Tedious, Complicated, and Particular: Erika Shupe, Part 8

[slickcat79]

14 hours ago, Tim-Tom Biblethumper said:

I've actually considered trying to find and buy those divided plates that they have in hospitals.

Section plates shouldn't be hard to find at all. Check the baby/toddler section of any store that has one. Or amazon. We had several at the house when my sister and I were little and used them all the time.

I've gotten more ok with foods touching as I get older, but some things were never meant to mix. Holiday eating is very challenging. And I still don't eat condiments. 

[TeddyBonkers]

MY PEOPLE! 

M & M's are to be eaten 2 at a time, in the order of the colors of the rainbow (red, then orange, then yellow, etc.)

I am not a food-touching person, but growing up Lutheran it was casserole or starve. Whenever we had spaghetti, I would eat the noodles with a boatload of Parmesan cheese, but the sauce on the side. 

Don't get me started on ketchup. It's disgusting.

[Eternalbluepearl]

This is what Erika just posted on Facebook with #firstworldproblems... What does this mean? It seems insensitive. 

 

[Tim-Tom Biblethumper]

2 hours ago, slickcat79 said:

Holiday eating is very challenging.  

Holidays are the worst!  Lots of food mixing and layering going on.  On top of that you get the 'looks' from people who aren't accustomed to seeing you fussing while balancing 2 plates and a bowl.  

[Lillymuffin]

Funnily enough, for years ketchup was the only condiment I'd use. Recently I've branched out to use mustard on certain things (but never together!) and ranch dressing is always good. Just please, for the love of all that is good and holy, don't get mayonnaise anywhere near me. That stuff gives me the willies! 

33 minutes ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

This is what Erika just posted on Facebook with #firstworldproblems... What does this mean? It seems insensitive. 

 

Well, to be fair, Erika isn't exactly the poster girl for empathy. Maybe she doesn't understand what that hashtag means? 

[defraudingjezebel]

@Eternalbluepearl I don't really get the hashtag/meme pairing- FirstWorldProblems is what you use when you're complaining about something rather insignificant, like your internet speed or something. 

The meme itself is making a point that us privileged folk here in the US and elsewhere waste perfectly good food by washing it away with perfectly clean water, while so many countries are facing the real crisis of food and clean water shortages. Her hashtag totally doesn't work with the meme unless she had added something like, "I hate washing my dishes in the sink #firstworldproblem." 

Maybe Erika had spent most of her "retreat" browsing the internet and decided to use a hashtag to be ~cool and ~hip. It was an attempt, but not a successful one. 

[ILoveJellybeans]

I don't mind food touching, I cover it all in hot sauce anyway.

 

When it comes to candy, I eat it in order. First I group them into different flavours. I eat them in order of preference, leading up to my favourites. Generally the purple, blue and orange ones are ranked below the preferred yellow, green and red ones. In jellybeans, black ones are the most favoured of all. Also, take one from each group until they are all even, and then eat in order.

[slickcat79]

1 hour ago, defraudingjezebel said:

Maybe Erika had spent most of her "retreat" browsing the internet and decided to use a hashtag to be ~cool and ~hip. It was an attempt, but not a successful one.

It's a particular fail coming from Erika, who has spent significant time explaining how to overcome difficult problems like folding/sorting socks, getting her multiple healthy children to sit still and be quiet as much as possible, and fitting an oversized (on PURPOSE!) family into a sturdy and secure 4 bedroom house. 

[rosethorne]

19 hours ago, Rubaiyat said:

Totally not mocking!  Pinky swear!  I've done this my whole life.  I got into YUUUGE trouble in catechism class  in 8th grade because someone brought in a two pound bag of m&ms and I ignored the Pastor for 20 minutes while I sorted.  Pretty sure we're soul mates.  Properly sorted snack foods are a thing of beauty and a joy forever.  

 

 

5 hours ago, refugee said:

I don't eat my M&Ms in any particular color order, but I *do* have to eat two or three at a time, and don't like mixing the colors, so I pick out two or three of the same color for each bite.

And I do find that the different color dyes have a different flavor. So I do save the brown ones for last, because they seem to have the least amount of dye-flavor to them, at least to my senses.

I've found my people!

When I open a bag of skittles, m&m's, reese's pieces, or sweet tarts it takes awile before any actually end up in my mouth.

First I have to get rid of anything with artificial grape flavor (it's got a weird taste to me, and blows my palate for the whole day....it's like medicine *shudder*), then they need to be sorted by color.

Then each color has to be sorted into either logo-up or logo-down, depending entirely on some unspoken criteria in my head.

Then any and all blemished/broken/malformed pieces need to be removed, and any extra "odd number" pieces need to be removed.

I have to eat them in multiples of two so that I have an equal number on both sides of my mouth, or it bugs me the rest of the day.

Lucky me, I have a co-worker who is more than happy to take the grape/odd/broken stuff off my hands

Also, I saw this meme on a friend facebook, and thought it was appropriate for the thread drift here:

 

[mango_fandango]

Erika rinses the plates from dinner etc in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher, making sure they're clean or something, with the dishwasher doing the proper cleaning job.

(Sorry for double post)

Who's seen that post Erika shared from the Jeub page? What do you guys think? Something about a mom who homeschooled her kids, did everything "right", but her oldest daughter has seemingly completely rebelled and is going to marry an atheist. Didn't quite understand the end of the article.

 

[Rubaiyat]

7 hours ago, Lillymuffin said:

Yes, this! I've always said this, but my mom doesn't believe me. Funnily enough, I think the green, blue, and red (my favorites in ascending order) have the most dye flavor, but I like the colors. Needless to say, I eat them last. 

Neither one of you are making that up.  I really want to say I remember reading that the lighter colors require more layers of candy coating to appear solid colored.  Meaning to brown ones would have less candy/dye than the other colors.  

Either that, or I'm the one making stuff up!!  I'm just pleased that so many people recognize that some foods just need to be eaten a certain way.  I'm trying to teach my kids that the proper ratio of peanut-butter m&ms to pretzel fishies is 1:2, with the m&m bitten in half so you have half an m&m and one pretzel fishie for each side of your mouth.  Talk about real-world skills!  This here is critical life-learning!  

 

 

[Anonymousguest]

1 hour ago, mango_fandango said:

Erika rinses the plates from dinner etc in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher, making sure they're clean or something, with the dishwasher doing the proper cleaning job.

(Sorry for double post)

Who's seen that post Erika shared from the Jeub page? What do you guys think? Something about a mom who homeschooled her kids, did everything "right", but her oldest daughter has seemingly completely rebelled and is going to marry an atheist. Didn't quite understand the end of the article.

 

A couple friends have posted that article, and I agree with it 100%. In the early days of my homeschooling career all the gurus said if you just homeschool, stay out of youth group, don't watch tv or expose them to other world ly stuff, they will avoid sin. They'll keep the faith. They'll be better Christians than you! It was a promise, one that many people clung to. It's the basis of the idea that what you teach (or don't) at home is less important than what is avoided by your children being around their peers in a school setting. 

 

But it's a lie. Turns out kids are people too, and  have their own mind and make their own decisions.

 

The article ends with a Bible quote from James saying to consider trials joy and to keep persevering despite trials. Not sure what you don't understand? Anyone who has raised their kids with this mindset is definitely going to consider it a trial if their child rejects God. (The author is Catholic).

[defraudingjezebel]

Oooh y'all. Someone just posted a comment on the Jeub article she shared. For posterity's sake, I'll quote it:

Quote

This mom is leaving out major details to the history of her child-parent relationship.

And Erika almost immediately replied:

Quote

Based on what?

I haven't read the article yet but I can imagine what it says. I'm somewhat familiar with the story of the Jeubs and the children who left the family with few good things to say. I hope this is a smackdown between Erika and the other commenter. 

[Granwych]

8 hours ago, TeddyBonkers said:

MY PEOPLE! 

M & M's are to be eaten 2 at a time, in the order of the colors of the rainbow (red, then orange, then yellow, etc.)

I am not a food-touching person, but growing up Lutheran it was casserole or starve. Whenever we had spaghetti, I would eat the noodles with a boatload of Parmesan cheese, but the sauce on the side. 

Don't get me started on ketchup. It's disgusting.

If it weren't for ketchup, Wychling would have been very unhappy with her childhood meals.  How about those ketchup and grape jelly-sauced  meatballs?  (Haven't made those in awhile)

[Anonymousguest]

1 hour ago, defraudingjezebel said:

Oooh y'all. Someone just posted a comment on the Jeub article she shared. For posterity's sake, I'll quote it:

And Erika almost immediately replied:

I haven't read the article yet but I can imagine what it says. I'm somewhat familiar with the story of the Jeubs and the children who left the family with few good things to say. I hope this is a smackdown between Erika and the other commenter. 

The article is neither by nor about the Jeubs. But I'll agree with the commenter. Relationships with our kids are so very important. 

Eta, the author is not the parent.

[desertvixen]

9 hours ago, slickcat79 said:

Section plates shouldn't be hard to find at all. Check the baby/toddler section of any store that has one. Or amazon. We had several at the house when my sister and I were little and used them all the time.

Target has them (in plain colors, not all kid oriented) in Housewares.  They're small but available.

[defraudingjezebel]

2 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

The article is neither by nor about the Jeubs. But I'll agree with the commenter. Relationships with our kids are so very important. 

Eta, the author is not the parent.

Ah I see, the Jeubs just shared the article. Nevertheless, someone just dragged Erika's lifestyle to hell and back in the comments. Quite a long description of how micromanaging a child's schedule and diet could backfire when they have a little bit more freedom. I wonder if that was someone here or just someone else who is familiar with Erika's lifestyle. It was a not-so-subtle jab at her control freakness. 

[mango_fandango]

Someone replied this to the long comment:

 "poor choices" as if walking a separate path from the one some young adult (the parent) had planed for another future adult (the adolescent) is somehow a defect. SMH.

1000000% THIS. 

[usedbicycle]

16 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

Who's seen that post Erika shared from the Jeub page? What do you guys think? Something about a mom who homeschooled her kids, did everything "right", but her oldest daughter has seemingly completely rebelled and is going to marry an atheist. Didn't quite understand the end of the article.

 

Something's definitely going on with her daughter(s) that she's freaking out about. Probably something minor like Karen texting a boy from work and telling her it's none of her beeswax.

The book she was reading on her retreat, Age of Opportunity, is "A biblical guide to parenting teens.  Paul Tripp uncovers the heart issues that affect parents and their teenage children during the often-chaotic adolescent years."

But not just that. She keeps sharing articles about parental struggle, "How to do a reset in the middle of the year", "Desperate: Hope for the mom who needs to breathe", "Help for parents who want to give up", and her mother's day post is all about God's grace when you feel like a failure. She even got a "Grace" necklace from Bob with "great meaning for her". The 2 Mandisa songs she posted are all about being strong in God when you feel like shit or things are hopeless 

Whatever it is that's going on, I'm starting to feel the teensiest bit sorry for her. Maybe it's depression, maybe it's her daughter's free-will suddenly blowing up in her face and she was too clueless to see it coming. Am I reading too far into this?

[Eternalbluepearl]

11 minutes ago, usedbicycle said:

Whatever it is that's going on, I'm starting to feel the teensiest bit sorry for her. Maybe it's depression, maybe it's her daughter's free-will suddenly blowing up in her face and she was too clueless to see it coming. Am I reading too far into this?

You might be reading too far into this, but it does seem that Erika posts a lot about moms feeling hopeless and then the solution, of course, is to pray. By the time the twins are adolescents, Erika may have chilled out and no longer be so heart-sick about teenage behavior. We can pray. 

[mallallory]

I don't feel sorry for her, her stress, her kids, her scheduling, her insanity is all of her own making.  I feel sorry for the older girls because I imagine if they are showing a bit of personality, Erika is probably cracking down on them.

I love that woman's reply to the long comment too.  I saw that someone commented, I think on the Jeub's post, that different is not a sin. Dyeing one's hair, ear piercings, etc, aren't inherently sinful.

ETA: Someone quoted the comment I was thinking of to Erika's page.  My phone or fb isn't letting me copy it to paste here.

[Coy Koi]

1 hour ago, usedbicycle said:

Whatever it is that's going on, I'm starting to feel the teensiest bit sorry for her. Maybe it's depression, maybe it's her daughter's free-will suddenly blowing up in her face and she was too clueless to see it coming. Am I reading too far into this?

I don't think you are reading too much into it, but I don't feel sorry for her, just her daughters (and all her kids). I know what it's like to be a teenager with a mother who thinks you're out-of-control and tries desperately to regain the control, when you're actually just acting like a normal teenager. It made my teen years hell and both of my sisters had the same experience. And my mom wasn't 1/1000th as bad as Erika.

I remember once when I was about 14, my best friend and I (both goody-goodies who got straight As, had never tried any substance, etc) went to her house because her older sister (about 18) was having a party. We were not welcome to join the party, nor did we even consider it an option, but we felt cool to just stay upstairs in my friend's room knowing that a party was going on in the house. My mom found out and said I could never go to my friend's house again (and she knew and liked my friend and her parents, she just didn't like her sister, who admittedly was kind of an asshole). She wasn't being hyperbolic, she was dead serious. She did eventually relent, but my entire teen years were filled with ridiculous overreactions like that.

My mom genuinely expected teenagers to not only never do anything they're not supposed to, but to not even want to. I once asked her didn't she EVER get in trouble as a teenager, and she thought about it for a while and then said she remembers getting in trouble a couple times for leaving crumbs on the counter. I am sympathetic to my mom, because she meant well, but she just couldn't relate to typical teenage rebellion AT ALL and she really just was so terrified that we were starting to go down a dangerous path of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Erika, though, is such a soul-sucking, fascist bitch that I can't feel bad for her. Just those poor, poor kids.

[16strong]

2 hours ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

You might be reading too far into this, but it does seem that Erika posts a lot about moms feeling hopeless and then the solution, of course, is to pray. By the time the twins are adolescents, Erika may have chilled out and no longer be so heart-sick about teenage behavior. We can pray. 

If it was someone else, I might see it as reading too far, but like many fundies, Erika is rarely subtle. There could be something to this.

[Eternalbluepearl]

4 minutes ago, 16strong said:

If it was someone else, I might see it as reading too far, but like many fundies, Erika is rarely subtle. There could be something to this.

I agree. It's too late for me to edit, but what I meant to write was "you may be reading too much into this, but I don't think so."

[Anonymousguest]

It's possible something is going on with the older kids, or Erica is just coming to understand her teens are separate from her and not turning out the way she had envisioned. But she's also always presented herself as the poster child of parenting-is-so-hard-but-with-proper-scheduling-and-God's-help-we-can-get-through-it. And this could just be her way of trying to relate and mentor her readers.