M is For Mama - where quiver full meets Pinterest

[FecundFundieFundus]

After 7 kids she thinks babies don't play? Maybe just weird phrasing, but... Side eye. 

That really is the stupidest house I've ever seen. Huge kitchen, heck yes. I hate open plan houses but okay... Then there's a homeschool room and dining room and seating for the whole family in the kitchen and a communal play room and a boy's play room and a girl's play room and a nursery and a toddler room for naps and two laundry rooms and who the fuck is going to buy this weird compound house? I would actually like to live in a spacious house someday but that's just ridiculous. All these rooms are single purpose and have duplicates that could be easily combined without any sacrifice whatsoever. 

Why can't the dining room be enlarged a little bit and combined with the school room if you eat your meals in the kitchen? Why not normal sized bedrooms with hallways and a second en suite larger "bedroom" for a play room (that will be very attractive to future buyers)? The husband has an office and workshop, is he seriously going to have two offices or is that a joke? Why don't you have "his and hers" walk in closets and use one as a nursery? Why can't the toddlers nap in their bedrooms, the nursery or your bedroom? THIS HOUSE IS JUST SO DAMN WEIRD 

[JermajestyDuggar]

47 minutes ago, PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea said:

I don't think this has been mentioned before, but I remembered her newest house has the weirdest layout of bedrooms with no halls between. She says she uses the front bedrooms (only accessible through a first bedroom) as "hangout areas" for now. I can't help thinking it's all about controlling the kids by not providing privacy. Though she assures a commentor that they only use one bedroom "for now" and have a bathroom to change in too. (How generous.)

http://misformama.net/2016/04/our-house-layout.html

 

She also brags about the symmetrical boys' and girls' wings of the house. OK, Abbie.

I’ve seen the layout and it’s rather odd. I’m sure it works for them. However it won’t work for a lot of families looking for a home in their price range. Sort of like the Duggars. I understand these large fundie families plan on staying in their large and oddly laid out homes for a long time. However they might be in for a shock when they go to sell in 10 or 20 years. 

[TuringMachine]

1 hour ago, PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea said:

She says she uses the front bedrooms (only accessible through a first bedroom) as "hangout areas" for now. I can't help thinking it's all about controlling the kids by not providing privacy. Though she assures a commentor that they only use one bedroom "for now" and have a bathroom to change in too. (How generous.)

I think you got the rooms backwards. The rooms they sleep in are in the back of the house (the top of the images) and they will have to walk through the "hang out" areas to get there.

I'm perplexed by that windowless guest room on the first floor.

I also find it curious we have yet to see a picture of the boys wing. Especially since we pretty much never saw the boys room in the old house.

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

Maybe I'm a creepy stalker but I put Tyler, TX into Zillow to see what housing prices are like. (I believe Abbie lives outside the town somewhere; I didn't stalk enough to find her specific house.) There are some McMansions in town for over a million but most houses, even large ones, are well below $500k. Maybe she pulled it off furnished.

 

@TuringMachine: Thanks! Yup, I remembered it backwards, checked, and failed to edit properly. The bedroom is in the back, hang out area in the front. Still weird, and she is clear that the front room may one day also be used as a bedroom (assuming she has eleventy more kids, I guess).

[AmazonGrace]

I don't understand the teensy weensy little spaces called "office" near the workshop.

[FecundFundieFundus]

2 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

I don't understand the teensy weensy little spaces called "office" near the workshop.

Those are mislabeled closets

[FilleMondaine]

9 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’m actually a downsizing advocate in real life. People probably know not to get me talking about it because I’ll talk your ear off. My personal opinion is that more people could live happier lives if they sold their large homes, got rid of a lot of useless stuff, and downsized to a smaller, more affordable home. I’m not a fan of tiny houses because I find extremes to not work for most people in the long run. However I think smaller homes would benefit a lot of families yet they don’t realize it. A smaller mortgage and smaller heating/cooling bills can relieve so much financial stress on a family. So many people buy the biggest house for the top of their price range. Then they end up with a huge mortgage they can pay every month, but doesn’t leave a lot for extras (like vacation). And if you look at a lot of large houses, they often have rooms that are barely used. Why have a guest room if it’s only used twice a year? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to offer to pay for your visitors at a cute B&B or hotel twice a year? Why have a formal dining room if you only use it once a year at thanksgiving? 

People need to look at how they REALLY live and get rid of all the extra space. Over the last decade I’ve had to really work to change my mindset on how I view a home. I used to think I needed all those things that everyone else thinks they need. But I realized that we live just fine in our small home and the smaller mortgage is more of a benefit than and extra room in our home. Plus I hate moving. So fuck that noise ?

I love all of this. Love it or List it is my favorite show--I don't care how "fake" the final decision is. (For those new to this idea: A family decides between a new turn-key home, or the results from a designer who re-fashions their previous home by taking down walls, making it more usable, etc) I think it is so cool to celebrate a home used wisely. Currently, we are in a too-big home due to us truly needing an architectural aspect of this home. It will all be ok, we will move in a couple of years, etc. How cool to use a home properly, though. 

[Snarkasarus Rex]

8 hours ago, PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea said:

I don't think this has been mentioned before, but I remembered her newest house has the weirdest layout of bedrooms with no halls between. She says she uses the front bedrooms (only accessible through a first bedroom) as "hangout areas" for now. I can't help thinking it's all about controlling the kids by not providing privacy. Though she assures a commentor that they only use one bedroom "for now" and have a bathroom to change in too. (How generous.)

http://misformama.net/2016/04/our-house-layout.html

 

She also brags about the symmetrical boys' and girls' wings of the house. OK, Abbie.

The bedrooms that don't have access to a hallway scare me.  You have to assume, especially with that many kids and a house that big, that your older kids will be able to find their own way out in an emergency unless the route is blocked by fire/smoke.  Having two bedrooms that are only accessible by transiting other bedrooms seems like too much of a risk.  

ETA: the whole layout is strange and would be hard for panicked children to navigate.  I hope they do regular fire drills.

[Hashtag Blessed]

The layout is very weird and does seem designed so that the kids will have minimal privacy in their own rooms. Which is gross, but whatever. I also agree that it is a stupid amount of space devoted to single use rooms that probably are not used that often.

What I am most concerned about, however, is the fact that Braggie was so keen to show off her ugly mansion, and brag about it to her followers, that she seems to have totally taken her family’s safety for granted. It probably wouldn’t be too hard for a motivated weirdo to find her address, use this map she’s so graciously provided, and rob her family blind. Or worse! I’m sure they have a security system  but how quickly would the cops arrive to their home? 

People generally give way too much away on social media but this is on another level. I know that house blueprints are sometimes publicly available but a stalker would probably have to put in some work to go and find them. No need here! She handed them over on a silver platter to thousands of strangers and labeled the rooms for them. She’s literally drawn a map to where all the most valuable items in her home would likely be! And she’s constantly bragging about how much money her husband makes. Damn girl, why not just put a banner up that says “Please rob us!” 

[danvillebelle]

All I can think when I see all those umpty-gazillion different rooms for kids is that she wants them as far away from her as possible, most of the time.

[JermajestyDuggar]

29 minutes ago, danvillebelle said:

All I can think when I see all those umpty-gazillion different rooms for kids is that she wants them as far away from her as possible, most of the time.

I understand that feeling. I stay home with my kids and before they started going to school for a few hours, I would go to my bedroom to get a break from them while my husband was with them. One problem with these homeschooling fundies is that mom never seems to get a break from the children. Dad does but mom is basically working 24/7. So I won’t fault her for that. HOWEVER she gets plenty of time away from her children. She teaches classes multiple times a week. Her mom helps more hours a week than a nanny probably would! I say that because she seems to take at least a few kids every single weekend. Plus helping to homeschool them during the day. 

The fact that she has lots of time away from her children and she then needs so much room separation from them makes me think she really doesn’t like kids in general. It’s gross that she keeps having kid after kid when she really doesn’t even like kids. 

[danvillebelle]

14 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

The fact that she has lots of time away from her children and she then needs so much room separation from them makes me think she really doesn’t like kids in general. It’s gross that she keeps having kid after kid when she really doesn’t even like kids. 

That's what I was trying to get at.   

Trust me; I am ALL ABOUT alone time; I need it to function.  But when I was a homeschooling mom of four littles, I got my alone time before they were up and after they went to bed.  I didn't constantly take classes or have any DAILY outside help.

[luv2laugh]

If you google Braggie, the following is all public information.

The old house was listed for $569k but subsequently removed. The sold price is not listed, only the estimate. The new owners aren’t listed so I wonder if they are renting it out. I have blacked out the address but it’s public online. 

Spoiler

Braggie does not live in Tyler. She’s in deep, rural east Texas in a town of under 4,000. Like the IBLP HQ in Big Sandy, it’s similar to it and small.

Something interesting is that Abbie is the registered agent of a company called Halson Machining LLC registered in 2013. 

[luv2laugh]

1 hour ago, danvillebelle said:

That's what I was trying to get at.   

Trust me; I am ALL ABOUT alone time; I need it to function.  But when I was a homeschooling mom of four littles, I got my alone time before they were up and after they went to bed.  I didn't constantly take classes or have any DAILY outside help.

I completely agree. I was trying to explain that as well when I balked at her dragging the kids to the gym for babysitting while she teaches pilates 3x/week and more. Sometimes, she’s blogged about going almost everyday. She has also said its a 30 minute drive one way so it’s not exactly a quick drive...

IMO she should continue teaching Pilates at home, as she already does in addition to the gym 3x/week but instead of making her two sons babysit ~30 kids as she mentioned, hire an actual babysitter. She can easily do that and indulge at the gym once a week.

I don’t think Braggie likes being a stay at home Mom. Braggie had a different blog name for a long time and explained her name change in order to “embrace my identity as a mother”. I think she certainly likes being a stay a time home wife though. I think she constantly repeats things, such as liking her children, because she feels the opposite and is sort of trying to “name it and claim it” to make herself believe differently. In fact, it’s quite obvious.

@JermajestyDuggar I’m responding to your below post above here. Add Jennifer Flanders, Abbie’s idol, of the Flanders Family to that list of those that are cut out for it. I have to admit, Jennifer Flanders is like a machine.

https://www.flandersfamily.info/web/

[JermajestyDuggar]

14 minutes ago, luv2laugh said:

I completely agree. I was trying to explain that as well when I balked at her dragging the kids to the gym for babysitting while she teaches pilates 3x/week and more. Sometimes, she’s blogged about going almost everyday. She has also said its a 30 minute drive one way so it’s not exactly a quick drive...

IMO she should continue teaching Pilates at home, as she already does in addition to the gym 3x/week but instead of making her two sons babysit ~30 kids as she mentioned, hire an actual babysitter. She can easily do that and indulge at the gym once a week.

I don’t think Braggie likes being a stay at home Mom. I think she certainly likes being a stay a time home wife though. I think she constantly repeats things, such as liking her children, because she feels the opposite and is sort of trying to “name it and claim it” to make herself believe differently. In fact, it’s quite obvious.

I don’t think there are many fundies that are cut out for quiverful life. I don’t think Michelle, Kelly, Teri, Braggie, Zoo, JillRod, or Erika Shupe are cut out for it. I think they all would have been much better mothers with smaller families. The only ones I can think of that seem to actually enjoy being a quiverful homeschooling mom are Pris and Courtney. And part of why Pris will probably always be ok is because they aren’t super fertile and I bet she will top out at 8 kids. 

[FecundFundieFundus]

An hour's driving to get to the gym every day with a ton of kids? Why didn't they add a symmetrical gym to the other side of the house so Braggie could get her daily workout in and bring in money teaching fitness classes in her own studio? 

[TuringMachine]

15 hours ago, Hashtag Blessed said:

What I am most concerned about, however, is the fact that Braggie was so keen to show off her ugly mansion, and brag about it to her followers, that she seems to have totally taken her family’s safety for granted. It probably wouldn’t be too hard for a motivated weirdo to find her address, use this map she’s so graciously provided, and rob her family blind. Or worse! I’m sure they have a security system  but how quickly would the cops arrive to their home? 

This is a very good point. I was able to find their current address with not much effort.

[hoipolloi]

6 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I understand that feeling. I stay home with my kids and before they started going to school for a few hours, I would go to my bedroom to get a break from them while my husband was with them.

I only had one and I remember those days. DH would take toddler duty & I would have a refreshing trip to the drug store -- and it really was refreshing to just wander the aisles, not having to worry about the child.

 

6 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

The fact that she has lots of time away from her children and she then needs so much room separation from them makes me think she really doesn’t like kids in general. It’s gross that she keeps having kid after kid when she really doesn’t even like kids. 

ITA. They seem to be some strange kind of collection for her -- fun to dress up & photograph for Instagram, but otherwise not her thing.

[Hashtag Blessed]

54 minutes ago, TuringMachine said:

This is a very good point. I was able to find their current address with not much effort.

See? And you’re not even a weirdo!

 

(We assume) 

[TuringMachine]

5 minutes ago, Hashtag Blessed said:

See? And you’re not even a weirdo!

 

(We assume) 

Haha well I'm probably a weirdo for even looking it up, but I live no where near them, and I have no desire to travel all the way to middle of nowhere Texas just to rob her 

[SassyPants]

4 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I don’t think there are many fundies that are cut out for quiverful life. I don’t think Michelle, Kelly, Teri, Braggie, Zoo, JillRod, or Erika Shupe are cut out for it. I think they all would have been much better mothers with smaller families. The only ones I can think of that seem to actually enjoy being a quiverful homeschooling mom are Pris and Courtney. And part of why Pris will probably always be ok is because they aren’t super fertile and I bet she will top out at 8 kids. 

I would say that almost every family on the planet is not well equipped to handle a quiverful. Evoking the name of Jesus (or any other Creator) is not going to make your day longer than 24 hours. Ain't no one on Earth who has the power to increase time. It's a pure numbers game, and each additional arrow takes more time out of a limited number of hours. And there has to be an algorithm that shows where quality will definitely decrease as the quantity of time is more and more limited.

[QuiverDance]

In addition to my core issues with Abbie, like the vapid blog and the whitewashed misogyny she calls Christian Living, I hate that she can't spell Darth Vader correctly.  

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

6 hours ago, luv2laugh said:

If you google Braggie, the following is all public information.

You are way better at google stalking than me! But yeah, $260k for an unfurnished but giant house in the middle of nowhere, east Texas sounds right. I guess Shaun works in Tyler and that's why I thought they were there?

[Anonymousguest]

6 minutes ago, PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea said:

You are way better at google stalking than me! But yeah, $260k for an unfurnished but giant house in the middle of nowhere, east Texas sounds right. I guess Shaun works in Tyler and that's why I thought they were there?

That was the previous house, so finished and not that huge 3800sqft). You can see there where they listed it for $569k. That's the one they sold with all the contents.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

I would say that almost every family on the planet is not well equipped to handle a quiverful. Evoking the name of Jesus (or any other Creator) is not going to make your day longer than 24 hours. Ain't no one on Earth who has the power to increase time. It's a pure numbers game, and each additional arrow takes more time out of a limited number of hours. And there has to be an algorithm that shows where quality will definitely decrease as the quantity of time is more and more limited.

I feel like I can only say that about the fertile ones. I imagine David Waller’s brother is quiverful but they only have two children due to their lack of fertility. So I doubt they are overwhelmed and I doubt they will end up with more than 4 children total. But I will also recognize that they are part of only 10% of couples. So 90% of quiverful fundies will end up with a decent amount of children unless they marry late like Amanda Smith.