill and squeally as Michelle Duggar (I couldn’t have sat through an hour of her) but I found Teri’s squeaky moments a bit irritating. This seems a rather petty. I’ve done a fair amount of public speaking myself so I’m a tough audience, I know.

The whole thing came over as canned, over-practiced, timed to the last second, and unspontaneous. Even the dusty ceiling fan “joke†seemed forced. Ha ha.

She probably spent more time talking about chores than she did about academics. Or I was getting bored.

She spent a surprising amount of time dissing boys. They are untidy, take longer to grow out of needing chore packs, don’t pick up on cleaning as fast as girls, and they leave the bathroom in a mess. Note to Teri: Why didn’t you add a “rinse the sink after spitting out toothpaste†card to the boys’ chore packs?

I disliked her referring to her children by name when she talked about academics, and how some needed extra time to accomplish certain subjects.

She had props! Some hiking stick things. She brandished them rather dangerously at times. Luckily there was no-one in the front rows.

She gave several shout-outs to Melanie and Anna Marie.

Joseph gets on the bus practically crying after some of his "Who is Jesus" sessions. The teens aren't interested because they have been exposed to evil cell phones and outside influences.

She got quite nervous when she still had a Powerpoint slide to talk about at the end of the hour. Another note to Teri: If you hadn’t apologized for running a minute or two over, no-one would have noticed. Neither would we have cared. I suppose Steve would, though.

I just looked at my kitchen ceiling fan. It needs dusting. My bad. I should be dusting it every week and cleaning it with chemicals once a month because I don't have 8 little kids at home.

A final note to Teri: Try using white vinegar and baking soda to clean. Safer in the hands of little kids, effective, cheap, and Greener than chemicals.

Any questions? Forget it. The Maxwells don’t allow questions.

She did get some polite applause at the end. The women then all got busy greeting each other, obviously most knew each other. I went to find Mr P.

Oh, and Uriah is freaking ENORMOUS! I meant to take a picture, but we were too intent on escape after the session.

[Marian the Librarian]

Re: Mr. P's excellent description of Steve's men 'n' boys session - if that isn't a textbook example of mental illness on steroids, emotional abuse, and snake-oil salesman combined, I don't know what is. What a miserable, cunning bastard. I feel just ill when I think about what he's done to Teri and the "children."

[Jana814]

Re: Mr. P's excellent description of Steve's men 'n' boys session - if that isn't a textbook example of mental illness on steroids, emotional abuse, and snake-oil salesman combined, I don't know what is. What a miserable, cunning bastard. I feel just ill when I think about what he's done to Teri and the "children."

Well said & I agree!!

[lilwriter85]

I just caught up on thread to the FJers and Mr. P thank you all for going to conferences and giving us info.

[nokidsmom]

Well said & I agree!!

Holy hell. We just got a really true glimpse of life in Maxhell.

He's one fucked up guy.

ETA: I just updated Mr. nokidsmom on this and he's like whaaaa???

[Palimpsest]

Re: Mr. P's excellent description of Steve's men 'n' boys session - if that isn't a textbook example of mental illness on steroids, emotional abuse, and snake-oil salesman combined, I don't know what is. What a miserable, cunning bastard. I feel just ill when I think about what he's done to Teri and the "children."

Mr P and I discussed that a bit. Is Steve mentally ill, a sociopath, or just an asshole?

I think that Steve's rigidity, need for such strict schedules, his control over his family, and his fear of the world does have some pathology attached. Mr P doesn't think Steve is mentally ill. He also doesn't think that Steve is a sociopath. He thinks Steve does believe his own crap to a certain extent and that Steve does have a conscience.

Mr P's considered opinion is that Steve Maxwell is just a complete and utter abusive asshole.

[thoughtful]

Found a cake for Palimpsest:

[fundiefan]

Steve Maxwell is beyond fucked up. He's such a tiny, miserable, insecure little man that he has to use terror tactics to control those around him. And the only way to 'know' he's right is to sell his fucked up ideas to naive buyers.

All of his kid's lives are ruined because he has created zombies out of them; zombies who move and breathe only at the direction of the head zombie. They're all most likely paralyzed in any circumstance he hasn't explicitly laid out for them.

Sarah can never get married. She couldn't handle it. She wouldn't know how to be a wife in someone else's house or her own. Steve has guaranteed that he'll have sycophantic followers until their dying days.

[Palimpsest]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks, Thoughtful!

[thoughtful]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks, Thoughtful!

You're welcome.

Steve says you may eat 1/2 ounce of cake per day.

I say scarf down as much as you want, baby, and give some to Mr. Palimpsest! :cracking-up:

[amyand4]

I am definately glad I didn't go for saturdays session though even if I could have I could not have put myself through that for another day. I forced myself to stay for the concert. One thing I found amusing and interesting is that Sarah pretends to play the banjo during the concert. It is very strange they have her stand in the back and hold a banjo she never sings a note and walks off stage a lot. It must be embarassing for her. The other thing I noticed about everyone there is no one at all is friendly. I would have thought if they thought this was a great message or they thought we should all comply to these ways they would be more welcoming. :cray-cray:

[Justme]

Thanks Mr & Mrs P! Were many people buying their crap books? What did Stevie say that made you believe he reads here?

[nokidsmom]

Sarah can never get married. She couldn't handle it. She wouldn't know how to be a wife in someone else's house or her own. Steve has guaranteed that he'll have sycophantic followers until their dying days.

Yep, and Stevie will never see that the reasons for Sarah never getting married is because of him. It will be because no one was good enough, godly enough or whatever. He justify it as that and never see for a second that maybe it's because of him and his fucked up views.

I am fairly certain that Sarah has had potential suitors but Stevovah, in his not so infinite wisdom, has driven them off when they approached him or they simply didn't bother because they knew that they never had a chance.

[Jana814]

Steve Maxwell is beyond fucked up. He's such a tiny, miserable, insecure little man that he has to use terror tactics to control those around him. And the only way to 'know' he's right is to sell his fucked up ideas to naive buyers.

All of his kid's lives are ruined because he has created zombies out of them; zombies who move and breathe only at the direction of the head zombie. They're all most likely paralyzed in any circumstance he hasn't explicitly laid out for them.

Have to agree! I really think that Steve was the type of kid that was made fun of growing up. The fact that people come from all over to listin to his crap want to be like him probably thrills him.

[Palimpsest]

Thanks Mr & Mrs P! Were many people buying their crap books? What did Stevie say that made you believe he reads here?

We think there were about 26 families there, going by the number of cars and not counting Uriah. Lots of mega families. We didn't see anyone buying the books etc. We left too fast. I glanced at the table when I went in but I didn't see anyone else show much interest first thing in the morning. Also, remember that about a third of the families were late. :shock:

I asked Mr P. We were making fun of Steve's ungrammatical session titles on the drive home. I mentioned that we had snarked here about Joseph's original title for "Who is Jesus to You." I can't remember what the original title was, but it was funny. The title was changed within a couple of hours of the snark here, IIRC.

Mr P says that Steve stumbled over Joseph's session title during his session, to his own annoyance. He then said that Joseph's talk had been called something else previously. Mr P thinks that Steve then muttered something like, "People made fun of it." Or perhaps "internet feedback made us decide to change it" in a rather pissy way. Something like that, he can't quite remember. We took it as proof that Steve had seen the snark, but we may be wrong.

Then there was the fact that they were obviously looking out for evil infiltrators. :D

[Palimpsest]

I am definately glad I didn't go for saturdays session though even if I could have I could not have put myself through that for another day. I forced myself to stay for the concert. One thing I found amusing and interesting is that Sarah pretends to play the banjo during the concert. It is very strange they have her stand in the back and hold a banjo she never sings a note and walks off stage a lot. It must be embarassing for her. The other thing I noticed about everyone there is no one at all is friendly. I would have thought if they thought this was a great message or they thought we should all comply to these ways they would be more welcoming. :cray-cray:

That is interesting and rather sad about Sarah standing on stage pretending. One of the many sad things about Poor Sarah.

We found the official greeters embarrassingly friendly, also the Maxwells. We just wanted to sneak in and out without drawing attention to ourselves. My guess is that many of these families are insular and suspicious of strangers, even before Steve's diatribes. Also, you were there without the protection of your Headship. You brazen hussy! :lol:

[Mary C Doates]

That is interesting and rather sad about Sarah standing on stage pretending. One of the many sad things about Poor Sarah.

We found the official greeters embarrassingly friendly, also the Maxwells. We just wanted to sneak in and out without drawing attention to ourselves. My guess is that many of these families are insular and suspicious of strangers, even before Steve's diatribes. Also, you were there without the protection of your Headship. You brazen hussy! :lol:

I am in awe of both Palimpsest and amyand4 (and especially Mr. P, who braved the Hazardous Journey into the dark, cold world of Stevehovah). I hope you have fully recovered from the trauma...