Dillards 55: Selling the High Life

[HarleyQuinn]

5 hours ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

I'm so disappointed in  Derrick! He went to a major university, had a real career and then went to pieces.  Does anyone else wonder just what happened in Sintral America that seems to have totally changed them? Or is it just JB controlling everything. He struck me more like a Christian Peace Corps Volunteer when they met. I think now he's just not "right" if you know what I mean....

Maybe that rumor of him having a side piece in CA was true (thanks, reddit!)

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, artdecades said:

Could he even do that at this point? It’s been years since he worked in the field he was trained for. He barely lasted a year (if that I don’t remember) doing that work. He would be competing with fresh grads for entry level work. 

It's a pretty solid job market. He should be able to secure an entry level position. It might not be in NWA, but somewhere in America there is a job for him.

[HarleyQuinn]

And there are so many wrong things in that IG post. dWRECK's shirt, Sam crammed into his car seat. #besthubbyever.

They're just cringeworthy.

[VelociRapture]

1 hour ago, artdecades said:

Could he even do that at this point? It’s been years since he worked in the field he was trained for. He barely lasted a year (if that I don’t remember) doing that work. He would be competing with fresh grads for entry level work. 

He was with Walmart for 15-16 months. 

And I agree with @SassyPants. He’d likely be fine if he wanted to return to that field. His social media habit may give him more trouble then how long he’s been away from Accounting.

3 hours ago, Ralar said:

None of us know what Derick was like before he met Jill. Sure he graduated from a university, but then he ran off to Nepal to be a "missionary." I think we wanted him to have his act together so Jill could escape from the cult, but that was just hoping.  Looking back, he never had high aspirations. If he had, he would have completed the requirements to become a CPA, not settle for a BA in Accounting without the real-deal accounting credential. So instead he ran off to Nepal, started corresponding with JimBoob, and finally courting and marrying Jill. Somewhere along the way, his mother got him in the door at WalMart and he worked there until he was able to save a little TLC money and then quit to resume his fake missionary activities. What exactly has HE accomplished since graduating from college, than than breeding? 

Not everyone wants to become a CPA. I had a Great-Uncle who refused to go for his because he didn’t want to and didn’t think he’d make a good boss. It drove my Grandpa crazy, but it was his brother’s choice and he was happy with it. 

Not to mention that becoming a CPA is really tough. My husband earned his about seven years ago now and I saw firsthand all the work required - 30 additional credits in Accounting on top of your Bachelor of Science degree, 2 years working under the direct supervision of a CPA, passing all four parts of the CPA exam (which is extremely difficult) within a set period of time... it’s absolutely not a career path right for everyone and many people have pretty fantastic careers and lives without earning it. 

(I don’t even know how useful becoming a CPA would have been if Derick was interested in corporate accounting rather than public, as many CPAs work in public accounting. An MBA might have been a better choice in that case, but even then office work isn’t right for everyone.)

[SassyPants]

3 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

He was with Walmart for 15-16 months. 

And I agree with @SassyPants. He’d likely be fine if he wanted to return to that field. His social media habit may give him more trouble then how long he’s been away from Accounting.

Not everyone wants to become a CPA. I had a Great-Uncle who refused to go for his because he didn’t want to and didn’t think he’d make a good boss. It drove my Grandpa crazy, but it was his brother’s choice and he was happy with it. 

Not to mention that becoming a CPA is really tough. My husband earned his about seven years ago now and I saw firsthand all the work required - 30 additional credits in Accounting on top of your Bachelor of Science degree, 2 years working under the direct supervision of a CPA, passing all four parts of the CPA exam (which is extremely difficult) within a set period of time... it’s absolutely not a career path right for everyone and many people have pretty fantastic careers and lives without earning it. 

(I don’t even know how useful becoming a CPA would have been if Derick was interested in corporate accounting rather than public, as many CPAs work in public accounting. An MBA might have been a better choice in that case, but even then office work isn’t right for everyone.)

I think the Dillards overall lack of discipline and Jill's apparent neediness would be his biggest hurdles. 

Beyond their horrible beliefs, their "our way is better" mantra, despite the fact that their way is basically doing nothing for themselves and sticking their hands out for donations such that others are providing for them-

It is so irritating and non-sensical.

[Audrey2]

I wonder how Derick settled on accounting. One version goes like this:

Derick: I really want to be a missionary and travel to exotic places. I'd love to major in religion or geography.

Cathy: You need to have something to fall back on. I work for Wal-Mart and the corporate office can always use accountants. If you want me to help pay for college, you need to major in something practical.

Or, possibly something like this.

Derick: I like math and thought an accounting degree would be a good connection, but, after working as an accountant, I've discovered that I hate being an accountant. I wish I had majored in something I liked better.

(This happened to my best friend from high school. She liked math, but didn't discover until student teaching how much she loathed teaching.)

With all of this said, I completely agree that Derick needs a job which he can support his family on. He needs to find one (Derick, by the way, the missionary/ministry doesn't seem  like a successful fit, either).

I've had the job that kept me up most of Sunday night, vomiting, in dread of another week starting Monday morning.

[Don'tlikekoolaid]

On April 8, 2018 at 1:00 PM, Million Children For Jesus said:

Oh gosh, no, I didn’t mean hallucinations. I meant a meltdown. 

To bad Derek isn't just a hallucination!

 

 

[Kittikatz]

I agree that Derick was probably always a bit of a prat, but has gotten worse as he's realized that his life decisions have resulted in something less than rosy. I also think that he and Jill got caught up in the idea of a 'godly' romance, and didn't really get to know eachother until after they married. It wouldn't be surprising if one or both of them found they wound up with someone they weren't all that compatible with. 

That said, I think something went very wrong with Derick when the molestation came out. He wasn't at that awkward chat session during last 19 kids and counting where you could cut the tension with a knife and Ben looked like he wanted to punch Josh, and it's all been downhill from there. It may just be coincidental timing, but it stuck out for me.

[just_ordinary]

I think Derick grew into someone who needs lots of praise, validation and attention to cope with his fathers death. “Losing” your family (as it was before) can be really unsettling and might leave you tumbling through life. Lots of families kind of freeze and don’t develop coping mechanisms for years. 

And then the Duggars show up. A happy family with parents who adore each other and close siblings who care for each other and have lots of fun together. And all this because they are devoted Christians. I can absolutely relate why Derick wanted desperately to be part of this picture. 

Fast forward: the Duggar family showed its true colours. Highly dysfunctional with lots of dirty secrets suddenly in bright light for everyone to see. His own little family didn’t come as easily as expected with two complicated births and his wife is equally needy plus really depending on her family’s validation.

He seems to be bitter and I believe he feels betrayed, that everyone and everything treated him unfair and that he deserves more. Personal traumas can bring out and reinforce the bad character traits that you are normally in control of.

While this is my explanation for this big clusterfuck, this is no excuse for his behaviour. At one point you should be able to see that the universe gave you tough shit to deal with but you have to keep going. He is responsible for his actions. The worst part is that he isn’t alone on this downwards spiral. I really feel for the little boys.

[MarblesMom]

4 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

He was with Walmart for 15-16 months. 

Are we sure he was laid off, as happens often at corporate, or he resigned?

[Ivycoveredtower]

10 minutes ago, MarblesMom said:

Are we sure he was laid off, as happens often at corporate, or he resigned?

from what I could find. (Mind these were from a few sketchy gossip rags) it sounds like he quite on his own and that if 19 kids had continued and not been scraped and then turned into counting on we would have seen footage of him telling JIm Bob and Michelle that they were leaving for the missonary. as it had already been filmed before the scandal broke. 

[Dandruff]

32 minutes ago, just_ordinary said:

He seems to be bitter and I believe he feels betrayed, that everyone and everything treated him unfair and that he deserves more. Personal traumas can bring out and reinforce the bad character traits that you are normally in control of.

I agree.  One scenario I'm considering is that he was essentially OK (functionally, anyhow) until his father died, he unraveled afterward, tried to "find himself" in Nepal, then gambled his future on Jim Bob & Co and it was not a good idea.  I think he's now seething with resentment, wants to pull out what he considers to be at least a moral win, but has ended up in hotter water following his tweets about Jazz, etc.  He strikes me as one of those people who just won't stop trying to force their point, regardless of the cost.

[Ivycoveredtower]

8 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

I agree.  One scenario I'm considering is that he was essentially OK (functionally, anyhow) until his father died, he unraveled afterward, tried to "find himself" in Nepal, then gambled his future on Jim Bob & Co and it was not a good idea.  I think he's now seething with resentment, wants to pull out what he considers to be at least a moral win, but has ended up in hotter water following his tweets about Jazz, etc.  He strikes me as one of those people who just won't stop trying to force their point, regardless of the cost.

and then he just made himself look like an even bigger jack ass idiot by claiming he quit Counting on and was never paid and oh yeah none of his family would be on anymore. proven wrong by the fact that Jill was in a few episodes even the freshly filmed Gideon birth episode. 

[Bad Wolf]

I wondered if Wal-Mart let him go because he was taking time off to film. I would not have been happy if I were his co worker.

[marmalade]

Derick claims in the bio on the new website that he told his boss in May 2015 that he would be leaving to do missions. Whether this is true or not, it's his story, and he's sticking to it. 

[nastyhobbitses]

59 minutes ago, marmalade said:

Derick claims in the bio on the new website that he told his boss in May 2015 that he would be leaving to do missions. Whether this is true or not, it's his story, and he's sticking to it. 

Given how much of an asshole Derick seems to be, I wonder how many fist-pumps and exultations his boss and co-workers had to suppress until he left. 

[PainfullyAware]

My husband has a friend who became an accountant for a church in our area. I've always wondered why Derick didn't find a similar opportunity. I'm sure he can find a church or faith organization that shares his worldview. That would give some stability financially to his family. You could probably even find somewhere that would let you be an accountant by day and Ministry Outreach volunteer coordinator by night, as it were. 

[SweetJuly]

14 minutes ago, PainfullyAware said:

My husband has a friend who became an accountant for a church in our area. I've always wondered why Derick didn't find a similar opportunity. I'm sure he can find a church or faith organization that shares his worldview. That would give some stability financially to his family. You could probably even find somewhere that would let you be an accountant by day and Ministry Outreach volunteer coordinator by night, as it were. 

This was brought up before on a Dillard thread, and the general consensus was that this is a far too mature, down-to-earth and strenuous decision to ever be expected from Derick. Or Jill, for that matter.

[HarleyQuinn]

7 hours ago, marmalade said:

Derick claims in the bio on the new website that he told his boss in May 2015 that he would be leaving to do missions. Whether this is true or not, it's his story, and he's sticking to it. 

Didn't Pickles actually email his walmart address at one point and get his out of office around this time? 

[SapphireSlytherin]

6 minutes ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Didn't Pickles actually email his walmart address at one point and get his out of office around this time? 

Whattt? What in the world was she thinking?

[HarleyQuinn]

33 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Whattt? What in the world was she thinking?

I can't remember if she did it or if someone on her fb page did. I remember someone doing it though. 

[Glasgowghirl]

I think both Jill and Derick thought marriage would work out different for them both. Derick thought he could leave his job and make it as a missionary and still be on TLC, since Joshgate 1 the show has changed and it is not as popular as it once was. Derick has had a lot to deal with in the past few years and if he wasn't such an ass, I would probably feel sorry for him, losing his dad and his mum having cancer must have been horrible for him and I still sympathise with in that sense but he is ignoring what is best for Jill and his sons by still pursuing being a missionary. He should go back to being an accountant until at least the boys are older, he could still do the missoncations that the Duggar's do for a few weeks for now. Jill may not be my favourite person but I can't help feel for her.

[SassyPants]

Derrick's biggest downfall is his immaturity. He acts (reacts really) like a 14 YO. In this regard, he meshes well with the Duggars. How the heck did he make it through college, away from his mother? Isn't Jeremy about 18 months older than Derrick? Jeremy is a man, while DD presents as a whiney teen. In many ways, DD presents worse than Josh. Cathy is no JB Duggar. Even 22 YO Ben is head and shoulders more mature than DD-

5 minutes ago, Glasgowghirl said:

I think both Jill and Derick thought marriage would work out different for them both. Derick thought he could leave his job and make it as a missionary and still be on TLC, since Joshgate 1 the show has changed and it is not as popular as it once was. Derick has had a lot to deal with in the past few years and if he wasn't such an ass, I would probably feel sorry for him, losing his dad and his mum having cancer must have been horrible for him and I still sympathise with in that sense but he is ignoring what is best for Jill and his sons by still pursuing being a missionary. He should go back to being an accountant until at least the boys are older, he could still do the missoncations that the Duggar's do for a few weeks for now. Jill may not be my favourite person but I can't help feel for her.

I really do not believe that DD has the maturity level to make that sort of family centric decision at this time.

[Ivycoveredtower]

I wonder if Jill is regretting following Derick to CO now. If she had been home she and the boys  could have went with her family to Jinger's. instead she was stuck alone for long periods of time and walking over an hour to Chick fila 

[IReallyAmHopewell]

8 hours ago, PainfullyAware said:

My husband has a friend who became an accountant for a church in our area. I've always wondered why Derick didn't find a similar opportunity. I'm sure he can find a church or faith organization that shares his worldview. That would give some stability financially to his family. You could probably even find somewhere that would let you be an accountant by day and Ministry Outreach volunteer coordinator by night, as it were. 

 

Don't be the farm on that--at least not on one big enough to pay an accountant a real salary. Most churches--even VERY conservative ones are fine with birth control these days--even if they are anti-abortion. And, most have some divorced folks and wives who work--even if it is a home day care.  And the homeschoolers aren't all isolationists either. Many go to college even from very conservative churches.   The Gothard Crew are WAY, WAY out there.