Maxwell 19: Life is Still Boring

[theologygeek]

8 hours ago, anjulibai said:

For the record, Anna, Mary and Sarah all have jobs. They work for their brothers doing various mundane office duties, like book keeping and invoices. I think does some graphic design for them and Anna does some programming, and probably is the one that speaks with female customers. Someone mentioned a while back hearing that Anna went to some software conference with her brothers. I doubt these jobs pay much and I bet Steve controls their money. They probably also don't work for many hours. But likely, these jobs fill a few hours each day when they aren't babysitting their nieces and nephews, polishing the ceiling fans and reading through the Bible for the umpteenth time. 

I also think those jobs are at least part of why the girls will never marry. Not just because Steve likes them at home (and that's the main reason), but because they are free labor for their brothers, both as cheap office workers and domestic help. The brothers are all "too busy" to do simple office tasks and probably think they are above such things, but they aren't going to want to have to try to hire outside their small sphere. 

That's why I said that side jobs here and there is not full time work.  Lazy moochers. 

8 hours ago, Lgirlrocks said:

I don’t understand them. Why wouldn’t they want to promote their daughter as wonderful Christian women who became successful a successful homemaker wife and mother? Isn’t that the point to being a fundie? 

They need men to be successful wives and mothers.  I think Steve's plan blew up in his face because he's too controlling, and now this is all he has left to work with. 

8 hours ago, FloraDoraDolly said:

True, but I think most of these homeschooling parents would rather see their daughters turn out like the Bates girls, where they spend a few semesters at a Crown College type institution and then get married to the nice-looking young Christian men they meet there.

Sarah is afraid of her own shadow.  She couldn't even function at an airport.  College would put her into a full blown panic attack. 

[ophelia]

 

9 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

What I really want to know is what the hell Teri and Steve do all day, since all the chores appear scheduled for the girls. It can’t be all Bible time, praying and gnashing of teeth, surely?

Teri is probably dreaming about Pepsi and Steve is reading here. 

[johnhugh]

10 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

I think the book sales is only a small fragment of what they do, since Sarah is doing bookkeeping, Mary graphic design  and Anna IT stuff for the brothers’ companies.

How the brothers are doing well enough to need the support I have no idea - but then again, we only found out through the Bontragers that John’s irrigation business is successful enough for him to travel overseas regularly, so who the fuck knows?

What I really want to know is what the hell Teri and Steve do all day, since all the chores appear scheduled for the girls. It can’t be all Bible time, praying and gnashing of teeth, surely?

Mum and daddy time with the lord  ;-) ok I’m at an ALERT camp....

[freejugar]

this sentence is so awkward

[Ivycoveredtower]

18 minutes ago, freejugar said:

this sentence is so awkward

I wouldn't feel so good about those books knowing how the pictures were taken for the illustrator. I was going through old maxhell post and they freaking borrowed one of the neighbors cats so they could get it to run up a tree and let the dog bark at it. how cruel. 

[DooDahDame]

Would the Newberry and Caldecott Medal books be in the same category? In Maxhell, I think not. 

There's a world out there and they won't or can't acknowledge it. All of those children's lives will be severely limited just like the kidults. If Sarah's books were critiqued like the medal aspirants are,  she would be shattered. 

[Escadora]

7 minutes ago, freejugar said:

this sentence is so awkward2

What seems off about it for me is that - and maybe this is just a me thing - kids seems a lot more happy and fun and playful a word than children. Like how a childish way to say invisible would be 'see-through' and an adult is a 'grown-up', except 'children' would be the adult, grown up way to say kids. I sort of feel like it  reads as off because she's mixed the adult and the childish word for the same thing in the same sentence.  

Maybe it should have been something like: 

"Christ-honouring, children's books that you can feel good about reading to your godly offspring."

"Books for good, godly children. Not like all that feminist crap worldly parents read to their brats."

"You won't have to worry about your children developing rebellious imaginations with these books. A 2.5/10 maximum level of excitement cap on all of these books. Guaranteed!"

"The Moody Series, by Sarah Maxwell. Because kindling these days is darned expensive!"*

"The Moody series makes for perfect bedtime stories. Just be sure not to read them and operate heavy machinery at the same time!"

 

- * I kid. I don't really want the Moody books to be burned.  I'm sure these books do make for good stories for children who live in an imagination-free, and no-fun-allowed environment. And, I suppose, some fiction in a child's life must be better than none. I haven't read the series so I can't be sure whether or not the books are good. But, hey, I never claimed to be good at advertising.  

[theologygeek]

27 minutes ago, Ivycoveredtower said:

I wouldn't feel so good about those books knowing how the pictures were taken for the illustrator. I was going through old maxhell post and they freaking borrowed one of the neighbors cats so they could get it to run up a tree and let the dog bark at it. how cruel. 

You're kidding.  I missed that one.  How terrible. 

[Ivycoveredtower]

4 minutes ago, theologygeek said:

You're kidding.  I missed that one.  How terrible. 

https://blog.titus2.com/2007/01/11/behind-the-scenes-look-at-a-photo-session-for-spring/

[theologygeek]

4 minutes ago, Ivycoveredtower said:

https://blog.titus2.com/2007/01/11/behind-the-scenes-look-at-a-photo-session-for-spring/

Oh my God.  I can't believe what I just read. 

[Hane]

3 hours ago, Ivycoveredtower said:

I wouldn't feel so good about those books knowing how the pictures were taken for the illustrator. I was going through old maxhell post and they freaking borrowed one of the neighbors cats so they could get it to run up a tree and let the dog bark at it. how cruel. 

Cruel—and stupid. Did they honestly think their illustrator was incapable of imagining what a dog barking at a treed cat would look like? That always bothered me, and gave me some insight into the Maxwell mindset:  no imagination, and the assumption that no one else has any imagination either.

[Anonymousguest]

3 hours ago, Ivycoveredtower said:

https://blog.titus2.com/2007/01/11/behind-the-scenes-look-at-a-photo-session-for-spring/

WTF? Ok, so first off any illustrator could draw a cat in a tre, so the whole set up is absurd. But let's say they really need a photo of a cat in a tree. Why not just put the cat in the tree? Why have the dog chase it? 

[AliceInFundyland]

It was also cruel to keep torturing the cat by putting it in a second tree. I hope they got clawed.

[Anonymousguest]

24 minutes ago, AliceInFundyland said:

It was also cruel to keep torturing the cat by putting it in a second tree. I hope they got clawed.

I reread it, and it does say they brought the dog out again for the second photo, then put her away again to get the cat down.

[AliceInFundyland]

27 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

I reread it, and it does say they brought the dog out again for the second photo, then put her away again to get the cat down.

Yes but in my original unedited comment I was specifically calling them monsters for allowing the dog to tree her twice. The second time they staged the treeing to make it more photogenic  I try to be specific when I insult morons.

[Captain Obvious]

Another two babies, another set of photos in exactly the same style as the others.

Sarah still seems to be a far better photographer than Chris though, so there's that. 

[catlady]

Has Sarah given up on writing cohesively?  The title would make more sense if it were “Photos of the Newborn Maxwells.”  And the there’s this caption:  “This is arranging them all.”  I get that they’re using a conversational tone in the blog, but they frequently carry it a little too far. 

And why was it such a “feat” for them to get the overhead shot of Joe’s branch of the Extended Family?  

[HermioneSparrow]

Steve is missing an opportunity to make money with Sarah as a photographer, she's actually talented unlike her prissy bro.

Sometimes it seems like Steve's purpose for his family is to be mediocre at best: Mary with the mediocre graphic design, Anna's "cooking skills", Christopher's awful photography business and Sarah's terrible writing and it should be Mary the makeup artist, Anna the preschool teacher, Christopher the EMT like he wanted to be and Sarah the photographer but Steveovah seems to want his kids to be miserable and unsuccessful. 

[HereticHick]

1 hour ago, catlady said:

 

And why was it such a “feat” for them to get the overhead shot of Joe’s branch of the Extended Family?  

Exactly--Sarah, unless you were dangling from a crane above them, this was not a feat.  Oh, and I can't decide which background I hate more--the white which washes everyone out with their white shirts, or the black.

You know Chels takes pics too.  I want to see her take on these horrible pics.

[Coconutwater]

Joseph’s photos look much more relaxed and normal than Christopher’s family, less uptight and look genuinely happy his kids also (I can’t say anything about an infant) 

Sarah, Chris is not a pro at anything photography wise...

[Four is Enough]

You know, the constant "photo shoots", the blog endlessly describing their boring, mundane lives, the perfectly clean ceiling fan blades... THE SCHEDULE... it seems the Maxwells have made idols out of quite a few things...

[freethemall]

Well it's Monday, so obviously there's a new Maxwell post.

In my opinion, the most badly-written sentence in this post is:

  "This is arranging them all."

Did she mean "This is Mary arranging them all"? "This is us arranging them all"?

I almost think she's trolling us with these awful sentences. Sarah, are you reading here? Is this a cry for help?

Also with the matching white outfits this photo really reminds me of an FLDS couple (minus the sister wives) -  maybe something about Anna's hair and her dress that looks like one of the prairie dresses they wear:

[SPHASH]

Those pics are awful!  I also hate this caption: I guess we told them to look at the baby. The boys got the memo but the girls did not.  Just another slam on girls.

[nausicaa]

On 3/10/2018 at 11:33 PM, theologygeek said:

It does speak well for their brand though.  They have a specific target audience that they market to.  There are people out there who want what they have.  They don't really care about anyone else but their customers.  It's no different from any other business.  If you sold eggs, you wouldn't market your product to people who owned hens.  They market themselves as the perfect close knit Christian family.  Why do you think they wiped the failed courtships off the blog?  It's not good for business. 

I mean, according to Fundie standards, Sarah and Anna, and even Mary somewhat at this point, are "failures." They have not achieved the ultimate female goals of getting married and having children. Sarah will never have eight kids. She could still have a few, but she did not take advantage of her most fertile years the way women in their circles are encouraged to. She is living the life of the fabled "unhappy single feminist" they like to warn their daughters about. People might want what they have with their sons (diligent, obedient adults still toeing the line) but those three adult single daughters really hurt the whole marketing image. 

I imagine one of the biggest fears of Fundie parents is that their daughters never marry and become mothers. So why would they want to follow what Steve and Teri did? And why on earth would teenage girls dreaming of their wedding day want to emulate Sarah? The Bates and Duggar girls have far more cache in that area. 

We even had a Fundie on here once who mentioned that MOTH devotees had issues with Sarah never marrying and it was whispered about critically within their circles. And this was probably five years ago. I can only imagine what people are saying now.

[Melissa1977]

Joseph's family looks NORMAL and yes, talking about Maxwells, it's a compliment.