M is For Mama - where quiver full meets Pinterest

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, Hashtag Blessed said:

I don’t dislike bangs in general. I think plenty of people look amazing in them. I just don’t think they work on Abbie’s face. I thought she was quite pretty without them. I think you’re onto something about her sort of hiding her face behind them. 

Yeah, I agree. Maybe she attracted the attention of a creepy stalker or something? I would understand shutting down your online presence under those circumstances. It could be anything though. 

Yeah it’s anyones guess. I hope it’s not anything too bad. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I feel like she goes on childless trips all the time! She has more “me time” than I do and I only have two children! Plus it seems that her mother watches a large portion of her children every single weekend. She absolutely doesn’t live a life like 99% of quiverful women. Hell she’d extremely privileged compared to non quiverful women! 

[FecundFundieFundus]

Starting your day with coffee, the Bible... and a meticulously framed photo op that you had to have set up using a self timer after careful grooming and posing. How many photos did they take to get this? I guess it's nice she has friends just as attention whore-y and ready to pose for social media posts with their morning coffee. 

[luv2laugh]

I find it odd that Braggie always emphasizes that she does not drink coffee & tea but rather, #hocho (hot chocolate) instead. For someone that hates Mormons, that’s very “Mormon”. 

Lindsay is the friend that does the artwork for Braggie’s Paint & Prose “business”.

Funny enough, of you look it up online, “Paint & Prose” is in Shaun Halberstadt and Lindsay’s name- not Braggie’s. 

Why?

Braggie wants to remind everyone that she’s just a little submissive, meek woman. ?

[TuringMachine]

Can we talk about Paint & Prose for a minute? What exactly does Abbie contribute to it, other than marketing to her instagram followers? She claims it's a combination for her writing and Lindsay's art, but none of the writing is original. It's all quotes and common sayings. 

Also the art quality is like, high school level art.

[FecundFundieFundus]

Googled their shop... Ewwww. DV isn't funny. 

[luv2laugh]

It wouldn’t surprise me if Braggie is being a bad friend and arranged something where she’d advertise her friend’s work on her blog for partnership to get money. The company is in her husband’s name and Lindsay’s... 

After all, Shaun set up the LLC.Braggie has tried really, really hard to copy Mandy of Biblical Homemaking:

Mandy teaches exercise classes- so does Braggie

Mandy is diehard quiverfull- so is Braggie

Mandy kept up a blog and wrote a book- Braggie has this goal too

Braggie says she’s known Mandy for ten years. Mandy started this before her.

I’m pretty sure Braggie started blogging because she wanted to make money like Mandy was and gain a following to sell a book (Braggie’s exact words from one of her blogs).

Braggie and Shaun Halberstadt are after money and if you read the blog closely, it will become even more apparent.

[feministxtian]

On ‎10‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 4:38 PM, Anonymousguest said:

I'm lucky enough to be in one of those "easy" marriages. It's not always "good", but generally we respect each other and our bad patches are more like apathy when we can't even bother to argue. It's "easy"to coast along through those times, and it does take work to reconnect and be friends again. If other people's "bad times" are like ours, than sure, stick with it, work it out, chances are it will get better again. 

But I've been witness to Bad Marriages. My mother and step should never have been married. From the outside looking in, there were never any good times. Sure there were days they had fun, but overall it was hell my mother was an angry witch and he was a psychotic narcissist. It's a miracle they came out of that marriage physically intact. That kind of bad can't be over come. Or maybe it can be, but why? 

I would never make a blanket statement about sticking with marriage, because sometimes hard is the same thing as bad. And sometimes bad means people are psychologically and physically damaged forever. 

Ahhh...Mawwage...

For 16 years my marriage SUCKED. But, for a variety of reasons I didn't leave although I wanted to...

Then he heard that loud popping noise, got his head out of his ass and VOILA! Great marriage! I wouldn't recommend this to anybody...and damn sure won't say shit about someone else's marriage. My track record pretty much sucks and there's no point in me pontificating about marriage other than, DO NOT be like me. 

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

Let's assume she has 4 more children  (38, 40, 42, 44)  That will make 12 (geez louise stop already, stop now).  By the time she has the last one at 44 her oldest son, uh 2nd mom, will be 20, He will have raised nearly all his siblings, especially #7 through 12.

At 20 he should be off at college, having his own life.  Not tied at home being a parent because Braggie doesn't like children, no matter how many she gives birth too,  And Shaun ..., well Shaun seems to be a rather absentee parent, what with all his side gigs so he can pay for the #8 and counting family.  Not to mention Braggie's Anthropologie shopping habit.

So the real parent, the only parent is the oldest son.  I feel sorry sorry for that child.  He's had no childhood, he'll never get to be a teenager.  And his young adulthood will be spent parenting all his siblings.

 

[Hane]

20 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I feel like she goes on childless trips all the time! She has more “me time” than I do and I only have two children! Plus it seems that her mother watches a large portion of her children every single weekend. She absolutely doesn’t live a life like 99% of quiverful women. Hell she’d extremely privileged compared to non quiverful women! 

I personally am no fan of posts where people Bible at the audience in an obvious fit of virtue-signaling. (By “Bible at,” I mean using the Bible as a prop. An egregious case of this was a People magazine photo of Clarence Thomas during the Anita Hill hearings, showing him and his wife sitting in their living room and clasping a closed Bible.)

[danvillebelle]

Braggie's whole fucking life is virtue-signaling (which is so unbelievably off-putting to non-Christians, which defeats her supposed purpose, which egotistical narcissists like her will never understand).  

[unholypoledancer]

I've read through this thread and I think I've caught up on everything. 

I hate this woman so much. her poor children, esp. her oldest son. 

I think what I hate so much about her is the fact that her blog appears mainstream and she works hard to look like Christian mainstream, but it's really super-bad fundie: child abuse, fat-shaming, and so much fucking dirt under the carpet that it's disgusting. But you would never know from the perfectly-curated Instagram photos!

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

28 minutes ago, unholypoledancer said:

 But you would never know from the perfectly-curated Instagram photos! 

I think she's actually pretty honest about what a hot mess she is in the descriptions (remember the vinegar spraying)? And by honest I mean, she describes what she does and thinks it's great while the rest of us think it's terrible.

To me, Abbie is such an interesting answer to the question, "Does self-awareness make you a better person?" You'd hope so but Abbie is pretty honest about her flaws (short-tempered, easily frazzled etc.) but continues doing what she's doing. I guess self-awareness is not the only think you need to self-improve. Less denial and more therapy, Abbie!

[unholypoledancer]

2 minutes ago, PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea said:

I think she's actually pretty honest about what a hot mess she is in the descriptions (remember the vinegar spraying)? And by honest I mean, she describes what she does and thinks it's great while the rest of us think it's terrible.

 

Oh, you've got that right! Why should she change? As others have said, God is obviously pleased, because he rewarded her with her large house, money, and all kinds of wordly shit most moms of 7+ kids would not have. No, in her eyes there is no need to change, because she believes she is pleasing to God. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

She dresses up her abuse with a beautiful home, trendy clothes, and perfectly lighted photos. If her home looked like Nic Nogs, people would be shitting their pants over her vinegar in the mouth squirting.

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

Abbie posted a brag about her great friends on her birthday, here's an interesting bit:

"I've said this before, but I prayed for YEARS for a group of godly women full of integrity to call friends and to do life with. It wasn't that I didn't have friends. I did. But what I craved was community. Accountability. Growth in the Lord together. Ease of friendship rather than striving.

And you know what? It took quite a while--probably bc the Lord was doing lots of work in my heart to prepare me to be the kind of friend I desired--but he said yes to that prayer. Over the last 2 years, he has granted me friend after genuine friend from all age ranges to speak truth into my life and allow me to do the same for them. "

Sure, you had friends, Abbie. Sure. Not feeling "ease" in friendship was all about not having the right people around, not your toxic personality.

I'm glad she found people but I wonder: Are they like her? Are they doormats? Do they just deal with her in small quantities because they feel sorry for her? Does she have some positive traits that we aren't seeing?

(My boyfriend has a, um, strong-willed friend who I would totally never pick based on personality. BUT she is very loyal to her in-group. I wonder if Abbie has some redeeming quality beyond the narcissism/humble brags/controlling nature.)

[luv2laugh]

Braggie likes to take advantage of people. The kinds of friends she talks about are easy to find in a like-minded large church and co-op (she attended, or still may attend, a large mega church with multiple locations). All Braggie would need to do is insist to the women that she needs help with redecorating/remodeling something and church people all volunteer for that. Besides her “business partner”, she doesn’t have a life long friend. These are fellow moms that she has relatively recently found for some self-serving reason.

[JermajestyDuggar]

The clue is that her friends were made in the last TWO years. Most of my friends are people I’ve been friends with for 18-25 years. These friends of two years aren’t sick of her shit yet. They will though. 

And does this mean she an Mandy aren’t friends anymore? She’s been friends with Mandy for at least 6 years. So I guess she wasn’t a real friend? 

[luv2laugh]

Ready for an odd fact? One of the “besties” (Mcgowens on The Move) featured in her birthday outing that she’s getting REALLY chummy with is a legitimate best friend of Nia from the popular YT Sam & Nia and is frequently in her videos. She’s in her Taylor Swift video just posted. They all live in East Texas.

I can see Braggie itching for a piece of THAT following! Braggie is a major user.

In a blog dated back to around 2015ish, Braggie openly admitted that if she’s not going to the gym or on a date night, she doesn’t venture much out of her house, only has a girlfriend or two, and likes it that way being only truly with her family. I can see women at first trying to figure Braggie out and agreeing to spend time with her for a short while. Braggie is an enigma, someone who puts a ton of effort into her image despite chaotic life with homeschooling 8 kids.

I am not surprised that Braggie is trying to glom onto the following of popular girls to gain more of an audience for her future book deal, host them in her house to engage in her favorite hobby, BRAGGING, or recruit them for her DIY labor (see one of her wallpaper Instagram posts).

What kind of friend opens an LLC and becomes partner of a company solely to take financial advantage when all does is market her friend’s art on her blog? A bad one. Prose my behind, Abbie. It’s not prose to come up with 2-3 copied catchphrases.

[SassyPants]

Are Abbie's parents still married?

I remember reading that Abbie said she and her dad do not get along.

I wonder if like JB Duggar's dad didn't agree with JB/M's prolific procreation, if Abbie's dad believes similarly about his daughter and her husband's overpopulating the Earth????

[FecundFundieFundus]

Sam and Nia are traaaash 

[luv2laugh]

Shaun Halberstadt has a brother, his only sibling, that also lives in Texas and he’s a dentist. His wife works with him in managing the office and they have kids too around Braggie’s kid’s ages. I’ve never ever seen Braggie post about them once despite living close to them. Braggie has mentioned her MIL passive aggressively on how “my MIL is a nurse and even questions my safety with homebirthing”. Like Lori, I can imagine Braggie being intimidated by a MIL that is a nurse and works. Braggie says nothing about them besides Shaun’s Dad who has helped them build their homes. 

I find it odd.

[unholypoledancer]

@luv2laugh that's such a good point. Normally fundies are super family-focused, so it's weird to not hear about her in-laws. Do we even hear about Braggie's family besides mom (her mom)?

I am going with the thought that talking about these people takes attention away from her, hence why that doesn't happen. 

[FilleMondaine]

23 hours ago, FecundFundieFundus said:

Sam and Nia are traaaash 

Oh??? Do tell!

[FecundFundieFundus]

They're the ones who (definitely) faked a "surprise" pregnancy reveal- he claimed he scooped her pee from the toilet when she was out of the bathroom* and used the toilet water to do a pregnancy test without her knowing. It was positive! He surprised HER with her pregnancy! (It was almost certainly an entirely faked pregnancy) That video went viral. A few days later, they had a new video claiming they miscarried. They were acting weird about it all so people started doubting them, like they tested if early pregnancy pee diluted with water would even trigger the test (nope). Then the guy started getting aggressive and douchey and got violent with someone at a YouTuber conference or something? 

Basically, they made a super fake "pregnancy reveal" for a pregnancy that didn't exist then tried to go viral again by claiming they miscarried. People who have gone through pregnancy and infant loss are NOT amused. 

*Also they apparently don't flush?? FUCK THAT NOISE