M is For Mama - where quiver full meets Pinterest

[EowynW]

"And yet, here I am at the ripe old age of 29, and I’ve now lived in my very own from scratch, 95% DIYed, cash-bought dream home for 2 1/2 years."

good for you? You are one of the very rare and very lucky ones. 

[luv2laugh]

She’ll never become a super popular blogger because she’s too arrogant and not relatable.

[Anonymousguest]

5 hours ago, EowynW said:

"And yet, here I am at the ripe old age of 29, and I’ve now lived in my very own from scratch, 95% DIYed, cash-bought dream home for 2 1/2 years."

good for you? You are one of the very rare and very lucky ones. 

It's that an actual quote? Holy smokes! 

I have 8 people and some animals living in my house. Some are adults and all are capable of cleaning up behind themselves, but no one does. Like someone else said, I can spend the entire day deep cleaning my house, but as soon as someone else comes through and makes a snack, starts an art project, opens the mail, or spreads their homework across the couch, it looks like a tornado came through. I cannot imagine the amount of cleaning/picking up that must go on in her house for it to be picture perfect every day. My guess is that it's not. If it is, I can understand why she's exhausted. The little kids should not be a distraction to her cleaning, they should be her job! 

[MayMay1123]

@Anonymousguest...you have just described my life! right down to 8 people (6 adults, 1 teen and 1 8 y/o) and some animals LOL i have a huge list of things i do every day and yet, it always looks like i never do anything i can't imagine picture perfect though...we're okay with a bit messy

[Somer]

I used to follow her blog years ago, I found it through other home/organizing blogs. I like some of her style in decor, but not the clutter. I followed along for a while when her twins were infants, but two things turned me off and I stopped reading. First it was the overwhelming number of religious quotes and they way she brought religion into everything. Back then I had no idea what quiverful meant, or fundamentalist baptists, or that she was either of those things. The second reason was because of the way she would always try to be the long-suffering/exhausted/whatever mother but so positive and peppy in spite of her hectic life. Posters above said it better - humblebrag sums it up pretty well. She struck me as disingenuous and contrived. And now I learn that she had two more children, but she was so stressed before, so why is she chosing  to stretch herself even thinner?

[neurogirl]

A little off topic but one of my very good friends from college who is beautiful, talented, smart, athletic, in a longterm relationship, and did I mention beautiful, posts on instagram ALL THE TIME. At least every day, sometimes multiple times, of headshots or couple-y posts or inspirational quotes with her off in the distance, or her athletic feats or...She's not like that in person but her online presence drives me CRAZY but then I feel that I have to "like" her posts since she's a very good friend. But ugh. It's not humble -bragging if you do it all the time. It's just bragging.

[BobJonesBabe]

7 hours ago, Somer said:

I used to follow her blog years ago, I found it through other home/organizing blogs. I like some of her style in decor, but not the clutter. I followed along for a while when her twins were infants, but two things turned me off and I stopped reading. First it was the overwhelming number of religious quotes and they way she brought religion into everything. Back then I had no idea what quiverful meant, or fundamentalist baptists, or that she was either of those things. The second reason was because of the way she would always try to be the long-suffering/exhausted/whatever mother but so positive and peppy in spite of her hectic life. Posters above said it better - humblebrag sums it up pretty well. She struck me as disingenuous and contrived. And now I learn that she had two more children, but she was so stressed before, so why is she chosing  to stretch herself even thinner?

She also used to be WAY more obsessed about talking about disciplining her kids, and spanking them. :/ She must've gotten some pushback, cause she rarely mentions it now. (Other than discipline or euphemisms. ) 

[AliceInFundyland]

I just can’t handle social media. It isn’t real. I don’t want to get glued to it. I don’t have much of a life. It makes me feel like I should be documenting it all and remembering it all. I can’t do it.

[SoybeanQueen]

It's easy to get into the mindset that we have to document everything now that taking photos and videos is so fast. The thing is, very few of the photos ever get printed. The generation of kids and teens now are the most photographed in history, but will have the least to show for it in the future.

I stopped taking as many pictures because I realized I was spending more time on trying to document than on living in the moment and enjoying it. My great-grandkids are not going to want to watch a million hours of video of random stuff, or look at 20 scrapbook albums from my son's elementary years.

I can't with the people who post so many selfies a day. My "get off my lawn" issue du jour is teenage girls with pics where they're holding their tongue out like a dog. Why do people need to see you looking like you're about to lap water from a lake?

ALSO - Snapchat is more of a commitment than marriage for teenagers. You just want to have a short conversation, but no, you cannot, because a teenager expects that you will always respond or they're insulted. Doesn't matter if you've said everything you have to say. Just keep sending pics of your face or the floor or SOMETHING, forever,  because it's offensive to read and not respond. *whew* Glad I got that off my chest.

[danvillebelle]

I am not a photographer in any sense of the word (much to my mother's chagrin).  The vast majority of the pictures we have of my kids when they were little were taken by her.  

Even though I treasure the old family photos I have, some dating back well into the 1800's, I make no apologies for my lack of picture-taking.  It's not who I am, it doesn't feel natural to me, and I am too busy living my life (ESPECIALLY now that I'm in recovery from 3 mental illnesses) to stop and document it.  

[feministxtian]

Years ago when I was with my X and we had the "5 little stairsteps" (5 kids with just under 8 years between oldest and youngest), I got a lot of "I don't know how you do it". Now that I think about it, neither do I. My house was never "clean" like hers. 

Its just the two of us now with 2 cats and I STILL don't have a perfect house. But, I don't give a shit nor do I feel the need to show off...

[acheronbeach]

I know I'm gonna be in the minority, but I do NOT like her decor at all.  It's that "trendy hipster with a lot of time on their hands" look that's going to look cluttered and dated in about five years.  It's the look of mason jars aplenty and a bunch of those horrible word-art for the walls (honestly, why do people think it's classy to put up passive-aggressive signs that direct me to "eat" in the dining room or "wash your hands" in the bathroom???).  In the words of Tim Gunn, she needs to learn how to edit.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, acheronbeach said:

I know I'm gonna be in the minority, but I do NOT like her decor at all.  It's that "trendy hipster with a lot of time on their hands" look that's going to look cluttered and dated in about five years.  It's the look of mason jars aplenty and a bunch of those horrible word-art for the walls (honestly, why do people think it's classy to put up passive-aggressive signs that direct me to "eat" in the dining room or "wash your hands" in the bathroom???).  In the words of Tim Gunn, she needs to learn how to edit.  

She’s definitely too cluttered for my taste. And some of her tchotchkes are ugly AF. However she chooses lots of wall papers, paint colors, furniture pieces, and light fixtures I would choose. If I could edit the shit out of her house, it would look so good. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

How could anyone stand to be friends with her?

[TuringMachine]

She really is just constantly complementing her own parenting isn't she? 

[hoipolloi]

5 hours ago, TuringMachine said:

She really is just constantly complementing her own parenting isn't she? 

 Oh no -- she SAID that she's not telling us this in order to brag.

Remember also that if you do as she says and things don't work it out, it's your fault because you probably did it wrong.

[Stormy]

5 hours ago, TuringMachine said:

She really is just constantly complementing her own parenting isn't she? 

That's her focus, yes. I think the excerpt above would have come off totally different had she formatted it to highlight her children's role in the story rather than her own perspective; she could have gone on more about how Ezra and Simon are so responsible and are good leaders, how the younger children are so respectful and helpful, how they're all blessings and Godlike, etc. etc. etc. She could even include flattering pictures of them in her clean(ish) kitchen with the Instagram-level curation and everything in accordance to her brand. We already know how good of a parent she is (/s), so why does she need to continuously emphasize it? Is there something she's compensating for?

[Anonymousguest]

They problem is that she thinks her children are all so wonderful because of her parenting, specifically all the time she's spent training them. The people who are all saying "wait until they are teens" are saying that because they know the truth. Because they have put in the time with their children and had them come out looking completely different than what they expected. I'm not saying parenting doesn't count, obviously putting in the time with our children is important. But there isn't as direct a cause and effect as she believes. At this point she controls every aspect of her children's lives, but eventually their Independence and individually are going to show through. And someone is going to not look or act like she thinks she's entitled to, based on all the time she's put in. I know, because I've been there! Things happen that you don't expect. Kids have wants and needs and desires of their own, and if you really want them to be amazing adults, you have to let them go their own way. Hopefully she'll learn this early on, but I doubt it. She has serious issues with pride in her parenting, she's not going to let go of that easily. 

[nastyhobbitses]

8 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

They problem is that she thinks her children are all so wonderful because of her parenting, specifically all the time she's spent training them. The people who are all saying "wait until they are teens" are saying that because they know the truth. Because they have put in the time with their children and had them come out looking completely different than what they expected. I'm not saying parenting doesn't count, obviously putting in the time with our children is important. But there isn't as direct a cause and effect as she believes. At this point she controls every aspect of her children's lives, but eventually their Independence and individually are going to show through. And someone is going to not look or act like she thinks she's entitled to, based on all the time she's put in. I know, because I've been there! Things happen that you don't expect. Kids have wants and needs and desires of their own, and if you really want them to be amazing adults, you have to let them go their own way. Hopefully she'll learn this early on, but I doubt it. She has serious issues with pride in her parenting, she's not going to let go of that easily. 

I can see her being a mom who has an incredibly hard time ceding control and her doing some shit straight out of the JustNoMIL subreddit when Ezra starts to assert his autonomy. She'll sugarcoat it for the Instagram, but no amount of spin and curation will hide how ugly it will be. 

[JillyO]

7 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

They problem is that she thinks her children are all so wonderful because of her parenting, specifically all the time she's spent training them. The people who are all saying "wait until they are teens" are saying that because they know the truth. Because they have put in the time with their children and had them come out looking completely different than what they expected. I'm not saying parenting doesn't count, obviously putting in the time with our children is important. But there isn't as direct a cause and effect as she believes. At this point she controls every aspect of her children's lives, but eventually their Independence and individually are going to show through. And someone is going to not look or act like she thinks she's entitled to, based on all the time she's put in. I know, because I've been there! Things happen that you don't expect. Kids have wants and needs and desires of their own, and if you really want them to be amazing adults, you have to let them go their own way. Hopefully she'll learn this early on, but I doubt it. She has serious issues with pride in her parenting, she's not going to let go of that easily. 

It's also possible that Ezra will remain this calm, helpful, easy-going person because that's just his personality. But it is highly unlikely that ALL of her kids will be this way. More likely than not, some of her kids will grow up to be more drama, more independent, more stubborn, more eccentric - anything that doesn't fit into her "docile, obedient children" mold. It's just WAY too early to toot your own parenting horn, Abbie!

[hoipolloi]

Yep, she's riding for a fall, one way or another. 

The only question is whether the IG account will go dark or get "cleaned up" when that happens?

[Anonymousguest]

20 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

How could anyone stand to be friends with her?

I do notice that particular post only had 19 likes when most of the recent ones have hundreds. Guess her fans didn't love it either, lol. What was the photo that went with this one? 

[JillyO]

1 hour ago, Anonymousguest said:

I do notice that particular post only had 19 likes when most of the recent ones have hundreds. Guess her fans didn't love it either, lol. What was the photo that went with this one? 

I wish! Looks like @JermajestyDuggar just took that screenshot when the post was pretty new. It now has a very average-for-her number of 456 likes. Here it is:

 

 

[Snarkasarus Rex]

Wow, this woman is going to hurt her arm if she keeps patting herself on the back like this.

[Don'tlikekoolaid]

She reminds me of Aud Roloff.  Plus there no toys and kid's play things anywhere.  What a horrible   sterile life.  I wonder what they eat in that museum cause God forbid anyone makes a cooking mess. Poor kids!  Word art makes me stabby, who needs preaching on the frigging walls?