Blair Tsantles: Any word?

[clibbyjo]

I have a problem with the age factor as well, especially when they want on and on how they knew and worked with each other at church or whatever for YEARS. Taylor is not a 30 year old man as much as they want to pretend he is as mature as one.

I have a 15 year old son and if a 21 year old woman was interested in him I would have her arrested.(And he is completely immature and I am the first to admit it.:) ) I would certainly not allow my minor aged son to marry a grown woman and have a baby by age 18 just so he could have sex and I could show how great Christian courtship works. :snooty:

[MamaJunebug]

I have a problem with the age factor as well, especially when they want on and on how they knew and worked with each other at church or whatever for YEARS. Taylor is not a 30 year old man as much as they want to pretend he is as mature as one.

I have a 15 year old son and if a 21 year old woman was interested in him I would have her arrested.(And he is completely immature and I am the first to admit it.:) ) I would certainly not allow my minor aged son to marry a grown woman and have a baby by age 18 just so he could have sex and I could show how great Christian courtship works. :snooty:

Ah, but mother clibbyjo, that's just the point: Your sons, and mine, are not of the same Scott-Brown-prepared group of manly boys.

Recall that Scott's son David told his father at age 14 who he wanted to marry, and began work on the house to which he would bring her home at age ... what was it for David? 18? 17?

Scott has exhorted other men to make "best friends" of adolescent males and has counted adolescents among his best friends. Intensive manly training by Scott prepares a boy - and I do mean boy - to choose his life partner at 14, be taken seriously by his father, and to marry at 17 or 18.

It is we, you see, who r doing it rong. :roll:

This begs the question of how the boy wonders are supporting their ladies and children. Why, of course: they're employed by dad, huckstering the same hucksterism that keeps them all in mortgage-free houses.

I am overstating the case. We know from a FJian that Scott is also a landlord in his city and somewhere in my mind, I seem to remember that he and his own dad were successful in the farm business. Thus the current lakefront property and conference center/home "barn."

Curisoity overtakes me: How many VF/NCFIC acolytes are casting a jaundiced side-eye at their 16-year-old son who hasn't announced his intentions toward a specific girl, nor pestered poppa to go with him to look at the mobile home for sale, next community over? I mean, let's be real: not everybody can do stick-built or even lavish pre-fab barns like Scott and Deborah's.

Really, I wonder: Are Taylor and David inspiring any other boys? The promise of abundant and guilt-free sex has to be breathing life into at least some of them!! And what are their stories? Are Scott and Doug's visions of adolescent quivermen coming true?

[darkplumaged]

What the hell does a 14-year-old boy know about marriage, anyway? When a 14-year-old boy points out "the girl he wants to marry," what he's really doing is picking out a girl he wants to have sex with. I don't care how "godly" he is or how much he babbles about her walk with the Lord or her servant's heart.

[fundiefan]

I'm just really, really glad that last weekend, my family saw half 'the kids' go away. They all went off to college; six of them, for either their first or second year. Some to the dorms for their first time, some to apartments shared with friends they met in the dorms last year. For all the crazy failures of my family and its dysfunction, education, college and age-appropriate experiences and priorities are the name of the game for all the kids in the 'next' generation. I'm so grateful that none of the teenagers or young adults in my family are having to take on responsibilities they are far too young to take on.

Boys and young men have their entire lives to be 'men' - they need to learn how to do that properly, over time and with experience, and cannot be forced into it as teenagers. Same with girls and young women. I think it's appalling the way they force adulthood and adult, mature responsibilities onto teenagers. It can't be even remotely good for their mental or emotional development, much less their maturity level.

[clibbyjo]

I'm just really, really glad that last weekend, my family saw half 'the kids' go away. They all went off to college; six of them, for either their first or second year. Some to the dorms for their first time, some to apartments shared with friends they met in the dorms last year. For all the crazy failures of my family and its dysfunction, education, college and age-appropriate experiences and priorities are the name of the game for all the kids in the 'next' generation. I'm so grateful that none of the teenagers or young adults in my family are having to take on responsibilities they are far too young to take on.

Boys and young men have their entire lives to be 'men' - they need to learn how to do that properly, over time and with experience, and cannot be forced into it as teenagers. Same with girls and young women. I think it's appalling the way they force adulthood and adult, mature responsibilities onto teenagers. It can't be even remotely good for their mental or emotional development, much less their maturity level.

I 100% agree. My 15 year old volunteers 1 day a week at a hospital (where my husband works and sees him through out the day), but the rest of the time he is homeschooling,playing video games, hanging out with friends and fencing like a 15 year old should be doing. He has zero interest in girls yet,he would much rather learn computer languages or read. :)

[alphaeta08]

Whenever I see "unique" spellings, I think of Chelsea Handler's response to people at book signings:

"Excuse me, you spelled Baiyyleeeeee wrong!"

"Uh, no, YOU did." :roll:

[Kitchen Princess]

I have a 17 yo son. He's not much into girls, yet. (uber-jock) I'm pretty sure his genitalia has not reached it's full potential (he's been too busy growing size 13 feet). He can't even grow a beard yet.

I understand that some young men are fully developed way before that. One of his friends, a year younger, can grow a mustache in 3 days. But he's still growing.

I just can't imagine having sex and building a life together, as an adult woman, with a person who is still growing, no matter how "mature" he is.

But she can't know any better, can she?

[Jessica]

Our old bishop gave us some wise advice when we got engaged: date each other long enough to go through a few emergencies (nothing terrible like a near-fatal car wreck, but sickness, hard times in school, stuff like that) so we could see how the other person responded, because it's easy to like a person when everything is perfect and peachy. During our engagement I got really bad tonsilitis that lasted 2 weeks that turned into me getting a little dehydrated, having to chug down magnesium to try to poop but ended up with me throwing it all back up (TMI sorry). His grandma had a stroke and had to be hospitalized for a while. Anyway, I don't think 17-year-old boys really think about that kind of stuff or are prepared for it. My husband was 21 at the time and his reaction was to come over every day after work to bring me flowers, soup, rub my feet (no "no touch" rule for us, thank God!), brush my hair, stuff like that. My 17yo brother-in-law, as sweet as he is, would probably call me a couple times during the illness to see ow I was doing, maybe bring flowers once or twice, but not go out of his way to make it especially comfortable for the sick person. He would probably be thinking "I better not go over so I don't get sick too", whereas my husband, just a few years older, is more mature and would be thinking about the other person before himself. And sadly, a lot of these 17yo patriarchs really AREN'T "trained" to think of their wives first.

[Kitty]

I'm 19 and wouldn't ever consider dating a 17-year-old guy. They're not even out of high school, ffs, and 17 year old guys are not very mature either. And yes, it shows.

Just how the hell is a 17 year old supposed to support a family? I know a lot of people who became parents at 17 or 18, some younger, some a teensy bit older. They have to work, and the switch jobs constantly to try to get better pay. Yes, BOTH PARENTS have to work, and in many cases, they haven't moved out of their parents' house. Just how the fuck is a 17 year old supposed to support a wife and child plus live on his own and pay all of his bills? I have a feeling we're not getting the whole story here. I bet there's a lot of donations, plus Daddy's paying some of Taylor's bills.

[uber frau]

Taylor's Daddy employs her husband, so yes, he is paying her bills in a slightly roundabout way. Someone once posted the job description for NCFFIC interns on the old board-it's pretty much an opportunity to be Scott's live-in secretary for a year. I don't think you need to have many thinking skills or maturity to fill the role. It's the slightly better dressed version of flipping burgers at your local fast food joint-a 17 yo wouldn't be over-stretched. (Incidentally, employing your sons IL seems a good way of keeping control over your married daughters.)

For all of the difference in age, I wonder how mature Blair really is. She hasn't exactly been exposed to much and she's been brought up to fill a role of perpetual childhood. Fundie 23 isn't exactly normal 23.

[keeperrox]

I don't remember... is Taylor the one who started building a house for his future wife in his early teens and then was allowed to marry once it was finished?

[uber frau]

That was David-Blair's younger brother.

[keeperrox]

That was David-Blair's younger brother.

But he's not married yet, is he?

[hoipolloi]

But he's not married yet, is he?

David is married to Monica (Daming) & they had a little girl, Iona Wisdom Brown, earlier this year.

ETA: He married Monica when he had just turned or was about to turn 18, in 2010.

[keeperrox]

David is married to Monica (Daming) & they had a little girl, Iona Wisdom Brown, earlier this year.

ETA: He married Monica when he had just turned or was about to turn 18, in 2010.

Man, he looks so, so young, I just never realized he was married.

[MonkeyMomma]

David is married to Monica (Daming) & they had a little girl, Iona Wisdom Brown, earlier this year.

ETA: He married Monica when he had just turned or was about to turn 18, in 2010.

A little off topic, but I think Wisdom is an interesting choice for a fundie daughter's name ... Wisdom is imaged as the feminine face of the Divine in the Bible. It's almost subversive ... maybe she'll grow up to be a badass feminist theologian.