Jazz Hands, Sparkle Crotch: Erika Schupe Pt. 9

[Zola]

1 hour ago, Anonymousguest said:

Pretty sure that was speculation, one person on the fb page mentioned cps, and later she posted about the rearranged bedroom. FJ decided they were connected.

Ahh, yes, that's right. To be fair, there is no proof the two are absolutely connected. 

[Hisey]

Seems like Bob is selling his photography. That's nice, but I don't understand selling the shots of his babies and preteen daughters. They are nice pics and the kids are attractive, but would you want a picture of your young teen daughter hanging on some stranger's wall? Or your twin baby girls? I don't understand why fundies go overboard in protecting their kids in some way, but then completely drop the ball in other ways. He even uses the kids' names (one photo of Karen is called "Karen", for example). For that matter, why would anyone purchase pictures of another person's kids, anyway?

https://www.redbubble.com/people/bobshupe/portfolio

[ChunkyBarbie]

34 minutes ago, Hisey said:

Seems like Bob is selling his photography. That's nice, but I don't understand selling the shots of his babies and preteen daughters. They are nice pics and the kids are attractive, but would you want a picture of your young teen daughter hanging on some stranger's wall? Or your twin baby girls? I don't understand why fundies go overboard in protecting their kids in some way, but then completely drop the ball in other ways. He even uses the kids' names (one photo of Karen is called "Karen", for example). For that matter, why would anyone purchase pictures of another person's kids, anyway?

https://www.redbubble.com/people/bobshupe/portfolio

What a weird site.  I clicked on the pic of the twins and gee, I can get a mini skirt with their portrait on it. *cringe*

[MakeitSew]

Is he really selling products that have photographs of his own kids? I find that a little creepy and disturbing. 

My hope is that he has just uploaded these photos as a sample of his work and that he doesn't intend for strangers to buy pictures of his kids. . .but it looks like anyone can go there and order stuff with a smiling face of his daughter printed on it. 

 

[December]

12 hours ago, Hisey said:

Seems like Bob is selling his photography. That's nice, but I don't understand selling the shots of his babies and preteen daughters.

 

Honestly, it just looks like an attempt to make a portfolio site to me, the photos of the kids being examples of portrait photography. The comments on the photos are all just nice messages from years ago about his photography, how cute the kids are, etc.

11 hours ago, ChunkyBarbie said:

What a weird site.  I clicked on the pic of the twins and gee, I can get a mini skirt with their portrait on it. *cringe*

 

I'd guess that, like many similar sites out there, this one will automatically create some product combinations for a design that you upload. He probably just hasn't turned off these extra suggestions / unrelated categories. I'd imagine the photo tags influence the suggested products, too. That would explain why only the photo tagged "skirt" has a skirt as a suggested product.

[alexandracabot]

This site has been up for a while. I don't think he realizes that he's selling the option to get miniskirts with his daughters' faces on it, it's just a photography portfolio.

[princessmahina]

He's been doing photography for awhile to make extra money. Erika posted about it when she was going on about how they make it as a single income family with a shit load of kids. I really think the mini-skirt and all that is incidental. No way would they sell something as ungodly as a miniskirt, especially with their children's faces on it. 

[mango_fandango]

Ooh. I noticed that in the "About" page for the family/blog (not the one about Erika herself) she mentions the house as being 1500 sq ft. I don't know if they've moved or not. 

For now it's just the same old same old on the blog. Who knows if there'll be any new content? 

[defraudingjezebel]

So, a friend of mine who joined the FLOP facebook group said that someone asked about how to schedule a day around public school pick ups and drop offs. Erika replied, indicating that she plans on posting about how public school moms can schedule too. Hmmm. I wonder how she has the knowledge to post about such a topic...   

[mango_fandango]

Ooh. That sounds like she HAS put the kids in public school. Given her vehement anti school stance previously, I wonder what's happened to make her change her mind.

Unless she is still homeschooling and is planning to mention how to schedule around drop offs and pick ups in an attempt to widen her audience. 

But then she's said they're in a new season of life so I wonder. If they were still homeschooling that wouldn't be much change, even if Karen has graduated.

[slickcat79]

14 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

Ooh. I noticed that in the "About" page for the family/blog (not the one about Erika herself) she mentions the house as being 1500 sq ft. I don't know if they've moved or not. 

She probably realized she was either wrong or just being misleading about calling the house 1100 sq. ft. I know we've always speculated that she wasn't counting the finished portion of the lower level, and I would expect that to be around 400 sq. ft. if the top level is around 1100. 

I would be kind of intrigued if they moved though. I know Erika's wanted to for years, and her "how to organize your home" posts are frequently interesting/snarkworthy.

[16strong]

4 hours ago, defraudingjezebel said:

So, a friend of mine who joined the FLOP facebook group said that someone asked about how to schedule a day around public school pick ups and drop offs. Erika replied, indicating that she plans on posting about how public school moms can schedule too. Hmmm. I wonder how she has the knowledge to post about such a topic...   

In the old days, she would have been very snarky by saying "I don't have such experience. Sorry." Just saying.

[defraudingjezebel]

1 hour ago, 16strong said:

In the old days, she would have been very snarky by saying "I don't have such experience. Sorry." Just saying.

Yep, I completely agree. Or maybe something even more snarky like, "I don't believe in putting children in government schools so I have no need to make that kind of schedule." 

While it isn't a definite indicator that the kids are in public school, it shows that her hardline anti-public school stance has shifted quite a bit.  Even though she hasn't acknowledged this publicly, at least it shows she has the ability to be more open to things and not so legalistic. 

[Anonymousguest]

I think the whole purpose of the rebranding is to have a wider appeal. She wants to be relevant to all families, regardless of their size or other leanings. I think she's going to try to market herself as a speaker for workshops out side of the homeschool world. 

[sta_sha]

6 hours ago, slickcat79 said:

I would be kind of intrigued if they moved though

I don't think Erika would have moved without posting about it. She'd want to show off how well organised the move was.

[mango_fandango]

I kinda agree with @Anonymousguest. She said before about not having enough time what with homeschooling everyone, but the kids are older now. The twins are six now, Karen's graduated. Possibly Melanie too. The kids can do more stuff independently, and if they're in school (still an if at this stage) Erika will have more time to do stuff. Wonder if she'll have time to improve her spelling and grammar. She's said previously she didn't have the time to take a course/whatever.

[December]

9 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

I think the whole purpose of the rebranding is to have a wider appeal. She wants to be relevant to all families, regardless of their size or other leanings. I think she's going to try to market herself as a speaker for workshops out side of the homeschool world. 

 

I wonder how much that indicates her own views may have changed. If she starts writing content about topics like public school dropoff/pickups without making the focus the horrors of public school or whatever, that's a tacit admission there are other acceptable ways to raise a family beyond what she's advocated for previously.

8 minutes ago, sta_sha said:

I don't think Erika would have moved without posting about it. She'd want to show off how well organised the move was.

 

So true. I mean this in a totally not snarky way, I'd actually be fascinated to read that hypothetical blog post.

[usmcmom]

If Erika plans to inform us the best way to schedule around public school, I really hope she has her kids in public school. I would never presume to tell a homeschooling mother how to schedule her day. As a public school mom, I would have been a little miffed if someone tried to tell me how to manage my time around my kids' schedule when she does not have that specific issue to deal with. 

Erika has never had to manage multiple activity schedules, parent teacher conferences, picking up a sick child in the middle of a busy day, complying with multiple class requirements and homework assignments/deadlines. I really don't see how/why she would address public school if her family is not actually IN public school. 

Having said that, IF she has sent her kids to school, I think she will receive a lot of support from this forum. It is rare to see a fundie family change their ways and be open about the reasons why. If she relates this possible change well (and I think she will), she might lose a few followers but gain several new ones. I am so eager to read about this. 

Please hurry, Erika!  The suspense is killing me. 

[sta_sha]

20 minutes ago, December said:

I'd actually be fascinated to read that hypothetical blog post.

Same. Erika is nuts, but some of her organising tips aren't bad at all.

[seasonsoflife]

On 1/9/2017 at 1:21 PM, MakeitSew said:

Is he really selling products that have photographs of his own kids? I find that a little creepy and disturbing. 

My hope is that he has just uploaded these photos as a sample of his work and that he doesn't intend for strangers to buy pictures of his kids. . .but it looks like anyone can go there and order stuff with a smiling face of his daughter printed on it. 

 

You can actually buy pictures of the kids.This is so disturbing.

[Hisey]

On 1/9/2017 at 10:49 AM, alexandracabot said:

This site has been up for a while. I don't think he realizes that he's selling the option to get miniskirts with his daughters' faces on it, it's just a photography portfolio.

Really? How can he not know that? It was obvious to me at a brief glance.

It's beyond creepy. What if someone contacts him with a request like, "I liked the photo of Karen at age 12, do you have one a little older?" or "Do you have one of those twin babies as toddlers?" Wouldn't even he be squicked out then? This is the man who wouldn't let his girls wear perfume because of "phenomes"?

3 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

I kinda agree with @Anonymousguest. She said before about not having enough time what with homeschooling everyone, but the kids are older now. The twins are six now, Karen's graduated. Possibly Melanie too. The kids can do more stuff independently, and if they're in school (still an if at this stage) Erika will have more time to do stuff. Wonder if she'll have time to improve her spelling and grammar. She's said previously she didn't have the time to take a course/whatever.

I kind of wonder if they planned this all along. The twins have only recently been old enough for all-day school. There would've been no sense in putting some of the kids in public school--Erika still wouldn't want to go to work with twin babies at home. Perhaps she waited till they were all school-age, till she could begin her "career" of being a speaker-about-godly-organization?

Or maybe Bob said, "Erika, we are desperately poor. Your homeschooling is not all that great. All the kids are old enough for school and we need the money. Let's put them on the bus in September and find something for you to do to help out."

[OldFadedStar]

The kids are in public school!!!!

 

read latest blog 

[FunFunFundie]

26 minutes ago, OldFadedStar said:

The kids are in public school!!!!

 

read latest blog 

And Erika isn't working! She's ... spending six hours prepping dinner so that when the kids come home they can do all the housework.

[JillyO]

Here is the blog post so everyone doesn't have to go looking for it: http://familylivingonpurpose.com/2017/01/a-public-school-stay-at-home-mom-time-management/

Holy Christ on a cracker. I can't believe the kids are actually in government school!!! I really wish Erika had explained why, especially since money doesn't seem have been the issue (Erika didn't start working, not even from home). But all we get for now is this:

Quote

Over the course of the past 18 months I have had a number of circumstances converge and we had to make some changes including not homeschooling for now. I’m not going to go in to details at this time, but this has been one of the biggest changes of my life. And it has been a very good decision for our family. *smile*

Dying from curiosity as to what happened in the Shupe world to bring about this huge change, but very happy for the kids either way!

[mango_fandango]

I don't think it's money based either really. She said before that she bought curriculum once and re used it for the next child. And so on.

I wonder how she's going to deal with all this new stuff the kids will be learning. Washington is a fairly liberal state, right? They don't teach creationism in the schools do they? Erika will probably brush it off by saying "oh, that's what some people believe, but it's wrong" or whatever. But still, they will likely be exposed to it. That and competitive sports...