Anna and the M-kids, Part 8

[season of life]

Honestly? JB strikes me as the type to hide shady actions and terrible deeds. He didn't get Josh legit help and put all his energy into protecting the Duggars' reputation. 

 

[Denim Jumper]

19 hours ago, season of life said:

Honestly? JB strikes me as the type to hide shady actions and terrible deeds. He didn't get Josh legit help and put all his energy into protecting the Duggars' reputation. 

 

Oh, I do believe they're shady now about the whole thing, with trying to rewrite history in the Megan Kelly interview, and refusing to believe they dropped the ball. But I think *at the time* they very likely thought they got him legit help and handled the matter in a godly, Gothard-approved way. 

[FleeJanaFree]

I don't really get that story about Anna not knowing what sex was until right before her marriage. Uh, what? Where didn't she think babies come from? How was her period explained? 

 

It seems too crazy to be real.

[Pasta]

I know no one wants to see smuggar on the tv or anything, but I'd like to have an update on Anna and the kiddos.  What are they up to? How do they spend their days? 

[Carm_88]

On 1/9/2017 at 1:27 AM, Pasta said:

I know no one wants to see smuggar on the tv or anything, but I'd like to have an update on Anna and the kiddos.  What are they up to? How do they spend their days? 

At the TTH under JB's thumb and watchful eye. 

(I'd imagine anyway) 

[BabyBottlePop]

On January 8, 2017 at 7:58 PM, FleeJanaFree said:

I don't really get that story about Anna not knowing what sex was until right before her marriage. Uh, what? Where didn't she think babies come from? How was her period explained? 

 

It seems too crazy to be real.

I mean she obviously had to have understood the birthing side of it, right? Was Anna present at one of her mom's labours?

When I was a child I thought that you had to lay together on top of each other naked and that's how you made a baby. My younger brother thought making out made a baby and the egg formed in the mom's saliva and traveled down to her belly! I mean, Anna probably knew something had to happen, maybe just not the real logistics.

[Jana814]

7 minutes ago, BabyBottlePop said:

I mean she obviously had to have understood the birthing side of it, right? Was Anna present at one of her mom's labours?

When I was a child I thought that you had to lay together on top of each other naked and that's how you made a baby. My younger brother thought making out made a baby and the egg formed in the mom's saliva and traveled down to her belly! I mean, Anna probably knew something had to happen, maybe just not the real logistics.

I'm sure she knew something. I highly doubt that her parents told her much. 

[snickers34]

On 1/8/2017 at 10:57 PM, Pasta said:

I know no one wants to see smuggar on the tv or anything, but I'd like to have an update on Anna and the kiddos.  What are they up to? How do they spend their days? 

You know, this speaks to one of the things that first made me watch this show that it's clearly lacking in the past few years - just the mundane stuff. I'm such a voyeur, but I think a lot of people are. Watching crazy fundies do things in their crazy fundie ways was interesting in that boring reality show way. It's become sooo much more scripted in the past few years.

[UnicornHunter]

On 1/8/2017 at 7:57 PM, Pasta said:

I know no one wants to see smuggar on the tv or anything, but I'd like to have an update on Anna and the kiddos.  What are they up to? How do they spend their days? 

Yep. I keep hoping to see more of her. I don't know why but she fascinates me so much. Maybe the idea of seeing how she handles being a "single mom" raising all those young kids.

[MadeItOut]

On 12/01/2017 at 5:50 AM, UnicornHunter said:

Yep. I keep hoping to see more of her. I don't know why but she fascinates me so much. Maybe the idea of seeing how she handles being a "single mom" raising all those young kids.

Mr MIO asked me a while ago why I keep half an eye to the younger 18 and Anna and her kids. I honestly think it's some kind of weird survival guilt or something.

[Mela99]

On 1/8/2017 at 7:58 PM, FleeJanaFree said:

I don't really get that story about Anna not knowing what sex was until right before her marriage. Uh, what? Where didn't she think babies come from? How was her period explained? 

 

It seems too crazy to be real.

Someone needs to fill me in. Anna SAID that? She had no idea until right before she got married? I suppose that's not totally out of the realm of possibility -- I've heard stories of Mormon girls freaking out when it was explained what they were expected to do .

[Cleopatra7]

8 minutes ago, Mela99 said:

Someone needs to fill me in. Anna SAID that? She had no idea until right before she got married? I suppose that's not totally out of the realm of possibility -- I've heard stories of Mormon girls freaking out when it was explained what they were expected to do .

I've read sociological studies of Hasidic Jewish sects, and parents in these groups only tell their adult children about sex on the day before they get married (I remember reading about one young man who threw up when learning about what he was supposed to do). Since many fundie groups, regardless of religious affiliation, are suspicious of sex at heart, fostering sexual ignorance in young people is probably seen as a way to prevent problems. Of course, as Josh's bad example shows, ignorance is not bliss and sexual abuse can happen in the most pious homes.

[Meridae]

Let me get this straight.

The whole deal about fundies is their stance on the sexual; i.e. separating opposite sex siblings, forbidding opposite sex friends, having "buddies" go out with couples on dates, modest clothes for both genders, looking down upon sex outside of marriage, etc, but these kids don't actually know what sex even IS until a FEW DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING???

The lack of logic absolutely astounds me. They don't even fully understand what all these "protections" are supposed to be keeping them safe from!

[VeganCupcake]

On January 10, 2017 at 10:21 PM, snickers34 said:

You know, this speaks to one of the things that first made me watch this show that it's clearly lacking in the past few years - just the mundane stuff. I'm such a voyeur, but I think a lot of people are. Watching crazy fundies do things in their crazy fundie ways was interesting in that boring reality show way. It's become sooo much more scripted in the past few years.

I would like to see the process of how they go into their industrial kitchen and make dinner for 20. But that's never been shown. My guess is they eat a lot of craft services and delivery, otherwise the kids just grab their own random snacks. In the first special the daughter nannies were shown actually cooking tatertot casserole and setting up salad, etc. 

[Marly]

I once read a story about a German fundy couple who ended up at a fertility clinic because after six months of marriage they still hadn't conceived. Then, after the doctor had asked them how many times a week they generally had intercourse, it turned out that they were not aware of the idea of sex: they didn't know how to do it, and they didn't know it was necessary to conceive a child. They had never been told about it.
I'm still not sure if this story is 100% true, but I remember reading it in a, normally, trustworthy newspaper.

Still, I find it very hard to imagine that there are adults who are completely ignorant of sex and reproduction. I mean, I would think that even homeschooling programs need to conform to a certain standard, and teach about the workings of the human body? Even if they don't talk about body parts being used for sex, or biology being taught co-ed, I'd assume they have a lesson program for teenage girls that tells them about their period (the function of it etc.) and that they develop breasts to breastfead etc. - in other words,  that educates them about the reproductive functions of their body, especially considering the importance they ascribe to that function. And something similar for boys, that explains them getting erections and having wet dreams. 
So, even if they don't address sex as such, wouldn't teenagers at some point be told about the practical functions of the workings of their bodies?

I might be extremely naive in this, and underestimate the power of the fundy world in the USA. In my country education is very strictly regulated, and all teaching programs have to conform to a secular, state regulated norm. To ensure that fundy schools adhere to this norm as well, reproduction and the human body entail 50% of the state biology exam. This exam is mandatory for every school, and every exam is graded by a second supervisor who has no ties to the school that gave the exam nor to the student that took the exam.

[choralcrusader8613]

6 hours ago, Marly said:

I might be extremely naive in this, and underestimate the power of the fundy world in the USA. In my country education is very strictly regulated, and all teaching programs have to conform to a secular, state regulated norm. To ensure that fundy schools adhere to this norm as well, reproduction and the human body entail 50% of the state biology exam. This exam is mandatory for every school, and every exam is graded by a second supervisor who has no ties to the school that gave the exam nor to the student that took the exam.

Homeschooling in the US is not nearly as regulated, and what regulations parents have to adhere to is largely dependent on the state you live in, which results in about 50 different levels/versions of homeschooling standards. I wasn't homeschooled, so I'm not aware of all the ins and outs of homeschooling laws, even in my state.

[BabyBottlePop]

On January 23, 2017 at 0:38 AM, Meridae said:

Let me get this straight.

The whole deal about fundies is their stance on the sexual; i.e. separating opposite sex siblings, forbidding opposite sex friends, having "buddies" go out with couples on dates, modest clothes for both genders, looking down upon sex outside of marriage, etc, but these kids don't actually know what sex even IS until a FEW DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING???

The lack of logic absolutely astounds me. They don't even fully understand what all these "protections" are supposed to be keeping them safe from!

It makes me think of the movie The Blue Lagoon. Two kids stranded on a tropical island. Know nothing about sex. Puberty hits and they still figure it out. It's portrayed as this beautiful thing, like they're still innocent even though they've had sex. Almost like Adam and Eve, before the fall. I guess fundies think the less their children know the more "specshul" they'll be but it just makes a breeding ground for abuse.

[raisingthebarre94]

Hollywood Life is reporting that Anna is talking to a lawyer about divorce. Anyone think this is actually possible?

[DaniLouisiana]

Re:Homeschooling

In the district/county I live in you must arrange either with a private school system or your school district's homeschool program to have a teacher supervise and plan your child's curriculum.  You do not have any freedom with the district program to deviate from their program, even if you disagree with it. Private programs offer more choice/freedom.You do have, however, more choice in regards to foreign languages-anything Rosetta Stone offers, the district will pay for-I had one take a year of German and a year of French and the other took 2 yrs of Japanese. With both, you still have to do all the standardized tests.

[Iamtheway]

If you don't know how sex works, you really need a buddy at all time or you might end up having it and not even know ...

[Jana814]

4 hours ago, raisingthebarre94 said:

Hollywood Life is reporting that Anna is talking to a lawyer about divorce. Anyone think this is actually possible?

I don't think that is true. But I can hope she is talking to one. 

[LadyCrow1313]

53 minutes ago, Jana814 said:

I don't think that is true. But I can hope she is talking to one. 

You and the rest of us. Plus, if it is true, I hope that she doesn't get shunned by the rest of the Duggars & also has an adequate support system. Divorce is hard enough, regardless of the life situation that the people are in.

[JermajestyDuggar]

Michael Bates looked it up in the dictionary. Which doesn't surprise me at all. Plus the Bateses have horses. When you are around horses of opposite sex, you figure out what sex is pretty quickly. 

[Dandruff]

Anna worked in her father's prison ministry before marrying Joshley.  I'm sure she had *some* information before her mom gave her the talk.

[Carm_88]

Do the Anna is talking to a lawyer and getting a divorce rumours just circulate? Do they keep mentioning it, in hopes that one day they may be right?