Bates 25: Moving The Kids Out of the House

[AliceInFundyland]

On 12/12/2018 at 7:49 AM, Pecansforeveryone said:

I forget the Bates have a show. I wonder if the Bates would be less devastated by the loss of their show than the Duggars since it's not as well-known as the Duggars. Have the Bates ever gotten a book deal? I realize the Bates are celebrities in IBLP circles. I just think they are barely known in popular culture. I forget about them on a regular basis, and I'm on a fundie forum. 

Yes, we have heated debates here that I describe to “Not Mr. Alice” and he is just like, “why do you validate these morons with discussion”

I do think if any Bates or Duggar legit broke free and wanted to write something very honest, it would sell. There are tons of memoirs of breaking free from cults of all sorts. Good and bad. One of them could do quite well with this. Hell, if Josh positioned himself right he could make money. Although, that’s gross. I sort of like the idea of him writing a tell-all with Anna to get them both out, separate, and provide for their kids. (In like a fantasy world - but honesty sells)

And anything crappy they wrote would sell too. They have humper fans. (Duggars probably more so)

[CaptainFunderpants]

On 12/12/2018 at 7:40 AM, just_ordinary said:

This, and there is the thing that people are often more interested in the girls. (Interesting fact that baby girls/girls “sell” better on TV or the SM influencer world. It’s kind of sad, wonder if that is because content about motherhood/pregnancy/parenting is mostly watched by women? But why should they be more into girls when you always have a 50/50 chance?) 

Their relationships and weddings are probably very good selling points when they talk to UP about renewing the contract for another season. The big question is what will happen when Katie is married (not far away I guess). Will Lawson have to step up? He at least has enough fans to be interesting to the audience or maybe Nathan working the broken heart angle?

Guessing it's because there are more girls/women with bubbly personalities that actually talk and gossip and are fairly enthusiastic and consumed with family life, and so it makes you invested in them personally. The shows based around men tend to feature guys doing crazy/stupid things and are fun to watch, but do you truly care about them and feel like you know them? The women's shows excel at kind of making you feel like you know them.

[Pecansforeveryone]

@AliceInFundyland, oh I very much enjoy reading the memoirs of those who have left fundamentalism. I would probably peruse a possible memoir by Josh even if I hated myself for doing so. 

[miss_batson]

[Melissa1977]

It must be hard for Michael. When you want babies, infertility sucks. In addition, watching every single one of your siblings having one kid after another, and not being allowed to complain about your bad luck, sounds like a nightmare and traumatic. 

I want to believe Michael. I want to believe that she works in contentment and that her focus is marriage and that it's enough for her. But there's a shadow of sadness that makes me think she's doing what she's expected to, while she's supressing her feelings.

Although I can't imagine Michael leaving fundamentalism (nor even turning mainstream), if she'd did she would be a very interesting testimony of how *keeping sweet* and patriarchy destroy women. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

The Bateses are friends with the Rayneses and I thought this was kind of a funny Christmas card. I’m glad my family never put out group Christmas cards when we became adults because my siblings got married and had kids way before me so I would have been like Emily. However I would have had a sign saying “happily single and childless.” I enjoyed my single and childless years quite a bit. 

[onyourwayhome]

I think in that way Michael isn’t different from a lot some struggling with infertility. If you really want to have a baby and it isn’t happening, you have to try to go on. I don’t think there is anything special about her fundyness in that approach. Maybe she would have a job if she wasn’t in fundyland / but if your desire is to be a SAHM, that would just be a minor distraction - and maybe not one you even enjoy. 

[miss_batson]

Bates family photo and grandchildren photo

 

[Flossie]

That's impressive.  They've got all the kids except the sleeping infants looking at the camera and smiling.

What a happy and good looking bunch.  No wonder they're so dangerous.

[AussieKrissy]

On 12/23/2018 at 9:07 PM, Melissa1977 said:

It must be hard for Michael. When you want babies, infertility sucks. In addition, watching every single one of your siblings having one kid after another, and not being allowed to complain about your bad luck, sounds like a nightmare and traumatic. 

I want to believe Michael. I want to believe that she works in contentment and that her focus is marriage and that it's enough for her. But there's a shadow of sadness that makes me think she's doing what she's expected to, while she's supressing her feelings.

Although I can't imagine Michael leaving fundamentalism (nor even turning mainstream), if she'd did she would be a very interesting testimony of how *keeping sweet* and patriarchy destroy women. 

You summed up exactly what I thought, the instant that I saw all the mothers and kids on the pew pic

[miss_batson]

Little Bates Christmas photos

 

[Melissa1977]

Callie and Ellie seem to be wearing old hand-me-downs that don't even fit them. And black is a difficult colour to dress children, unless you use really modern or really classy clothes, which those outfits are not. Is it that hard to buy those girls a couple cute dresses? And winter shoes, please? It wasn't an ordinary day, it was the Christmas photoshot.

I edit because I thought Jeb and Jud were well groomed but I looked again and they wore too small or too big clothes. 

Kelly has no time for shopping. Ahem.

[Audrey2]

I feel sorry for the five youngest Bateses. Kelly handed them off to sister moms from birth (if I remember correctly, she assigns a sister mom before they are born, and I don't think she waits six months to hand them off, unlike Michelle Duggar did.), and now their sister moms have left and married. Yes, I know that all would have been sister moms at their age, or the age the boys are. I don't think they really have someone looking out for them, even if they don't need as much help at the day to day stuff.

[lumpentheologie]

On 12/24/2018 at 4:31 AM, onyourwayhome said:

I think in that way Michael isn’t different from a lot some struggling with infertility. If you really want to have a baby and it isn’t happening, you have to try to go on. I don’t think there is anything special about her fundyness in that approach.

Infertility is surely devastating for anyone who wants a child, but their cult fetishizes having as many children as possible. So much so that Michael and her siblings fasted in hopes that it would get their mother pregnant with their 17th, 18th, 19th siblings. They really think having a ton of children is the highest possible calling for a woman.  Not being a nurturing, loving mother, (since Kelly didn't do much of that), just physically producing as many humans for Jesus as possible. You can't even kind of make up for that by loving and caring for other children. 

That and never being allowed to express any negative emotion while abjectly wondering why God doesn't think you're worthy to "bless" with children has got to be a special kind of hell. Especially when your education and horizons are so limited that you probably can't even imagine doing anything else with your life.  The cult makes it almost impossible for them to "try to go on" in the ways that even a pretty conservative Christian would. 

[formergothardite]

35 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

(if I remember correctly, she assigns a sister mom before they are born, and I don't think she waits six months to hand them off, unlike Michelle Duggar did.)

Yes she did. The buddy was the only one who got to know if it was a boy or a girl before the baby was born. Kelly truly checked out with the young ones and there seems to be no indication she decided to go back to mothering once the sister moms got married. These poor kids. They are being raised on reality television and their parents have no desire to parent them. 

[just_ordinary]

16 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

Callie and Ellie seem to be wearing old hand-me-downs that don't even fit them. And black is a difficult colour to dress children, unless you use really modern or really classy clothes, which those outfits are not. Is it that hard to buy those girls a couple cute dresses? And winter shoes, please? It wasn't an ordinary day, it was the Christmas photoshot.

I edit because I thought Jeb and Jud were well groomed but I looked again and they wore too small or too big clothes. 

Kelly has no time for shopping. Ahem.

I think they all look alright. But I also don’t get the hate for black on children some people have. In my eyes the girls look quite stylish.

In that age children grow so fast that hand-me downs are real money savers. And most people I know don’t fit perfectly into off-the-peg clothes. Growing bodies aren’t growing very symmetrical so things often look too short/long/wide/tight. In the boys case maybe the arms or the torso are longer and the rest has to catch up. I cannot blame them for not buying new coordinating outfits for every photo shooting. Their obsession with everyone wearing the same colours is annoying enough.

About dressing right for the temperature- I wondered if they were cold but from the backgrounds I am not sure when those photos were actually taken. They said that they don‘t have everyone over for Christmas or Thanksgiving. They probably took the photos earlier this year. But who knows. I wouldn’t put it past Kelly and Gil to make their children freeze with a smile.

[Lurky]

On 12/26/2018 at 11:54 PM, AussieKrissy said:

You summed up exactly what I thought, the instant that I saw all the mothers and kids on the pew pic

This kind of thing must be continual, too.  In that mega-family photo a few posts up, they're specifically seated with Gil and Kelly in the middle, then the other *mothers* sat around them, in the pride of place spots.  I bet this happens continually in these families - and in the same way as any married daughter is given a higher status than any unmarried older sister.  There are so many hierarchies in these families, and weird status markers, like who gets to stand, and who has to crouch etc etc - it's like being in some royal court, and I'm really interested these across the various families - and especially in the marks of favour I am probably missing, as I don't have the cultural contexts.

[Kangaroo]

12 hours ago, just_ordinary said:

They probably took the photos earlier this year. But who knows. I wouldn’t put it past Kelly and Gil to make their children freeze with a smile.

The photos are very recent, within the last two weeks.

Alyssa showed on her Instagram story she was flying to Tennessee for Christmas (though they were back in Florida by Christmas Day), and the all the kids outfits in their individual photos are consistent with the group photos.

There were also several Instagram stories of the photos being taken by several people, such as Carlin and Lawson.

 

[Vivi_music]

14 hours ago, just_ordinary said:

About dressing right for the temperature- I wondered if they were cold but from the backgrounds I am not sure when those photos were actually taken. 

I was wondering the same thing about them dressing up for the weather. But what is the usual december temperature in Tennesse? Where I live, december is coat, scarf, tuque and boots weather so I was thinking it might be milder there.

[fluffernutter]

They hired (or used a photographer friend) to take pics of xmas. They are a lot different than the Duggars in that way. All we got from them was a pic of the boob and J'chelle doing some weird manger scene. And yes, individually the duggar offspring posted xmas pics. But not really family pics if you know what I mean.

[miss_batson]

Couples and baby photos

Middle Bates kids and older unmarried

 

[lumpentheologie]

I bet we're going to get one or more baby announcement pictures from this photoshoot in the next 2 months. 

[singsingsing]

2 minutes ago, lumpentheologie said:

I bet we're going to get one or more baby announcement pictures from this photoshoot in the next 2 months. 

I wouldn't be surprised if there were one or more within the next 2 days. The new season starts on January 2nd, right?

[lumpentheologie]

Just now, singsingsing said:

I wouldn't be surprised if there were one or more within the next 2 days. The new season starts on January 2nd, right?

Jan 3rd.  Earlier I predicted Whitney would announce on the 1st, and I still think she might. But they could also roll out announcements for Josie, Alyssa, and/or Erin in the next few months.  Batch pregnancy announcement photos!  

[Jigsaw3]

Good for Whitney for wearing jeans in the official photos.