Speculation about Ben and Audri

[Angri-la]

That's actually a terribly romantic idea. A period of real courtship for a couple who didn't get to actually court, and by court, I mean, flirt and play and have fun and work your way up to hours-long make-out sessions. I mean, the poor Botkins and their brides. Spending all that pre-marriage time earnestly discussing theology and taking notes.

I completely love the idea of post-wedding dating leading up to the big consummation. That's awesome.

As long as you marry the right person, I suppose it would be. Married the wrong guy as a virgin. We both were, and it was religiously imposed, we were both body and sex shamed. We didn't "do it" until many days into our marriage. If my hymen wasn't broken from ballet, it wasn't broken until after my honeymoon, it sucked then, too. It did not last; because I couldn't have babies, confirmed by my lady doctor. Yeah, I was destroyed, because that was supposed to be my raison d'etre, just like a fundie bride.

I got married again. The sex is fantastic, and he wasn't hung up on adoption being taking on "The Sins of The Father".

[Karsaroni]

Au contraire, the older one get pregnant quickly after the weeding, according to the FB page of her hubby .

Oh wow! You're right! Is Katherine older than Amy Ellen? How old is the unmarried Cecily Bradrick?

[moreorlessnu]

I'm not referring to this case specifically, but I wonder if in some fundie couples, they actually haven't managed to have sex for a long time. I know that when I was 17, it took a couple of tries with my boyfriend before we technically managed to have PIV sex, and we were both totally open to it. I imagine having a life of sex shaming and doing it in the dark would just make it that much harder. I'm sure they have all the nerves and awkwardness of teenagers on prom night, but compounded by their sheltered childhoods. I bet at least some of those fundie boys are having sex with their bride's thigh and not even realizing it, or they could have premature ejaculation or stress-related impotence.

I also know a woman who was a virgin when she got married and she was so terrified that she wanted to ease into it with her husband (which is reasonable, IMO). She wasn't exactly fundie but was sort of forced into marriage and not ready for it. She had kissed her boyfriend before marriage but not much else. For fundies who never even kiss or hold hands, I suspect that a large fraction of them don't get to full-on sex right away. It's just too fast for most people to move.

So I wouldn't be surprised if there are some fundie couples out there who don't actually have sex until well into their first year.

Plus, the shock of living together and on their own for the first time. That takes a bit of getting used to, also.

[ChickeyMonkey]

What about those kids who grow up fundie, having to take care of their younger siblings (the girls) but have never liked kids? What if they really wanted fur babies instead of human kids? I know the fundie culture "loves" kids (free labor), but that doesn't mean that the kids who grow up in that culture necessarily want, or even like, kids. I mean, there's a difference between childfree and childless. How much does it suck to not want kids but have it expected of you to have them? That's a rhetorical question, by the way.