Jump to content
IGNORED

Counting On Season 5/6/7 Who Knows? It's on Tonight!


Coconut Flan

Recommended Posts

Kendra’s giggling is annoying but they look cute together.  

 

Kudos to Benessa for always keeping it real when discussing marriage.  They seem genuine, they act like a team, and Jessa should be the lead. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 521
  • Created
  • Last Reply
11 minutes ago, Ilovebrownies said:

  

 

Kudos to Benessa for always keeping it real when discussing marriage.  They seem genuine, they act like a team, and Jessa should be the lead. 

i keep forgetting how much I use to enjoy these two.  Yes, I said it....but I swear things have moved on and changed because they act like normal people, they seem like normal people, but they aren't and that 20 minute bit they did was adorable yes but so over the top..remember they are the brand and the cult. 

https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/counting-on-season-8-premiere-163887

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I couldn’t believe it when one of the brothers said he could tell Josiah liked a girl because he was using deodorant more often and the bills for that went up.

WTF? Who talks like that?  It felt like an alien was being forced to act human.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, QuiverFullofBooks said:

That was a lame courtship proposal. Even Josh bought some balloons.

nah, Turd brought balloons and (apparently) his best suit to the *proposal*.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just glad they've moved on from coverage of Joy and Austin's wedding. I felt like that wedding spanned 4 seasons. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It must suck for Jill. It’s no wonder she’s floundering. On Amazon it still says jill and jessa: counting on. The shot they used is from the previous shoot and features Jana, Jessa, Jinger, Joy, and Kendra. That’s kind of shitty. And then they do a staged sister shoot thing for Lauren. Now, granted, Anna is excluded too, but she does at least have her sisters and is probably okay not being in the limelight (I would be if I were her.)

I don’t think she’s perceptive enough to connect her husband’s behavior to what has happened. But that’s willfully ignorant. Is that maybe why we don’t see the little boys together? Jessa is on a mission that doesn’t likely include a idiot BIL.

Who knows?

Greek mythology is not higher education. It’s basic education. It isn’t advanced or complicated. It’s also fun. There are certain things in English/language/literature that are so widely referenced that they are part of general knowledge. It is like going up to algebra in math. You can forget it later but there should be a certain level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

re: the education discussion, I have enjoyed all sides of it. I feel it is important for us to discuss education in general but also especially to bring it back to the educational systems employed by fundamentalists and their overall focus on stunting critical thinking and how damaging that can be not only to the individuals but to larger communities over time. And as these communities grow and actively seek to influence society I worry about how much influence they might come to have on say public school boards and public school curriculum in any given state. 

And of course the IBLP worries me. Read a wisdom booklet and tell me your brain isn't slightly scrambled by the end. It is disorienting and I can't help but feel sorry for people subjected to this kind of mind fuckery. And this is not to say people brought up like this are not bright an capable people...they are not stupid. But it does take them a long time to retrain themselves and readjust if they do manage to break away. Which really must take so much I can't even imagine.

And also I don't always equate college or university with higher learning necessarily. If you consider critical thinking skills and a person has been allowed a healthy development of them then there is a better chance that person will use them throughout their lives whether or not they continue with formal education.  And there are always books, public libraries, online resources up the yazoo, TED talks, online forums (:tw_wink:) etc.....  That people who have a desire for knowledge just for the heck of it can partake in. Anywho... a lot of posters here stated a lot of things that I was thinking better than I could and there was no one I really disagreed with, all points are valid so thank you FJers.

Meanwhile, the Duggars are recording an "album"....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Oh hell no - even my two-year-old knew better than to lick her fucking plate, in public OR at home. That's just ridiculous.

My grandma made amazing gravy to go with roast beef, and at the end of Sunday dinner, my brother and I would finish our plates and then ask if we could please lick our plates. She thought it was hilarious and would very seriously give us permission. 

My dad also taught us to ask before picking up the bones from steaks to gnaw any remaining meat off of them by asking ‘Permission to be a carnivorous beast?’

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whenever the Duggar girls would use their special word to tell the Duggar boys to look at their shoes because “scantily-clad woman incoming”, I always had a little ironic giggle about the meaning and mythology behind the word.

Guess what Duggars? You do know a Greek goddess – the goddess of victory (say it with me, ladies) – NIKE!!!

(Hence my user name)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, apandaaries said:

I'd like to jump in and separate the ideas of education and debt. Having better educated people in a society helps everyone; the more people who are educated, the better off we all are. 

The fact that higher education has become increasingly unaffordable is the kind of issue that a well-educated populace could address. For example, rather than giving all the money to the billionaires, we could use some of that money to help fund higher education, the benefits of which will actually trickle down to the whole population (unlike Reagan's stupid theories that continue to influence far too many idiots in power). 

Why shouldn't a stay at home mom be well-educated? Most studies show that the more a mother knows, the better her kids will do. And why not have educated mechanics, fast food workers, etc? Is education something special only for a particular class? Why would people be opposed to others having knowledge?

I don't use the quadratic formula everyday, but learning how to use it helped my cognitive development. I don't use Spanish as often as I should, but it's still helpful to have that base of knowledge, and I still use it occasionally. I find it deeply disturbing when people argue against, say, algebra, since it hasn't been as useful as it could have been for them, and decide that it's knowledge that only a few people should have. It wasn't that long ago that people were saying that women shouldn't be educated, as it was a waste of time...what with their small brains and such. 

ETA: Chris Jeub even published a treatise not too long ago on the dangers of educating women. The thought still lingers for some, and there are plenty of racist people who would use their racism to argue against various minorities having access to knowledge and education.

Especially in this remarkable age of anti-intellectualism, we should be promoting more critical thought.

The debt problem is a separate issue which we can and should address. That has to do with government policies.  It was the dearth of education and critical thought has created these rather useless Duggarlings (useless in general but still voting and involved in politics), the Rodriguii, etc. 

Education could have helped them so much. Why would anyone rail against providing an opportunity for education for anyone?

I’ve been driving for several hours, fighting toddlers to sleep far past bedtime, and generally tired, so I’ll start with that. 

I am going to assume you are not a millennial. My parents and many generations before mine have assigned great value to higher education. (I am NOT talking about basics like algebra, Spanish, and the like. I’m talking about the liberal arts education I and my peers received in college, which I still attest, even for those in the workforce, was largely a waste. I won’t be convinced otherwise due to personal experience and knowledge of others’ experiences.) For many older generations, an education was a wonderful privilege that they worked hard to achieve rather than just forking over a ton of money to purchase. It was a passageway to other opportunities rather than a requirement for a “good” job. Because it’s so much more common now to have a bachelor’s degree (again, among my age bracket, those currently finishing college in debt and struggling to find work, and in a myriad of other stupid situations just because they were pushed into college and didn’t have to be), many of these college grads feel like they have to either stay in school longer, or be a barista with an art degree. Had they left high school and been a barista to begin with, they’d at least have 4 years of experience behind them, not to mention a great deal of maturity and clarity about what they actually might like to do for a living. Instead, we have a bunch of entitled (because they’ve been told degree=“good” job) 22 year olds with $50k of debt who think they are too good to be postal workers and fry cooks. America still needs postal workers and fry cooks and shoot me for thinking those people shouldn’t be or feel obligated to spend a fortune and take a bunch of random courses to do those jobs.

We can’t really separate the financial aspect of it. This is America. We pay ridiculous prices for things we shouldn’t have to. A college education is fairly common for the high school grads I know, but the money to pay for it is not. That doesn’t stop the job force from getting more and more competitive, or student loans from being fairly easily accessible. (And yay, no payments for 4 or more years, which, at age 18, seems like a super long time because it actually is almost a quarter of your entire life at present. Plus, ya know, it’s college and it’ll open every door that’s out there because it did for my parents and they’ve raised me in that mindset even though it’s outdated and false.)

if a housewife/mom wants to have a degree she paid tons of money for and isn’t using, more power to her. I am one and I’m not pleased about it. I don’t think it makes me any better of a person or mother to have it, and I can certainly think of better ways to spend the monthly loan payments that could potentially enhance my kids’ experiences in life.

TL;DR: My opinions are tainted by my experience as a millennial. College used to be a step to better oneself but it has become just another requirement after high school, making the overall value of it minimized among my age group, yet we ruin our financial lives at 18 years old to get it. The men and women shoveling snow on my county roads probably don’t have higher education and I don’t see any reason why that should change just because it’s 2018, everyone else is doing it, and loans are available to children. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, socalrules said:

I get irritated with the idea that SAHM’s don’t need an education. Without an education or training, many SAHM are going to be stuck in situations where they have to stay in bad marriages. What options do they have if they have an abusive husband? What happens if their husband dies or becomes incapacitated? How do they live with no way to support their kids? It’s great Sonic has job openings but the salary isn’t going to go very far and definitely isn’t going to support a family on minimum wage.  In what area can you support a family on a minimum wage job? Where is the rent and food that cheap? 

Saying someone doesn’t need an education or training is betting that the stars will align and nothing will happen in their lives to put their financial stability at risk. Who can guarantee that? Fundies are notorious for being against any kind of education or training that requires learning with those not of the same belief. I would bet good money that the majority of them are barely scraping by, if that, due to their inability to secure a good job with no education and training. Jessa is doing fine because she gets paid by TLC and her parents have money. Without all that, how would she and Ben have the lifestyle they do? What job could Ben get to buy them a house? 

I have $100k in student loans but I make a good salary, better than I would without the education. My salary will always go up. I will always have options. There are some good job with no education or training but they are few and far between. I just don’t see how education or training hurts anyone. Debt for a better future and more opportunities is not a bad thing in my eyes. 

*I am not sure why SAHM is underlined.

I addressed this largely in my previous post (which may merge to this one and we’ll all be confused), but I do want to clarify something. I’m not saying ALL SAHMs should be denied a college education. For you to say “what if she eventually has to work” (paraphrase) lends itself to the fact that she isn’t actually a SAHM. We’re talking about Duggar women here. They aren’t going to work. I’m a SAHM and do not intend to work. I have life insurance on my husband and we’ll be taken care of in unfortunate circumstances. I’m sure some SAHMs do eventually have to work, but being out of the job force for a number of years almost negates the fact that they earned a degree several years ago in many cases anyway. (Sorry. I feel as though this entire thought train is pretty jumpy. It’s 2AM and I can’t put it together the way my brain wants to.) I definitely think if Jessa wants to go to school, she should. Same goes to anyone. But if Jessa wants to be a mommy or a server at Tacos for Life, that’s cool too. 

In response to your thought about Sonic (as a representative of minimum wage jobs), who SHOULD work these jobs? If everyone should have a degree, which college grads are going to jump on the back of a garbage truck and do that job? Which ones are going to serve up school lunches to our middle school students? Which college grads with corresponding debt are going to mop the floors at our grocery stores and bag up our treasures at Target? My point is that we still need these workers and they don’t need college. Wanting college is a different story. If you want it, have at it. If you want to roll coins at a bank, don’t sign your name to a giant student loan for an education you don’t need. i wish the people who have influence over students would stop pushing college and start accepting that it’s NOT guaranteed success and happiness. It’s a fit for some kids and it isn’t for others, and that should be okay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/30/2018 at 6:44 PM, HarleyQuinn said:

I cringed just reading about that honeymoon. They sounded like "ugly American tourists" 

I'm also a bit sad because learning about Greek Mythology was one of my favorite things in school. I'm not surprised the producers tried to get them to name other Gods. 

I'm a newbie here,  more of a lurker,  but as a (single) mom to a little girl named Athena,  that part just made me so sad as well.  But I suppose there is no reason a Duggar child would ever learn about an intelligent,  strong  creative female.

 

I'm a survivor of domestic violence and discovered the Duggar's when i was pregnant.  They fascinated me, mostly because my situation, while so opposite of them, was somehow also exactly the same.  Minus the loneliness.   I always envied that bond the sisters always had and how they never seemed to be alone.  Not alone as in a minute of privacy,  but alone as in they always had someone to talk to or help them.  I've always kept to myself without friends and had to grow up fast since my parents were abusive and I left home as soon as I was 18,  although I was in group homes well before that. My mom died before I was 21 and I never had any other family. So my entire fascination with them was based on "what if". 

But now that my daughter is 3 and I am in my 40s, I realize how lucky I am to have the freedom I have to be myself and not be forced to be what someone else says is acceptable.   I don't care if I am alone or have no friends or family.  I have my daughter and she will grow up with the freedom to be herself no matter who that is.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, beepy13 said:

True, but it sure cracked me up when he said he learned it from Jessa! 

I liked that Kendra said that he needed to break that habit because the future children have to learn good habits. Kendra was engaging, respectful and normal with the greeks, very well mannered and was just laughing and enjoying the "opa!" part when the greek lady gave the kisses to Joe while he was kinda freaked out. I hope all of this rubs off to Joe, and their kids learn from Kendra. 

Her giggling might me annoying but I really liked her in this episode.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was also pleasantly suprised by Kendra.

Before we only saw the awkward giggly part of her, I feel we got to see more of her personality now and I like it. Although their children will grow up with an awfull religion, at least they will have a loving mother and a warm home. Something that the Duggars were definitely missing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The plate licking to me is just a reminder of early days when they didn't always have enough to eat. 

I also like Kendra. The giggling is annoying but she is very young still. Hopefully it tones down some as she matures. That doesn't change the fact that she still has awful beliefs though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a system in place so that we could have well-educated trash collectors, fast-food workers, and SAHMs. That system was called high school. A high school diploma used to be meaningful and entail a lot of hard work and sometimes sacrifice. Somewhere along the way it got devalued and in many cases dumbed down to worthlessness. 

And now it appears that the value of a bachelor’s degree is going the same direction. Part of it has to do with the gatekeepers. I have seen professions that once only required undergraduate education now requiring a PhD. Did the job change that much? Hardly. But national licensing boards have to keep up the exclusivity of their profession somehow, so tack on an extra degree requirement. 

The ignorance that we see in the Duggars could have been fixed with a solid high school education.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Abstract said:

omewhere along the way it got devalued and in many cases dumbed down to worthlessness. 

And now it appears that the value of a bachelor’s degree is going the same direction.

Because so many high schools churn out graduates who can't read, write, or do basic math. I read that the *majority* of students entering some state colleges/universities need remedial courses in English and math. It's ridiculous.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The biggest issue I see with US education is the fact that most schools have not fully evolved their curriculums to the changing world and workforce. Most of my 60 YO teacher friends are still working. The world has changed a lot in the nearly 40 years they’ve been educating students, and our educational systems have not done a great job overall of keeping up-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me, the issue of a post high school education for a stay at home parent is important given there is always the chance the might become a working parent at some point (either through death, or divorce or leaving an unlivable situation).  It is super, super hard for one person to live on minimum wage, let alone a woman/man with children to support as well.  

I've said this on the board as well, but my niece has a BA while my nephew does not, but he easily makes as much as her as he's an electrician.

Also regarding a university education, my niece who is in her late 20s, has often said she felt really mislead by her high school guidance counselors regarding getting a Uni degree and what would happen afterwards regarding employment and income.  She still had to scramble for a job afterwards and work her way up to the position she has now, which is not relevant to her degree, and for which she had to take some college courses to get a certificate that is relevant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

most schools have not fully evolved their curriculums to the changing world and workforce. Most of my 60 YO teacher friends are still working. The world has changed a lot in the nearly 40 years they’ve been educating students, and our educational systems have not done a great job overall of keeping up-

But that doesn't even come close to addressing the fact that so many high school graduates can't read or do math. And don't even get me started on the ability to write using proper spelling or grammar.

I've seen J-school grads who can't write or spell, who don't understand the use of object pronouns, and who consistently use double subjects.

Shall we discuss the Oxford comma now? Because I'm a firm believer in its use, no ifs, ands, or buts.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was most impressed by Ben this episode.  The he was only one of the featured talking heads (minus Jeremy's one addition) to name a figure from Greek mythology, he made dinner and did not he was "babysitting" his own kids, was considerate enough to put a stuffy under his son's head, he planned for Jessa have some girl time on their anniversary, his impressive drawing skills, and his overall vocabulary.  Granted this is all fairly normal behaviour but the Duggars and the DILs seem to fall short with their SOTDRT education and rigid gender roles.

I liked Kendra's attitude but maybe it is just her lack of experience beyond her hometown that she was hesitant to try new foods.  Or maybe she is really picky about textures!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There isn't a problem with working a service sector job and never pursuing higher education or technical training. My problem with the Duggar's education attitude is pretty simple. They have obvious disdain for traditional, public education. They still go to doctors and dentists and employ lawyers, etc., so they clearly understand that you can't learn these things from a wisdom booklet. Education is the only way to progress into those professions and the Duggars are clearly opposed.

At the same time, they maintain a belief that the wives should stay home and raise kids and take care of the house. AND all this while not employing any family planning measures. FINALLY, they do these things while making it clear that they think *everyone* should live this way and that they are better than people who don't. Everyone should get married at 18 and have babies without a care and cobble together odd jobs while shunning traditional education. It's untenable.

I'm glad to see some in the second generation realizing that they can't afford the lifestyle their parents led them into without some changes - and some jobs! But I still wonder if any of them have health insurance or life insurance or disability insurance (for Austin especially). 

There is no shame in marrying young, working hard at a service sector job, and getting by humbly with your family. But our society would cease to function if everyone did what the Duggars and other fundie fams espouse. The world does not need all these quiverfuls of amateur web designers, photographers, "pianists", pilots, etc. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Pete Pickles said:

I’ve been driving for several hours, fighting toddlers to sleep far past bedtime, and generally tired, so I’ll start with that. 

I am going to assume you are not a millennial. My parents and many generations before mine have assigned great value to higher education. (I am NOT talking about basics like algebra, Spanish, and the like. I’m talking about the liberal arts education I and my peers received in college, which I still attest, even for those in the workforce, was largely a waste. I won’t be convinced otherwise due to personal experience and knowledge of others’ experiences.) For many older generations, an education was a wonderful privilege that they worked hard to achieve rather than just forking over a ton of money to purchase. It was a passageway to other opportunities rather than a requirement for a “good” job. Because it’s so much more common now to have a bachelor’s degree (again, among my age bracket, those currently finishing college in debt and struggling to find work, and in a myriad of other stupid situations just because they were pushed into college and didn’t have to be), many of these college grads feel like they have to either stay in school longer, or be a barista with an art degree. Had they left high school and been a barista to begin with, they’d at least have 4 years of experience behind them, not to mention a great deal of maturity and clarity about what they actually might like to do for a living. Instead, we have a bunch of entitled (because they’ve been told degree=“good” job) 22 year olds with $50k of debt who think they are too good to be postal workers and fry cooks. America still needs postal workers and fry cooks and shoot me for thinking those people shouldn’t be or feel obligated to spend a fortune and take a bunch of random courses to do those jobs.

We can’t really separate the financial aspect of it. This is America. We pay ridiculous prices for things we shouldn’t have to. A college education is fairly common for the high school grads I know, but the money to pay for it is not. That doesn’t stop the job force from getting more and more competitive, or student loans from being fairly easily accessible. (And yay, no payments for 4 or more years, which, at age 18, seems like a super long time because it actually is almost a quarter of your entire life at present. Plus, ya know, it’s college and it’ll open every door that’s out there because it did for my parents and they’ve raised me in that mindset even though it’s outdated and false.)

if a housewife/mom wants to have a degree she paid tons of money for and isn’t using, more power to her. I am one and I’m not pleased about it. I don’t think it makes me any better of a person or mother to have it, and I can certainly think of better ways to spend the monthly loan payments that could potentially enhance my kids’ experiences in life.

TL;DR: My opinions are tainted by my experience as a millennial. College used to be a step to better oneself but it has become just another requirement after high school, making the overall value of it minimized among my age group, yet we ruin our financial lives at 18 years old to get it. The men and women shoveling snow on my county roads probably don’t have higher education and I don’t see any reason why that should change just because it’s 2018, everyone else is doing it, and loans are available to children. 

Hey, hi! I’m a millennial and I believe everyone should have the opportunity to get a college degree, even janitors and sanitation workers and fast food workers. And if state schools were free we could make that happen without crushing everyone with debt. Why? Because education for its own sake is worthwhile. Because there’s far too many people who genuinely believe in Ancient Aliens, flat earth, and vaccines are more dangerous than polio. Many of these ideas take hold in people because, like the Duggars, they have a sub-par education in history, math, and science. The Duggars not knowing any greek gods tells me that they likely have minimal world history education, and probably zero pre-christian history. Which is tragic because that kind of miopic world view is a big contributor to racist ideas, in my experience. People who think that Europe is the cradle of civilization are more likely to think non-Europeans are less intelligent and less civilized. 

I also agree with those that said that highschool educational standards are a problem. There are people are coming out of highschool without the skills to write a one page paper or do basic algebra. That’s something that really needs to be addressed. Underpaying and undervaluing our teachers and public schools is not helping.

If higher education was publicly funded like it is in many other wealthy countries, the debt would be a non-issue. AND if unskilled workers were paid a living wage, there wouldn’t be so much pressure on kids who are uninterested in academia to go on to higher education anyway. Because yes, we absolutely still need waiters and janitors and cashiers. But when they don’t make enough money to live, what’s the answer everyone gives them? Go to college!

Look, my point is: Discouraging higher education isn’t the answer to the debt issue and education is worthwhile for more than a person’s money-making potential. Sure, not everyone is cut out for it, but everyone who is and wants to should be able to go without drowning in debt. Even if they never do anything with their degree. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am  of a sneaking suspicion that of all the Duggerlings and Dugger-adjacents, Ben has is near the top in natural curiosity and critical thinking skills.

I also remind myself that Jeremy was an athlete at a Divison One school. Most of athletes I've know at big-time athletic schools, no matter the sport,  really didn't get as much as they should have--or wanted-- out of their [free, or mostly free] college educations--because the athletics took up so.much.freaking.time.

 

My husband and I honeymooned in Greece, partly at the Grand Bretagne and in Santorini. I believe that we pledged to each other at the time to never ever say "Its Greek to Me."*

 

*uttering that was probably grounds for being stabbed with a steak knife, held in whatever way.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Buzzard locked this topic

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.