Erika Shupe *leer smirk* Large Families on Purpose Part 6

[zee_four]

5 minutes ago, seasonsoflife said:

Yeah, that is more the "work and travel" program a lot of students do. They are usually shorter stays I think.

I did it in my late twenties. I am in arts administration and went to work in a theatre. It was a great experience.

Ohhhh yeah that makes sense. Your program sounds amazing! The kids that come our way are on summer holiday and like 18-21. Some come back after uni, including a few of my close friends.

[19 cats and counting]

12 hours ago, Shiny said:

There are lot of families we discuss here that are more corrupt than this one, but Erika is one of my least favorites. She just doesn't seem to enjoy any of this. And she always talks about how much harder things are with more kids. Well, stop fucking having kids if it's so hard. Give the ones who already have a better quality of life. 

There's a difference between a parent who is overwhelmed by too many kids, or has reached the point where they have checked out (Michelle Duggar) and a parent who is taking pleasure in making their kids' lives as miserable as possible to the point of making Lady Tremaine (Cinderella's stepmother) look like a warm, fuzzy, caring stepparent.  I'm not sure if sadistic si the correct word to use here.

I'm almost expecting Erika to start with the evil cartoon villain cackle.

[refugee]

7 hours ago, Apricot said:

Cadburys in the UK is no longer as great as it once was.  Since it was bought out by Kraft, they seem to have added something to it which makes it disgusting.

WRT to sharing, my parents did the same as @Jingerbread, it worked great I think.  I think too much emphasis on everything being exactly fair is wrong. 

 

Also - why should the older girls get the same as the younger girls?  My two daughters will get different eggs at easter and my eldest will probably be allowed to eat slightly more of hers at a time because my youngest is still a toddler and will probably make herself sick if I allowed free rein.  We ration out the eggs for a number of weeks as last year my children had over 20 eggs each due to Easter egg hunts at home and at both sets of grandparents houses!

I wonder if it's PGPR? That ingredient has been appearing on a lot of candy labels in the US. It's disgusting stuff, made from castor beans, IIRC. It's very cheap, compared to cocoa butter, but has a similar function in a candy formulation, and so candy manufacturers are cutting costs by making the substitution. It makes the candy taste like wax, to me.

If I see PGPR on the label ingredients, I don't buy it. More and more of my former childhood favorites are including it, though.

[nausicaa]

22 hours ago, QuiverDance said:

You know, I don't do much candy for my kids either.  My son is peanut allergic, for one thing, and that limits my choices for candy that is actually edible.  *smile*   I treat Easter baskets more like Christmas stockings.  

My mom did too. We got some candy but mostly books, outdoor toys for spring (sidewalk chalk, jump ropes, bouncy balls),  and always a new stuffed animal. She also used to hide our Easter baskets, which was really fun to look for. I love that my brother and sister now do that with their kids.

I totally get some people just aren't into Easter. But Erika just generally sucks and doesn't like kids.

[QuiverDance]

21 hours ago, Rubaiyat said:

So, to veer off topic just a bit, All My Kids (and both us us parental-figures) are sick.  I just want to make super sure I do this correctly.  

I put the kids on towels on the bathroom floor for the rest of the day and evening, feed only bananas/rice/applesauce/tea, don't tend to or speak to anyone to avoid contamination, and - as soon as we are even marginally better - declare a school holiday so we can spend the day disinfecting the house.  Right?  

 

 

I love that you said this with such sarcasm, because that is precisely how my ex husband would handle an illness in the house. Except the kids would not be in the bathroom.  They would be on towels on the sofa.  

[OnceUponATime]

5 hours ago, Iokaste said:

Erika, (we know you read this) I actually like you and if I lived down the road I'm sure we would have an occasional cup of fat-free hot cocoa and actually enjoy friendly disagreement on theology and religion.   

I sure hope you're planning on making your own

[QuiverDance]

I still can't get over that Easter basket, man.  Easter is a B.F.D. in my family.  It's as big as Christmas, just with candy and an easter egg hunt at Grandma's instead of toys.  

[mango_fandango]

Did Erika just make a meme...??

 

Of COURSE it's related to church. How could it not be? *le sigh*

[Shiny]

She didn't make it. I've seen it all over. But she reposted it...is this a sign there is some humor under the crazy?

 

[Rubaiyat]

11 hours ago, QuiverDance said:

I love that you said this with such sarcasm, because that is precisely how my ex husband would handle an illness in the house. Except the kids would not be in the bathroom.  They would be on towels on the sofa.  

I will totally admit to snuggling the kids down on the sofa...on top of a layer of towels, and with a puke-bowl handy.  BUT!  After I put down the towels, everyone gets a snuggly blankie, tea, gatorade, snacks if they can stand it, bad TV, books, medicine, whatever makes them more comfortable.  I'll even wait on them if I'm sick, too.  If we're all sick together, we just give up and snuggle down together.  At that point, we've already traded all the germs.  

I hate being sick (like that makes me special *snerk*) so I imagine the kids do too.  I can't fathom being sick AND someone treating me like crap.  Heck, I cried the first time I was sick at college and away from my mommy!  

[Eternalbluepearl]

I don't think it says anywhere that Erika treats her kids like crap when they're sick. Maybe I missed it. 

[QuiverDance]

10 hours ago, Rubaiyat said:

I will totally admit to snuggling the kids down on the sofa...on top of a layer of towels, and with a puke-bowl handy.  BUT!  After I put down the towels, everyone gets a snuggly blankie, tea, gatorade, snacks if they can stand it, bad TV, books, medicine, whatever makes them more comfortable.  I'll even wait on them if I'm sick, too.  If we're all sick together, we just give up and snuggle down together.  At that point, we've already traded all the germs.  

I hate being sick (like that makes me special *snerk*) so I imagine the kids do too.  I can't fathom being sick AND someone treating me like crap.  Heck, I cried the first time I was sick at college and away from my mommy!  

*comfortable* being the operative word...

[THERetroGamerNY]

Comfortable. Can Erika gives us a *comfortable leer smirk*?

[Jingerbread]

13 hours ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

I don't think it says anywhere that Erika treats her kids like crap when they're sick. Maybe I missed it. 

She takes them to a chiropractor for medical care.  I think we can safely presume she's not mother of the year when her kids are sick.

[Koala]

Isn't she the mom who has her kids sleep on the bathroom floor when they're sick?

[mango_fandango]

53 minutes ago, Koala said:

Isn't she the mom who has her kids sleep on the bathroom floor when they're sick?

I remember I've done this twice when I was sick... but it was of my own volition. 

I can't find the bit about kids on the bathroom floor. I have seen it, but I rescanned the "what they do when ill" post and it's not there- but it does include the gem about marking the end of sickness with a big clean-up day! *beam*

[16strong]

4 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

I remember I've done this twice when I was sick... but it was of my own volition. 

I can't find the bit about kids on the bathroom floor. I have seen it, but I rescanned the "what they do when ill" post and it's not there- but it does include the gem about marking the end of sickness with a big clean-up day! *beam*

I used to camp out on the bathroom floor because the linoleum floor was cool to a fever, and the toilet was close. But like you, I chose to do so.

Side note: The Shupe kids will never get to experience the joy of a day off from school camped out on the couch watching tv. The best was when I got sick during the SLC winter olympics and spent the entire week camped out on the couch watching downhill skiing and bobsledding. It made the worst flu of my life totally worth it. 

[Grimalkin]

On ‎3‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 1:43 AM, Rubaiyat said:

I will totally admit to snuggling the kids down on the sofa...on top of a layer of towels, and with a puke-bowl handy.  BUT!  After I put down the towels, everyone gets a snuggly blankie, tea, gatorade, snacks if they can stand it, bad TV, books, medicine, whatever makes them more comfortable.  I'll even wait on them if I'm sick, too.  If we're all sick together, we just give up and snuggle down together.  At that point, we've already traded all the germs.  

I hate being sick (like that makes me special *snerk*) so I imagine the kids do too.  I can't fathom being sick AND someone treating me like crap.  Heck, I cried the first time I was sick at college and away from my mommy!  

      I don't like it when my kids are sick, but I love taking care of them when they are. Though the more kids I have I am more likely to keep kids with stomach flu quarantined. Maybe TMI but my second daughter and I had the most horrific stomach flu together once and we laid motionless on the couch together and passed "the bucket". we still laugh about that.

[Rubaiyat]

1 hour ago, Grimalkin said:

      I don't like it when my kids are sick, but I love taking care of them when they are. Though the more kids I have I am more likely to keep kids with stomach flu quarantined. Maybe TMI but my second daughter and I had the most horrific stomach flu together once and we laid motionless on the couch together and passed "the bucket". we still laugh about that.

Nothing bonds a family like going through terrible, terrible things together!  We have stories like that in our family, too.  

[AuntCloud]

5 hours ago, 16strong said:

I used to camp out on the bathroom floor because the linoleum floor was cool to a fever, and the toilet was close. But like you, I chose to do so.

Side note: The Shupe kids will never get to experience the joy of a day off from school camped out on the couch watching tv. The best was when I got sick during the SLC winter olympics and spent the entire week camped out on the couch watching downhill skiing and bobsledding. It made the worst flu of my life totally worth it. 

I got mono as a teen and passed the time reading Stephen king's "Tommyknockers". Then at night my fever would spike and everything scary I read that day would pop up in my fever hallucinations. Fun times.

[IrishCarrie]

I remember getting chicken pox when I was about eight or nine years old and obviously my mother was doing her best to keep me from passing it onto my siblings . So while they were at school me and her built THE most amazing blanket fort you've ever seen. That thing had rooms and levels and an outside area! I played happily in and around it for two days and my sibs didn't come into it (they were older and understood what was going on so it didn't bother them!)

No spread of the pox, and a very happy patient!

And now I feel very, very sad because my darling beautiful mother will be dead for nine years in September and while there isn't a day I don't miss her, for some reason Spring is always the hardest. I think it's something to do with watching her garden come back to life - I just picked a huge jug of the daffodils she planted for the dining room table.

So, so lucky to have had her though - forever grateful! 

[seasonsoflife]

8 minutes ago, IrishCarrie said:

I remember getting chicken pox when I was about eight or nine years old and obviously my mother was doing her best to keep me from passing it onto my siblings . So while they were at school me and her built THE most amazing blanket fort you've ever seen. That thing had rooms and levels and an outside area! I played happily in and around it for two days and my sibs didn't come into it (they were older and understood what was going on so it didn't bother them!)

No spread of the pox, and a very happy patient!

And now I feel very, very sad because my darling beautiful mother will be dead for nine years in September and while there isn't a day I don't miss her, for some reason Spring is always the hardest. I think it's something to do with watching her garden come back to life - I just picked a huge jug of the daffodils she planted for the dining room table.

So, so lucky to have had her though - forever grateful! 

That is sweet. It sounds like she was a great mom.

I am going through a very difficult health situation and guess who I asked to come with me to my neuro appointment tomorrow? (being happily married to a wonderful man)...yes, you guessed it...my mommy.

[Apricot]

20 hours ago, IrishCarrie said:

I remember getting chicken pox when I was about eight or nine years old and obviously my mother was doing her best to keep me from passing it onto my siblings . So while they were at school me and her built THE most amazing blanket fort you've ever seen. That thing had rooms and levels and an outside area! I played happily in and around it for two days and my sibs didn't come into it (they were older and understood what was going on so it didn't bother them!)

No spread of the pox, and a very happy patient!

And now I feel very, very sad because my darling beautiful mother will be dead for nine years in September and while there isn't a day I don't miss her, for some reason Spring is always the hardest. I think it's something to do with watching her garden come back to life - I just picked a huge jug of the daffodils she planted for the dining room table.

So, so lucky to have had her though - forever grateful! 

So sorry for your loss but how wonderful to have great memories of your mom. 

[umsami]

In our house, when you were sick you always got ginger ale (with a straw) and magazines or comic books.  This was back in the day pre-cable, and I remember lying on the couch, blankets, pillows, my ginger ale, and watching game shows and soap operas. 

 

I remember Kate Gosselin putting all of her kids on the laundry room floor when sick.  Didn't know it was a Shupe thing, too.

 

Oh....whenever I write "Shupe", I have my own theme music that pops in my head.  Remember the Salt-n-Pepa song "Shoop"? That's what starts playing. 

[Eternalbluepearl]

I'm sorry for your loss, @IrishCarrie. *HUGS*