Mills family from youtube

[Palimpsest]

15 minutes ago, JMarie said:

But she's wearing glasses in her videos!  Does she get to go to an eye doctor, or did she make her glasses herself?

She said she only gets her eyes checked when her drivers license needs renewing. 

[Palimpsest]

22 hours ago, Tekas_76 said:

Hi! Does somebody else thought that it was creepy that Judah got a gas mask as a birthday present, as well as Asher? And he was saying "all I need is a gas mask". I wonder how the neighbors will feel seeing them walking around with those masks on... And no birthday party, no cake, nothing? Poor kid...

Hi and to Free Jinger.

I obviously need to watch more videos because I haven't seen that one yet.  Although it is possible that with all those 5 boys in one 10' x 13' bedroom, they may wear gas masks to bed.

22 hours ago, Tekas_76 said:

When they say that they hope that every kid has 9 or 10 kids when grown up, I wonder, do they want to populate the world with Mills family members?

Pretty much.  The Quiverfull Movement believe that they are breeding arrows for the war to have Dominion over the Earth.

[feministxtian]

22 hours ago, Tekas_76 said:

Why Claudia is still wearing diapers with almost three years old... Ain't the kids supposed to do potty training after the first year, specially if the mother stays at home and doesn't have a job?

Kids get the potty thing down at different ages. I was a SAHM when my kids were smaller and they got the potty thing down between the ages of 2 and 3 and a half. The grands (that we had custody of) were the same way. In my opinion though, girls are easier than boys to train but it does take a certain amount of physical readiness to get it down. 

[imokit]

@Tekas_76 Potty training is a physical thing. No matter how much effort you put in, it won't work until the toddler is neurologically and psychologically ready.

Some kids get sooner than others.  Being in diapers at 3 does not mean bad parenting.

[melon]

17 hours ago, imokit said:

@Tekas_76 Potty training is a physical thing. No matter how much effort you put in, it won't work until the toddler is neurologically and psychologically ready.

Some kids get sooner than others.  Being in diapers at 3 does not mean bad parenting.

Absolutely. My oldest was three before he was fully potty trained,he was a heavy sleeper and wet the bed,sometimes,until he was 5.My middle son,from an early age,did not like to get dirty.He showed signs of readiness at 2.5,and was completely trained in a matter of weeks.My youngest son had to have surgery several times,starting when he was a year old.He did not show any interest at 2...in fact ,shortly before his third birthday...he could tell me which brand of diapers he wanted.I got a lot of flack from my inlaws,they told me I should spank my sons when they had an accident.That went over like a lead balloon.I refused.When,my youngest was 3,I put him in training pants and told him he was going to use the potty/toilet.He was ,by far,the easiest child to train,and was trained quickly.

[Sobeknofret]

55 minutes ago, melon said:

Absolutely. My oldest was three before he was fully potty trained,he was a heavy sleeper and wet the bed,sometimes,until he was 5.My middle son,from an early age,did not like to get dirty.He showed signs of readiness at 2.5,and was completely trained in a matter of weeks.My youngest son had to have surgery several times,starting when he was a year old.He did not show any interest at 2...in fact ,shortly before his third birthday...he could tell me which brand of diapers he wanted.I got a lot of flack from my inlaws,they told me I should spank my sons when they had an accident.That went over like a lead balloon.I refused.When,my youngest was 3,I put him in training pants and told him he was going to use the potty/toilet.He was ,by far,the easiest child to train,and was trained quickly.

Mine didn't train until he was four, but it was done in a matter of a few days, and he only had one accident in those few days. Developmentally, he just wasn't ready until then, so I think child-led training worked out well for us.

[SrMaryEloquentia]

I'm not around small kids a lot, so I have a hard time judging this, but maybe someone with more experience could heIp? I feel that the younger children, but also the pre-teen girl (Eden?) are barely inteligible when they speak. Is this age-appropriate? Or maybe SOTDRT + Isolation + mom's lisp?

[feministxtian]

9 hours ago, Sobeknofret said:

Mine didn't train until he was four, but it was done in a matter of a few days, and he only had one accident in those few days. Developmentally, he just wasn't ready until then, so I think child-led training worked out well for us.

My youngest knew what he was doing, he just wouldn't stop what he was doing long enough to get up and go to the bathroom. So...one day I left him in a nasty diaper all day (I was home and we didn't go anywhere) and went to give him a bath about 6-ish pm. Took the nasty diaper off him, bathed him and asked him what he wanted to wear as underwear. I had like 2 different little boys briefs (ninja turtles and maybe batman?), a pull up and a diaper for him to choose from. He chose the ninja turtles underwear and I told him, "wearing underwear means you're a big boy and goes potty ALL the time"...not a single accident, EVER. Easiest toilet training. 

My youngest granddaughter was almost as easy. She was 2-1/2 or so (I know it was spring and she was born in October) so I talked to their babysitter so we could work together on this. Within 3 days she was going potty like she had been born doing it. 

My daughter...oh God...that was the trip of a lifetime. She got up one morning dragging her diaper behind her saying "I'm a big girl mama, I went potty in the big-girl potty"...I was SO not ready for that. Cue up 45 minutes of arguing with a 2 year old to put SOMETHING on her bare behind so I could go buy her underwear. The promise of Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony underwear worked well...went off to K-mart, got her the underwear (which had to be put on right there and then...I did manage to get her to wait until we got in the car) and all done. 

Then there was #1 son...that was a HUGE OH HELL NO! He also wet the bed until he was probably 9 or so. 

[fundiefollower]

On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 12:04 PM, SrMaryEloquentia said:

I'm not around small kids a lot, so I have a hard time judging this, but maybe someone with more experience could heIp? I feel that the younger children, but also the pre-teen girl (Eden?) are barely inteligible when they speak. Is this age-appropriate? Or maybe SOTDRT + Isolation + mom's lisp?

Eden turned 8 a few months ago.  I think she is quite shy and that is part of what you are noticing, she doesn't like to speak up while on camera.  I guess I don't see her as barely inteligible but she does have a slightly different cadence or accent.  Solomon does have speech issues that are normal for his age - especially saying the letter R.... but that is normal until age 8 from what I've been told by SLP's.  He will turn 6 this month.  She starts the kids early in school, he is finishing 1st grade but is really the age of an average kindergartner. 

[Seculardaisy]

Wow I can’t wait to go down the rabbit hole of these videos when I leave work.

The boy’s bedroom video is the only one I’ve watched so far and wow that room is a bummer. I give them credit for creatively using the space but the colors are just so dark and dreary and something about the LEGO ceiling bums me out. I think it’s probably just that it isn’t asteticslly pleasing. I feel badly for six people having to share one room but I suppose that’s nothing new in fundie land.

[Escadora]

1 hour ago, fundiefollower said:

Eden turned 8 a few months ago.  I think she is quite shy and that is part of what you are noticing, she doesn't like to speak up while on camera.  I guess I don't see her as barely inteligible but she does have a slightly different cadence or accent.  Solomon does have speech issues that are normal for his age - especially saying the letter R.... but that is normal until age 8 from what I've been told by SLP's.  He will turn 6 this month.  She starts the kids early in school, he is finishing 1st grade but is really the age of an average kindergartner. 

Yeah, I agree here. Sometimes you can hear Eden talking off-camera and she sounds perfectly normal and enthusiastic. Like I mentioned before, I think she gets ignored or not paid as much attention to unless she's doing something Andrea can use to show what a super good awesome mom and wife Eden will be some day *sigh*. I have a soft spot for Eden. I really think she gets a rough deal in that family.

On the other hand I think Solomon is babied to an inappropriate degree, far more than Sophia and Claudia, which makes sense to me considering that I wholly believe she prefers her sons. Sophia speaks really well for her age and in comparison to Solomon,  despite being younger. But then, I might be a bit biased because I find Solomon's inflection to be a bit whiney and that annoys me in children.  He is doing better now than before, though. I think that learning to read is definitely helping him. I get that individual kids have individual problems but it can be observed that Andrea talks to them in different ways. With Sophia she makes the effort to speak to her in a normal person voice, where Solomon gets a super smooth calm 'talking to a delicate child' voice. I think it's a parent created problem.  Similar to the Ardnt family, now that I think of it.

Now that Claudia's starting to be more verbal I also think she's quite good at words and sentences and pronunciation, but it'll be interesting to see in a year or two where they all are or if Hannah has any speech difficulties.

Edited June 4, 2018 by Escadora
grumbles about autocorrect

[tankgirl]

On 6/1/2018 at 7:07 PM, fundiefollower said:

I don't know about the gas mask - maybe he thinks its cool from a video game.  I can't remember which boy but one got a "Lucielle" bat for his b-day - like the one in The Walking Dead, I think it may have been Asher or Judah. They stop doing a themed party and cake when the child turns 13.  The birthday kid still gets to choose where or what they have for dinner on their birthday and they still get gifts from parents/family.  I think this is a common thing, most families have an age where they stop b-day parties and stuff.  The age may vary from family to family but I think 13 seems ok to stop throwing the kind of over-the-top parties Andrea has for her little kids.  I don't see why they have to stop having a cake but like you said they eat PLENTY of sweets all the time so no big loss there. 

Hannah seems like a normal baby to me, roots when her cheek is touched, reacts to moms voice.  She is exposed to constant noise so that may reflect in her noise response vs a baby in a quieter home.

I don't think potty-training is an issue to be concerned about with Claudia.  When Andrea potty trained Sophia she talked about waiting until the child was really ready and then going at it aggressively.  Most kids are not fully trained until around age 3, that's considered developmentally normal, or at least it was when my 11 year old was going through that stage.  Yes, we all know some super-baby who was fully trained at 15 months or something but that is more of the exception vs the norm.  I don't think being a stay at home mom has anything to do when a child is developmentally ready to potty train.  Quick search shows babycenter says most parents start potty training between age 2-3 and only a small percentage are trained by 24 months. 

Off topic totally, but those 15 month old babies used to be the norm. At the turn of the last century, I believe it was 60% were trained before 14 months, partially due to Freud, and a few others, parents waited, but until the 1970's 70% of children were potty trained by 18 months. As disposables were not only introduced, but became more absorbent and more frequently used, the age slid upwards. In the last 30 years the age has increased with children not even starting training, till past the expected age to be finished in previous decades. The standard age has jumped quite a bit further in the last 15 years and now expected age to be done in Western cultures is closer to 3 years or older.

 

Basically, this is why one generation remembers babies out of nappies/diapers earlier, the babies weren't super, it was just that parents reacted when babies  hit the earlier windows for readiness. So its a matter of generational bias,  not rarity of what the children of the past could do, vs modern children.

 

I fell down a rabbithole on this topic recently and the psychology debates (many now have been laid aside as incorrect) and then the invention of wall to wall carpeting, and how alongside disposable nappies/diapers it increased the age to wait to potty train, within the culture, were really interesting, ok I found them interesting lol. 

 

So not currently abnormal at all she is still not potty trained.

[brotherhusbandsgalore]

Everyone was talking earlier about the girls being allowed to wear pants, but I wonder if they'd be allowed to wear pants if they didn't have so many older boys handing those down.

I just watched their video on their wedding, and I just never stop feeling creeped out by Tom. He seldom even looks at Andrea, and she has her arm around him occasionally rubbing his back the whole time they're talking, but he sits there pretty limply in response. He starts interacting more after a few minutes, but the beginning is sooo uncomfortable. Go to 5:35 to see what hot young Andrea looks like.

In one of their most recent videos, they decided to post the family rules up on a door. Still no apparent schedule when it comes to school days, just a vague rule about the kids' responsibility for accurately recording school work. Andrea claims that now the rules are posted Thomas does his work in the morning instead of "sleeping away half the day." Later in the video we got to see Tom bring home takeout enchiladas while the kids eat bags of chips and Claudia gnaws on a block of cheese. Tom was nice enough to bring Andrea home some salsa- just what I know I'd ask my husband to bring home if he was stopping by a mexican restaurant for dinner without me!

If anyone wants to check out Tom's channel there's plenty of fresh material. My favorite so far is the five hour long video where he goes to a board game store and livestreams himself and the oldest boy playing dungeons and dragons for 5 hours. He even has a special briefcase dedicated to all his DnD supplies.

Don't get me wrong- parents should absolutely get a day off now and then. And I don't think there's anything wrong with having hobbies, but I have a feeling he takes Thomas with him to justify it as "family time" and so it doesn't count as his "me time" for the month. I also Doubt Andrea ever gets an entire evening to take one older child and go do an expensive hobby she loves. (But we *do* see Andrea take ALL the kids out shopping while Tom stays home to make pizza for youtube!) Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but something about that many rubs me wrong in every way.

I don't think anyone linked the last thread, but it also has some interesting snark/observations.

 

Edit- Jesus- the kids go without glasses or dental care while this guy has an actual pizza oven, pizza pans/screens/and a peel (despite the fact the he apparently only makes pan pizza???) and he only makes one pizza at a time for the entire family?!

Edited July 13, 2018 by brotherhusbandsgalore

[FecundFundieFundus]

I just found this family and it's super bizarre... This is the first fundie family I have (surface) commonalities with and identify with. 

I looove dressing the family in coordinating outfits to the point where I may have been a Mormon mommy blogger in my previous life, we like Magic and D&D (but it's a parent date thing or a family game not my husband wandering off for hours), the little private bunks are exactly what we have planned for the kid's bedrooms in our someday RV... It always gives me a shiver how people can hide their toxic beliefs under a veneer of normalcy. 

Scheduling some rescue ferrets, I'm going in deeper...

[llucie]

So Andrea father is a convincted sex ofender (immoral and indecent acts with a minor), and she is ok with having him around her kids. I always knew there was something very wrong with this family.

[ViolaSebastian]

42 minutes ago, llucie said:

So Andrea father is a convincted sex ofender (immoral and indecent acts with a minor), and she is ok with having him around her kids. I always knew there was something very wrong with this family.

Oh wow. Where did you read this?

[llucie]

8 hours ago, ViolaSebastian said:

Oh wow. Where did you read this?

i read it in YTDM forums they put all the information there, i checked and its real.

[Gobsmacked]

Dinosaur here, what are YTDM forums?

[llucie]

1 hour ago, Gobsmacked said:

Dinosaur here, what are YTDM forums?

Aparently there is a forum where people snark on youtube channels, tbh i found it yesterday and i just searched if they had a topic about the Mills out of curiosity of what they would think in a regular forum about fundies. I was not expecting to find such info at all.

 

Edit to add: the name is YTMD sorry for the mistake

Edited August 12, 2018 by llucie
sorry for the error

[SIngingforsupper]

Yup, he is on the Wyoming sex offender registry. Lifetime registrant = not a nice man. No wonder he didn't want to be on camera. 

 

[fundiefollower]

Makes me curious if papa Gary's "incident" had anything to do with the family leaving the church they previously attended, which I believe was affiliated with the Christian school Andrea attended and briefly worked at. 

 

Not at all condoning whatever it was that he did (I also found him on the WY SO Registry) but most SO's do have Lifetime Registration requirements. 

ETA:  Is the YTMD site painfully slow for anyone else?

 

Edited August 13, 2018 by fundiefollower

[SIngingforsupper]

15 hours ago, fundiefollower said:

Makes me curious if papa Gary's "incident" had anything to do with the family leaving the church they previously attended, which I believe was affiliated with the Christian school Andrea attended and briefly worked at. 

 

Not at all condoning whatever it was that he did (I also found him on the WY SO Registry) but most SO's do have Lifetime Registration requirements. 

ETA:  Is the YTMD site painfully slow for anyone else?

 

Good point about the incident and leaving the church. In my state, Maine, some sex offenders are not lifetime registrants.  Not sure why.

The YTMD sight was painfully slow to navigate.

I have not seen Bro Gary !He is about 2 hours north of me preaching in a tiny town of 374 people!

[brotherhusbandsgalore]

I'm catching up on their vids from this summer, and so far my "favorites" are the family dinner nights.

They have a pizza night in one of the more recent vids, and goulash in another. Of course on pizza night Tom is quick to snap up the two largest pieces for his own plate and return to his seat before any of the children are even served and Andrea is the only one who bothers to cut up food for the littles. On goulash night Tom has fast food and doritos while the kids eat goulash from their cafeteria trays. In a slightly older episode (fettucini alfredo night) Tom demonstrates his inability to twirl pasta on his fork, and opts to shovel and slurp on camera.

In an even older dinner vid, Andrea and the kids are having leftovers and soup while Tom has made himself some deep dish pizza and potato chips. Bonus points for showing the kids his bag of chips, then rolling it up and putting it away without offering any to anyone else.

Every video I watch convinces me more that he's a selfish, piggish manchild who does nothing for his own kids. I wish I had the patience to really dig in to these vlogs and get more insight on what makes him tick.

[BrandoBarks]

There was a time when I was really obsessed with her channel but more in a WTF kind of way... Audio bible, unattended home births, the matching outfits and the super crammed house made me feel so uncomfortable.Andrea is acting as if she has to show everybody what a hard working homeschool mom of many she is while in reality she is not satisfied at all with how her life/marriage goes. She tries to convince everyone that her living situation is so practical and sufficient, that she really is satisfied with having a small house, few toys for the kids and everything being so jam packed with stuff but I don’t believe her. If they had the money, she would buy a bigger house and get proper healthcare in the blink of an eye. But instead oh working towards that (or kick her husband’s ass...) she’s just sugar coating and justifying everything. I unsubscribed after she anounced her last pregnancy because she was so smug and I just thought “how can she fit another child in there?!”

[brown0187]

Looks like the audio Bible is not on anymore at least when she is making videos.