Erika Shupe *grim rictus* Large Families on Purpose Part 4

[princessmahina]

3 hours ago, Foudeb said:

Erika's behaviour is probably the most disturbing I've read about.

Even the Duggars / Quiverful make some sort of sense - they subscribe to a semi-coherent belief system if nothing else. She on the other hand clearly has out of control mental health issues and not much else going on.

I hope the kids make it out ok but I'm far from convinced they will.

 

She's hinted that Karen isn't totally on board with the lifestyle. She and Melanie are both interested in working outside the home- until marriage (though maybe once they start they'll like it so much they don't want to confine themselves to being Erika 2.0 and 3.0). I'm holding out a small amount of hope for those two.

[iweartanktops]

5 minutes ago, princessmahina said:

She's hinted that Karen isn't totally on board with the lifestyle. She and Melanie are both interested in working outside the home- until marriage (though maybe once they start they'll like it so much they don't want to confine themselves to being Erika 2.0 and 3.0). I'm holding out a small amount of hope for those two.

I'm holding out hope as well. I'm counting on them seeing how bitchy and miserable Erika is, and deciding not be like her someday. 

Another thing is, they have each other. I hope they remind each other of that! It's a great bonus! 

[mango_fandango]

Erika's going to be speaking at the Above Rubies retreat in Olympia, WA from February 26-28. Hmm, wonder what about. Decluttering again? How to anal-retentively organise your house? How to train your dog, Erika style??

[iweartanktops]

17 minutes ago, mango_fandango said:

Erika's going to be speaking at the Above Rubies retreat in Olympia, WA from February 26-28. Hmm, wonder what about. Decluttering again? How to anal-retentively organise your house? How to train your dog, Erika style??

OMGGG! I'd love to go, but a weekend with fundies sounds pretty intense! 

[desertvixen]

We have one (hooded) litter box for the pair of Siamese, and they are good with it - we've had them since they were both kittens, but now they are 10.  The next house is either going to be a one-story or have litter boxes on both levels, so it doesn't get too hard on them.  The biggest pain, honestly, is not the scooping, but it's the cats getting litter everywhere else.  (I have one of those mats, it's not enough.)

Mine are also not scheduled to do anything except sleep.

[Heathen525]

Erika's De-cluttering lecture:

1. Turn your garage into a warehouse.

2. Stack your kids like cord wood into 2 rooms:boy, girl.

3. Put EVERYTHING in clear plastic bins.

Fin.

[AliceInFundyland]

I've spent a lot of time recently contemplating my own core values. Animals are pretty deeply integrated..She wins my Stupid Abusive Fundy Bitch of The Week award. And she brags about this...

[OldFadedStar]

1 hour ago, desertvixen said:

We have one (hooded) litter box for the pair of Siamese, and they are good with it - we've had them since they were both kittens, but now they are 10.  The next house is either going to be a one-story or have litter boxes on both levels, so it doesn't get too hard on them.  The biggest pain, honestly, is not the scooping, but it's the cats getting litter everywhere else.  (I have one of those mats, it's not enough.)

Mine are also not scheduled to do anything except sleep.

Get crystal litter! It helps so much. It is much harder for the cats to get it trapped in their paws.

[Jingerbread]

On 1/6/2016 at 8:31 PM, Rubaiyat said:

I have two dogs, one of which is basically a furry rhinoceros/dinosaur hybrid with paws like a polar bear.  Our backyard is straight mud-slush soup for months out of the year (like right now,) so we have to meticulously wipe 8 paws every single time they come back inside.  

Muttlucks.  Dog booties.  Our area is sloshed 60% of the year.  Dog booties cut down on the clean-up.  And dog rain coats when it's coming down.  

[Jingerbread]

On 1/6/2016 at 8:16 AM, defraudingjezebel said:

I think Erika loves the idea of having a dog, but isn't able to deal with the reality of it. I also think she wants people to praise her for having the perfect big family, dog included. She is so obsessed with how she and her family appear to others, whether that refers to how she dresses/her personal appearance to how she appears, character-wise, to the public. She may humblebrag about how she's not perfect but we all damn well know that she wants her family to have a façade of perfection. 

What she should have:

[AliceInFundyland]

I had pound puppies. I loved them more than shes capable of. I second the pet rock,if anything, suggestion.

[elliha]

14 hours ago, Antimony said:

My parents used just the one when we had two cats. I know you're not supposed to do that but they cleaned it everyday and all. I think 2 to 1 is livable, but 3 to 1 is asking for a disaster and/or territorial issues. It also depends on the personality of your cat -- how much shit will they tolerate in the shit box before they start to shirt elsewhere in protest? Are they bonded or super territorial? Some are more or less picky about this.

My sister has never had more than 2 litterboxes for her cats and they were 6 at one point. Hers can also choose to go outside though and that probably helps but on cold winter days they are always indoors and it still worked.

[LadyCrow1313]

5 hours ago, AliceInFundyland said:

I had pound puppies. I loved them more than shes capable of. I second the pet rock,if anything, suggestion.

I admit to having a pet pumpkin when I was a wee lass. Maybe she could have one of those & repurpose it into pie or soup for herself when it starts to rot.

[Eternalbluepearl]

Erika wants Happy because she wants affection from Happy. Does she not get enough love, hugs, and cuddles from her husband and NINE children? I do think Happy is a positive thing for the kids though, Karen and Melanie seem to love having a dog. 

[Mango]

THe belly band thing, honestly, I'm not sideeying too hard. Toy breed dogs can be REALLY hard to housebreak, for various reasons that I think people who haven't owned one sometimes don't appreciate, and we also haven't seen any posts that indicate that Happy's neutered, which increases the level of difficulty, potentially by a lot. (One of the breed rescues I work with for a toy breed, over 2/3 of the dogs that are surrendered by owners are for housebreaking difficulty!) 

Taking up water at night from a puppy is one thing, or a dog with polydipsia, but just offering it twice a day is inexcusable. 

[ViolaSebastian]

I suppose what I don't get is why Erika chose that particular breed, with all the information out there that toy breeds (and, from the sounds of it, shih tzus in particular) are notoriously difficult to housebreak?  It wouldn't have taken much self-awareness for Erika to realize that she is the type of person that is fanatical about cleanliness and who doesn't have a whole lot of time to be housebreaking a dog.  Why, then, did she pick a breed that would require a lot of effort and surely have a lot of accidents on her white rug???

[Eternalbluepearl]

34 minutes ago, ViolaSebastian said:

 Why, then, did she pick a breed that would require a lot of effort and surely have a lot of accidents on her white rug???

I'm not sure, only that she insists Shih Tzus are her thing. *shrug* Its taken her 3 tries so far to find the Shih Tzu she is happy with. She seems very stubborn on wanting to prove the point that she likes Shih Tzus. 

[princessmahina]

I hope Erika posts another video of her speaking. I so enjoyed her passive aggressive bitchiness towards the audience members, and how she introduced herself by reading aloud her blog introduction. 

3 hours ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

Erika wants Happy because she wants affection from Happy. Does she not get enough love, hugs, and cuddles from her husband and NINE children? I do think Happy is a positive thing for the kids though, Karen and Melanie seem to love having a dog. 

Is it that they love having a dog, or that Erika makes them do all the dog related chores, and do them with a smile? I think it's probably a combination. 

[withaj]

8 hours ago, LadyCrow1313 said:

I admit to having a pet pumpkin when I was a wee lass. Maybe she could have one of those & repurpose it into pie or soup for herself when it starts to rot.

Oooh getting flashbacks to Emily & Dna and their pet kefir, Therese. Also reflecting on how horrified Erika would have been with their apartment. That might be my dream fundie cage match.

[BiblebeltCath]

7 hours ago, ViolaSebastian said:

I suppose what I don't get is why Erika chose that particular breed, with all the information out there that toy breeds (and, from the sounds of it, shih tzus in particular) are notoriously difficult to housebreak?  It wouldn't have taken much self-awareness for Erika to realize that she is the type of person that is fanatical about cleanliness and who doesn't have a whole lot of time to be housebreaking a dog.  Why, then, did she pick a breed that would require a lot of effort and surely have a lot of accidents on her white rug???

Because in Erika's mind, she can train kids better than anyone else can, so that must be true for dogs too. All those amateurs didn't have her mad Babywize skillz.

[defraudingjezebel]

7 hours ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

I'm not sure, only that she insists Shih Tzus are her thing. *shrug* Its taken her 3 tries so far to find the Shih Tzu she is happy with. She seems very stubborn on wanting to prove the point that she likes Shih Tzus. 

She tends to copy her mother/her family in many ways (her hairstyle, way of dressing, etc.), I wonder if Shih Tzus are a thing in her family. 

[desertvixen]

@OldFadedStar, sadly my feline headships have vetoed the crystal litter.  So now I sweep every day. 

[umsami]

Just have to say I'm loving the feline headship.   Ours hated the crystal stuff, too.  She also will only eat IAMs, the orange original.  I bought her some of the grain-free food, and I think she's a carb-lover like the rest of us.  She looked at me like I was crazy.  I dutifully obeyed and went to Target and bought her a bag of the food she likes.  Who am I to question my headship? After all, I exist to serve her.

[lawfulevil]

Mine loathe the crystal litter too. I've tried every litter on the market, my boy has a peeing outside the litterbox problem. (I drag him to the vet every time this nonsense starts up again, he's fine, I even got a second opinion a couple times. Stress, the vet thinks. It got better with Feliway diffusers- one on each level- not cheap but cheaper than carpet.) Neither would use the crystal litter at all in a side-by-side trial, over a couple weeks.

Mine are so bad about litter kicking (there's only TWO CATS, thank you, but they make enough mess for 5) that I invested in a central vacuum when we built the house. It's great. No more asthma attacks from pet dander, the suction is much better, I only wish I'd gotten more kickplates. The hose was a bit of a bear until we found it a happy plastic wagon home.

[mango_fandango]

OK, you know how Erika used to post her schedules on the blog? 

THEY'RE ALL GONE.

On the FB page I found Summer 2015, Summer 2014, Spring 2014 and Academic Year 2012/2013. However, I'm pretty damn sure she used to post every single one, apart from the 2015/16 one which she never did. The entire category "Schedules- My Current One" on the blog has gone. 

What on Earth happened? Why has she removed some and not others? Why did she remove any?? Her leghumpers love 'em. I remember the 2014/15 one cos I remember being surprised that Riley wasn't scheduled to do LA and possibly not math either, although he probably did do them.