Sister Wives 3 - Collective in Crisis?

[Georgiana]

15 minutes ago, daisyd681 said:

Did Meri admit that all those texts were real? Were they proved real somehow? I ask because there is no way that Meri actually had sex with Sam, since he isn't real, and any part of the story that talks about them having physical sex is absolute horseshit. I agree that Meri has culpability here. I just don't want anyone to forget that if Sam said it, there's likely at least some fabrication. She is the victim of a crazy person. 

Well, the photos were real.  She certainly sent those.  And she made plenty of tweets herself from her own Twitter account that referenced the situation.  The Twitter flirting between Meri and NotBatman was weird, gross, and very public.  We were talking about it here for months before the identity of NotBatman was revealed.  

And Meri did meet the Catfish.  There are photos together of them at Disneyland where the Catfish was pretending to be NotBatman's assistant.  So it seems clear that they did make plans to meet.  The voicemails are less conclusive since we know that the Catfish can throw her voice.  However, it certainly sounds A LOT like Meri.  

Besides the claims of physical consummation of the relationship, many of the Catfish's claims have actually been fairly well established.  

It is certain that Meri crossed the line.  The photos and tweets are enough to prove that.  Just how far across the line she went is the only part up for debate.  

[Buzzard]

On 5/22/2016 at 5:15 PM, ChickenettiLuvr said:

Does anyone know ... 

Will the lovely & talented @Buzzard be recapping tonight's Sister Wives installment for us?  I surely hope so.  The recaps & commentary are ever so much more entertaining than the shitshow itself!!!  

Sorry, this thread isnt really one I frequent.  I never got into this particular level of krazy!

[devoe364]

Meri is playing the victim, because that s what Meri does. Its what she has always done. If I were Mariah, I would be so utterly frustrated that I wouldn't want to talk to my Mom either. 

[SweetFellowshipper]

1 hour ago, daisyd681 said:

Did Meri admit that all those texts were real? Were they proved real somehow? I ask because there is no way that Meri actually had sex with Sam, since he isn't real, and any part of the story that talks about them having physical sex is absolute horseshit. I agree that Meri has culpability here. I just don't want anyone to forget that if Sam said it, there's likely at least some fabrication. She is the victim of a crazy person. 

She didn't talk about doing it. She talked about wanting to, fantasies, etc. In hundreds of voicemails. The texts were quite similar in tone and language to the voicemails, and the voicemails and photos were definitely her. Very obviously. She's admitted the voicemails are real and hasn't disputed the texts, but the voicemails would be plenty. Sexting doesn't require physical sex. She sexted with "him" quite a bit.

[Georgiana]

24 minutes ago, devoe364 said:

Meri is playing the victim, because that s what Meri does. Its what she has always done. If I were Mariah, I would be so utterly frustrated that I wouldn't want to talk to my Mom either. 

I thought Mariah expressed herself very well on this point: that a lot of the issue was that Meri was not taking responsibility for her actions and the hurt they caused Mariah and instead trying to play the victim and get Mariah to "fix" everything for her.  

Their relationship can't move forward and begin to heal until Meri grows up and takes responsibility for her role in causing Mariah pain.  Which she hasn't done.  

[devoe364]

2 minutes ago, Georgiana said:

I thought Mariah expressed herself very well on this point: that a lot of the issue was that Meri was not taking responsibility for her actions and the hurt they caused Mariah and instead trying to play the victim and get Mariah to "fix" everything for her.  

Their relationship can't move forward and begin to heal until Meri grows up and takes responsibility for her role in causing Mariah pain.  Which she hasn't done.  

But Meri isn't going to do that. You just have to look at how Meri reacts to everything. Everything in Meri's life is about her being the victim. She had fertility issues. Janelle was mean to her. She lost. She sacrificed, Its always about her. 

[Georgiana]

1 minute ago, devoe364 said:

But Meri isn't going to do that. You just have to look at how Meri reacts to everything. Everything in Meri's life is about her being the victim. She had fertility issues. Janelle was mean to her. She lost. She sacrificed, Its always about her. 

Yep.

So she's either going to have to learn now  or lose a healthy, close relationship with her daughter.

[devoe364]

10 minutes ago, Georgiana said:

Yep.

So she's either going to have to learn now  or lose a healthy, close relationship with her daughter.

I actually question how healthy that relationship really is. True, they are close. However it has seemed to me on many occaisions that Mariah is more the parent and Meri more the child. That's just me though. 

[ScreamingIzzy]

8 hours ago, crawfishgirl said:

 The experience of having your husband with you only one of every three or four nights while he is snuggling with another woman would be devastating, even when a person is reared with that concept.  

I just can't even imagine what that must be like. I adore my husband. He is my favorite ever. The idea of sharing him with anyone, even if I believed in the Principle, would destroy me. The most logical place for me to seek comfort in that situation would be in my children...but if I didn't even have that, I'd probably get pretty bitter and twisted pretty fast. Especially if the other wives were Fertile Myrtles.

[GreyhoundFan]

5 hours ago, devoe364 said:

I actually question how healthy that relationship really is. True, they are close. However it has seemed to me on many occaisions that Mariah is more the parent and Meri more the child. That's just me though. 

I don't watch every episode of SW because I usually don't have enough anti-nausea medication on hand. I will say that, although Mariah always annoyed me in the early episodes as she seemed like a preachy Meri Jr, I feel more sympathy for her now and understand her anger. My mother and I have always had a difficult relationship. I have been the adult in our relationship since I was a child. My mother is 70 going on 14. When I saw a counselor a few years ago, to help me handle my anger and distress with my mother's childish and self-destructive behavior, the counselor asked if mom would come in for a joint counseling session. The week after the joint session, I asked the counselor what she thought. Her reply: "I always thought you had to be exaggerating about her childish, selfish, narcissistic behavior. I now see that you actually underplay how bad she is." At least my family's issues have been in relative privacy. I can't imagine having my family on TV, trying to act all shiny and happy. I hope Mariah gets some good counseling and sets some firm boundaries. That's what I did to save myself.

[devoe364]

11 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I don't watch every episode of SW because I usually don't have enough anti-nausea medication on hand. I will say that, although Mariah always annoyed me in the early episodes as she seemed like a preachy Meri Jr, I feel more sympathy for her now and understand her anger. My mother and I have always had a difficult relationship. I have been the adult in our relationship since I was a child. My mother is 70 going on 14. When I saw a counselor a few years ago, to help me handle my anger and distress with my mother's childish and self-destructive behavior, the counselor asked if mom would come in for a joint counseling session. The week after the joint session, I asked the counselor what she thought. Her reply: "I always thought you had to be exaggerating about her childish, selfish, narcissistic behavior. I now see that you actually underplay how bad she is." At least my family's issues have been in relative privacy. I can't imagine having my family on TV, trying to act all shiny and happy. I hope Mariah gets some good counseling and sets some firm boundaries. That's what I did to save myself.

I truly believe that Mariah is in that kind of relationship with her Mom and that this whole scandal, and her actually seeing how truly narcissistic and selfish her Mom is is probably the best thing for her in the long run. 

My Mom and I don't always have a great relationship. Its full of guilt trips, I told you sos, and no one ever apologizes for anything, we just spend money on each other. She's also very hard on me and has incredibly high standards that I will never live up to.

Many of my friends who are not big fans of my Mom as my Mom (not as a person - my Mom is a cool person) thought I exagerated how hard she was on me, until they witnessed it themselves. Even my boyfriend was surprised by something she said - I had told him after he took my Mom to the hospital about a month ago, that I could never break up with him now, because my Mom loved him, and if he dumped me, she'd ask me what I did to f*** it up.

We went for breakfast with her about two weeks ago. She basically said exactly that.

He no longer questions what I tell him about my Mom.

I hope that Mariah is able to set boundaries and get some counselling. She probably needs it.

[JMO]

I stopped watching this season.  I just can't get myself to start the episodes off the DVR.  But I'm really grateful for the recaps on line and the discussion here.  I'd probably be a bitter Betty if I was Meri.  And she just needs to leave Kodi already.  Being in this marriage clearly took her underlying personality issues and cemented them in a bad way.  Earlier in their marriage she probably used the poor me card to get attention from Kodi that he was spending on his other wives and their kids.  Everyone is clearly tired of it.  Now she's stuck without a good set of coping skills and alone in a bad marriage.   She should have left but clearly felt she couldn't/didn't want to and let herself get catfished.  

And I'm wondering if her daughter would have more respect for her if Meri was able to leave the relationship and doing it gracefully. 

[SweetFellowshipper]

@JMO, such a good point. Meri has major underlying personality and mental health issues, but many people do. Her environment inarguably highlights and exacerbates them. Now it would be very difficult for her to mature. 

[OyToTheVey]

I feel like Meri would be the clingy single wife that calls her husband every 20 minutes to check up on him. But because of her lifestyle she's stuck in a loveless 'marriage' with a guy that has 3 other women on his side. She can't even have an evening alone with him without 20 kids that aren't her own being around. And she's constantly reminded that she's a failure because she only had one child. 

[ChickenettiLuvr]

Spending the evening catching up on all FJ threads. Rather a slow,  dull week.

 

Huge thanks to  @FundieFarmer for helping with the  mystery of the word plaque in meri's living room.  Kinda weird though.

 

Somehow I missed all of the discussion on meri's photos and twitter affair before the scandal broke. If anyone has links for them, I'd be a grateful girl.

 

[theinvisiblegirl]

@ChickenettiLuvr, here's the previous topics:

 

[Pretzel]

How can Meri have that large a house and Mariah only have a tiny bedroom? If her Lehi bedroom was the largest of her bedrooms, her other rooms must be T.I.N.Y. Does Meri need one craft room per craft? Her house looks like it could easily accommodate ten people at a time. What does she do there all day, how does she keep it clean?!

[VelociRapture]

Congratulations are in order for Maddie and Caleb:

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/sister-wives-star-maddie-brown-marries-caleb-brush-w208801

On a totally superficial note, Maddie looks absolutely fantastic. She's grown into such a lovely young woman. I hope they have a happy life together. 

[theinvisiblegirl]

Maddy looks really nice in her dress. I wasn't sure what I thought of it when they showed last week, but I really like how it looks now.

I'm surprised what Us said about Kody and Robyn's second child together, that she was coming later this year. She was born early this year, they just haven't showed it on TV yet.

Also surprise to learn that Kody officiated.

[The limit does not exist]

She looks really nice!

Still hard to believe she was the first to get married.

I'm surprised they only had 5 bridesmaids and 5 groomsmen. Winder if any siblings made the cut...

[MarblesMom]

I know I might be off on the lineage.... but she married her father's BIL, yes?  Or did I miss an ancestry leg somewhere?

[Pretzel]

41 minutes ago, MarblesMom said:

I know I might be off on the lineage.... but she married her father's BIL, yes?  Or did I miss an ancestry leg somewhere?

Maddie married her uncle's brother-in-law (father's brother's wife's brother) .

[sta_sha]

12 hours ago, The limit does not exist said:

I'm surprised they only had 5 bridesmaids and 5 groomsmen. Winder if any siblings made the cut...

According to The Ashley (http://www.theashleysrealityroundup.com/2016/06/04/wedding-details-sister-wives-star-maddie-brown-marries-caleb-brush/), 4/5 of Maddie's bridesmaids were her sisters.

[SummerRocks]

*catching up on sister wives on PVR* 

 

Is Meri for real asking highly pregnant Robyn to take Solomon to Utah for a few days?! Sweet relationship aside, Meri wants Solomon to be a distraction so Mariah won't be so mad/upset/disappointed in her.

I'm no Robyn fan, but there is no way my 4 year old would be going on an out of state trip when I am 3 weeks away from my due date. `

I can't believe Robyn and Cody had to literally chase Meri down to go explain to Meri why this was not a good idea. Seriously ... this is so "the Meri show".

 

Edit; Meri "I wonder if it is not a trust thing" - of course it is! You lied to the family for years! 

 

An Meri, seriously ... "I would like to think of me as one of his (Solomons) parents too" Well, yes technically you are as you are part of the polygamous family. But if you aren't even aware that Solomon has nightmares/difficulties sleeping at night, asks for his mom after spending an hour with his dad - you don't really know that much about him. 

[Pretzel]

FWIW, I think the whole Solomon shebang was terribly staged by TLC to create drama.