Abigail Miscarried

[GeoBQn]

She also noticed that Smith has a worse "kid and baby" apparel selection than University of Wisconsin, and wondered if it was because it was because people who went to her feminist alma mater "don't reproduce." I think it is more likely that Wisconsin has a better selection because it is a Big 10 school that's got a usually decent football team and other large popular sports.

[lilwriter85]

She also noticed that Smith has a worse "kid and baby" apparel selection than University of Wisconsin, and wondered if it was because it was because people who went to her feminist alma mater "don't reproduce." I think it is more likely that Wisconsin has a better selection because it is a Big 10 school that's got a usually decent football team and other large popular sports.

I saw that too. If any of her college classmates are reading her blog, they are probably annoyed with her. I agree a big 10 school is going to have a larger selection than college like Smith.

[August]

They have to pay to have the name read? I thought Jews were bad...and Yartzeits are free.

Do they still let you buy forgiveness proactively?

I think the tight jew thing is because christians used to be prohibited from collecting interest, so jews were the moneylenders, and who likes the person they owe money to?. But Catholics were the biggest moneygrabbers there are. Mormons too, come to think of it, and then there's the scientologists.

[singsingsing]

I want to know when Abigail suddenly decided that she liked Smith. For years and years she's basically had nothing good to say about it. It's full of evil feminists and atheists and promotes sexual immorality and a childfree lifestyle. I always got the sense she blamed Smith in part for her problems. Now she wants to buy Smith workout clothes because she feels awesome wearing them. What?

Also, she's currently in 'deluge of posts' mode... and everything is good. Smith is good! Money is good! omg look at these random videos, my family is just like this, I'm living a dream life!!! And check out this ad for a car - advertising is SO GOOD now!! :? Check back in a couple weeks, I bet she'll be sobbing in bed and posting about how one of her neighbours looked at her wrong and she just knows the entire church is judging her, oh and how the furnace is broken and they have no food, but they can't afford to do anything about it...

[lilwriter85]

On the topic of religion and money, I've heard stories about people paying 10k or more to join synagogues. On the topic of purchasing Masses, when my brother passed away 13 years ago, a few friends of my parents purchased masses and my parents saw it as way of them giving some comfort and remembrance to them and my brother.

[Dinorah]

I know people who went to women's colleges. Surprise, surprise, they ended up having kids.

It's odd she has such warped views of reality since she did live in the "real" world and should know that being a feminist doesn't mean refusing to have kids.

Anyway, if she's so poor, she might keep in mind that alma mater-label stuff tends to be expensive. And if I were her dad, personally I'd try to buy specific things (such as stuff her kids need) rather than handing her a credit card.

[lilwriter85]

I know people who went to women's colleges. Surprise, surprise, they ended up having kids.

It's odd she has such warped views of reality since she did live in the "real" world and should know that being a feminist doesn't mean refusing to have kids.

Anyway, if she's so poor, she might keep in mind that alma mater-label stuff tends to be expensive. And if I were her dad, personally I'd try to buy specific things (such as stuff her kids need) rather than handing her a credit card.

I agree the dad should go with that approach.

[Ridiculous]

Women's college alum here. I'm a 25 year old housewife with 2 under 3 and plans for at least two more. My college friends are all pretty big on marriage and babies... we used to have long conversations in the dining hall about our futures as wives and mothers, actually. Women's college fail on our part? lol

[GawkingToo]

She also noticed that Smith has a worse "kid and baby" apparel selection than University of Wisconsin, and wondered if it was because it was because people who went to her feminist alma mater "don't reproduce." I think it is more likely that Wisconsin has a better selection because it is a Big 10 school that's got a usually decent football team and other large popular sports.

I think this is spot-on. I doubt it's about how many kids people have so much as the school's (a) size and (b) athletic culture. I went to a smaller, liberal arts college and later went to graduate school at a major state university. At the liberal arts college even the current students didn't wear nearly as much college-themed apparel. I just think colleges that aren't nationally known for their sports teams don't inspire the same amount of rah-rah tribalism as the Big 10 universities.

And if the students aren't wearing tons of apparel with college colors, then why would the alumni do so? So it's even less likely there would be gear catered towards alumni (a category I think baby gear falls into). Finally, because the student and alumni audience is smaller at smaller colleges, there won't beas many clothing options for that reason either.

[Stephanie66]

Does she keep in touch with any of her Smith College friends? Do they have children? Maybe they stopped at one or two and work, but it's not like feminism is anti-child. It's "You can do whatever you choose to do."

[lilwriter85]

Does she keep in touch with any of her Smith College friends? Do they have children? Maybe they stopped at one or two and work, but it's not like feminism is anti-child. It's "You can do whatever you choose to do."

I would say that she probably keeps in touch one or a few Smithies. I might be confusing Abigail with someone else, but I kind of remember her saying something about a college friend or someone from law school gave her hard time on FB when she announced her pregnancy. Some of her Smith friends probably have kids, but they likely have smaller families.

[Ms Jess]

I agree the dad should go with that approach.

Yup. Giving someone with a history of irresponsible spending sprees carte blanche to do it again is never a wise move.

[nausicaa]

While doing my (free) Hulu workout video last night, I had a thought. How long until Abigail realizes the only exercise that is fulfilling for her is Pilates*/yoga/scuba diving/yachting/elite equestrianism?

Running is cheap. Abigail doesn't mesh well with cheap things. I have a suspicion a nutritionist and organic food may make an appearance as well at some point.

*Not knocking Pilates-- or any expensive exercise. I take a weekly Pilates class and love it. But I also don't go on and on about my poverty. And I don't have five kids to feed on one salary.

[GeoBQn]

I do Pilates from a "Pilates for Dummies" DVD I bought years ago. I'm not pretending that it's a high level of workout like a class would be, but it gets the job done for me.

She's already into organic milk which, IIRC, she buys by the half-gallon. She keeps it in their tiny fridge, which is apparently so much better than having a full-size fridge.

[Koala]

I do Pilates from a "Pilates for Dummies" DVD I bought years ago. I'm not pretending that it's a high level of workout like a class would be, but it gets the job done for me.

She's already into organic milk which, IIRC, she buys by the half-gallon. She keeps it in their tiny fridge, which is apparently so much better than having a full-size fridge.

Well duh. You can't be poor if you have a full sized fridge, so the obvious thing to do was to give away the big one that they got for free (with the house) and BUY a tiny one...so they could be POOR. Because they are poor. And they live in poverty. Poor. Did I mention they were poor?

[nausicaa]

The fridge thing drives me crazy. How much gas are they wasting driving to the store every other day? And why on earth would you CHOOSE to load up five little kids in a van that often and taken them to a place that is ripe for acting up? Gives me a headache just thinking about it.

I wonder how much her mother and father really know about her everyday life and if they read the blog.

[Confused_by_religion]

The fridge thing drives me crazy. How much gas are they wasting driving to the store every other day? And why on earth would you CHOOSE to load up five little kids in a van that often and taken them to a place that is ripe for acting up? Gives me a headache just thinking about it.

I wonder how much her mother and father really know about her everyday life and if they read the blog.

Er, do we know how well she gets on with her parents? I guess they might not be exactly as Fundie as she is and probably spend quite a bit of time moaning and facepalming when they think of their daugther's chosen lifestyle. But then she wouldn't listen to them and their evil, worldly ways.

[nausicaa]

Er, do we know how well she gets on with her parents? I guess they might not be exactly as Fundie as she is and probably spend quite a bit of time moaning and facepalming when they think of their daugther's chosen lifestyle. But then she wouldn't listen to them and their evil, worldly ways.

Oh they're not as fundie by a long shot. Her mother is an evil feminist who by putting baby Abigail in day care essentially abandoned her to a Ceausecu era Romanian orphanage. Both parents are very educated, upper middle class, and are moderately religious-- Methodist I believe. She has touched on the parent/child relationship before but I would love for her to go into more detail about how they feel about her choices, respond to her declarations, et cetera. I also wonder about her conversion attempts...

There's also a difference between having a general idea that your daughter's life is chaotic or money is tight. It's another thing to know the ins and outs of the daily batshit storm that is that house. If they're reading the blog, they are more clued into the latter, and I wonder what response they've developed for it all.

[NurseNell]

Er, do we know how well she gets on with her parents? I guess they might not be exactly as Fundie as she is and probably spend quite a bit of time moaning and facepalming when they think of their daugther's chosen lifestyle. But then she wouldn't listen to them and their evil, worldly ways.

Her parents both have PhD's and have established careers as college professors. I think they mostly are embarrassed by Abigail and wonder where they went wrong.

[lilwriter85]

The fridge thing and Abigail's excuse that a big fridge leads to food hoarding annoys me. Some of the people who hoard food are addicted to grocery shopping or some of those extreme couponers. I had a grand uncle who single during the last 20 years of his life became addicted to grocery shopping. But he was very generous and used to give my dad sacks of potatoes and bags of beans.

There is nothing wrong with having a large fridge and extra food around. My parents grew up in a rural area and both of my grandmothers stocked up on certain items mostly because the cheaper grocery stores were 20 miles away and they also dealt with bad winters. My mom always kept an extra stock of certain food items. There were four kids in my family and I'm the youngest. I was 10 by the time all of my siblings were off at college. Using Abigail's logic, we should have never had a large fridge in the first place. I can understand single people or smaller families having a mini-fridges.

I have wondered if Abigial's parents read her blog. She has talked about the dad giving them financial help and there was a posting where Jon was mad about the financial help. If they are reading, they are probably pissed about some of the crap she has written. The daycare post about her mom was pretty shitty because she said it was abuse to be placed in daycare. IIRC, at the time Abigial's mother was working full time while the father was in graduate school. I have known a few families in these types of situations and their intentions are usually to better the lives of their children in the long run.

I think Abigail's parents might eventually reach their breaking point with her. Some people do get fed up with having to constantly help family members with money.

[halcionne]

Some people hoard food because they're actually poor, Abigail. Or they used to be poor and are coping with old food insecurity issues. But you probably don't know anything about that.

I wonder what kind of food issues her kids will have when they're older.

[NurseNell]

Some people hoard food because they're actually poor, Abigail. Or they used to be poor and are coping with old food insecurity issues. But you probably don't know anything about that.

I wonder what kind of food issues her kids will have when they're older.

Food issues will just be part of the issues they have after their fucked up upbringing. :pull-hair:

[slickcat79]

I think at one point Abigail said that her husband had started requiring her to send back any money or GCs she received from her parents because it hurt his feefees for them to think he couldn't provide for his family :roll: Of course, he can't actually provide for his family (or else Abigail undermines his ability at every turn), but of course a grown man's pride is more important than his children having clothes and food.

[nausicaa]

That post with the picture of her daughter's only pair of shoes being a pair of cheap fabric slippers with her toe coming out still sticks with me.

To be fair, I don't think Abigail is crazy enough (yet) that she makes her children wear shoes like that in the winter (I think she'd just put a bunch of winter boots on a credit card after spending cash on cello lessons and lululemon workout pants). But I'm also sure she milks the whole "my children can't even have proper winter shoes" bit all through late summer and early fall for attention and to demonstrate her sacrifice. Thereby freaking out the kids and making them fear having to go without. Same with food. I don't think they ever go to bed hungry, but Abigail probably talks about it enough that the children have developed some anxiety about it.

[Jana814]

I think at one point Abigail said that her husband had started requiring her to send back any money or GCs she received from her parents because it hurt his feefees for them to think he couldn't provide for his family :roll: Of course, he can't actually provide for his family (or else Abigail undermines his ability at every turn), but of course a grown man's pride is more important than his children having clothes and food.

That's nuts!! But from what I read about her husband this dose not surprise me.