Maxwell 28: You Can Leave Your Vest On!

[daisyjane1234]

Following the 2500 post I went back and read Anna's post on why she won't attend college. While I don't agree with her choices, certainly one can respect not wanting to go into debt, or that college is irrelevant for her life choice of being a wife/mother -something that is as unlikely as college I think.  But she also noted that many college students return from college less "spiritually mature" than when they left and she does not want to risk such a thing.  

Does that mean she is fully spiritually mature now.  That's what she seems to be saying.  Once again Maxwell modesty and humility at play.

And we studied phases of spiritual growth as part of my MA in Theology.  The Maxwell's particular worldview would place them with the preschoolers.

[Lisafer]

21 minutes ago, daisyjane1234 said:

Following the 2500 post I went back and read Anna's post on why she won't attend college. While I don't agree with her choices, certainly one can respect not wanting to go into debt, or that college is irrelevant for her life choice of being a wife/mother -something that is as unlikely as college I think.  But she also noted that many college students return from college less "spiritually mature" than when they left and she does not want to risk such a thing.  

Does that mean she is fully spiritually mature now.  That's what she seems to be saying.  Once again Maxwell modesty and humility at play.

And we studied phases of spiritual growth as part of my MA in Theology.  The Maxwell's particular worldview would place them with the preschoolers.

I don't know when Anna wrote the post you're referring to, but I'd expect that kind of arrogance from a teenager. I remember being that spiritually arrogant about that time in my life. 

And then real life smacked me upside the head. Unfortunately Anna's rather sheltered from actual people and experiences.

[Fun-Dee]

I just read the post on all that has happened in the past years, and one thing that bothered me is when listing all of the grandchildren, she added the name Maxwell every.single.time!  Yes, we know they are all Maxwells!

[anjulibai]

Steve is obsessed with his name. It's why they say the last name over and over, and why they don't mention anyone else's last name, for the most part, on the blog. And I honestly believe he doesn't want non-Maxwell grandchildren. 

I think it's tied into the fact that Maxwell is not his birth name. 

Just another example of how messed up in the head he is. 

[Palimpsest]

5 hours ago, punkiepie said:

It really irked me on the 2500 post when Sarah wrote "Our family almost tripled in size, from 11 people to 28, but really 29, as we count Melanie’s baby due in May (and with Susannah, we’d have 30)."

But where does Sarah even get the 11? 

Teri had 3 non-reversals and 5 reversals.  That makes 8 children.  With  Steve and Teri, that makes 10.  Teri also had had 2 miscarriages.  If we are really counting the unborn -- that makes 12 "originals."

Fundie math.  They tweak it according to their mood.

 

 

[anjulibai]

I know there was a miscarriage after Mary, when was the other miscarriage? 

Fundies are weird about counting miscarriages. Sometimes they count, sometimes they don't. 

ETA: Oh, Melanie is included in that 11 - she's in that first picture they posted. 

Though, I thought they were online longer than 12 years ago. Well enough before Melanie and Nathan got married. 

[filomena1815]

Well, if they are counting from the beginning of the blog, according to the picture, Melanie is included. I wondered too until I realized that must be the explanation.

 

[Fun-Dee]

24 minutes ago, anjulibai said:

I know there was a miscarriage after Mary, when was the other miscarriage? 

Fundies are weird about counting miscarriages. Sometimes they count, sometimes they don't. 

ETA: Oh, Melanie is included in that 11 - she's in that first picture they posted. 

Though, I thought they were online longer than 12 years ago. Well enough before Melanie and Nathan got married. 

They have been online longer than 12 years, but possibly just doing the mom and dad corners.  Those go back before Mary was born.  I've read some of the really old ones.  If I remember right, Terri tells the story of when she first started homeschooling, and just couldn't handle it.  Steve told her to shut the kids in their rooms all day, and he would do the schooling when he got home from work.  Now I need to go find that post, because it sounds horrible, even for Maxwell standards.  

Other little gems you will find, is the story of Mary getting her teeth fixed, and the dentist having the audacity to ask Mary her opinion!

[kpmom]

48 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

But where does Sarah even get the 11? 

.

 

 

They began the blog after Nathan and Melanie were married, so I wonder if she’s counting Teri and Steve, their 8 kids, and Melanie?

 

[Elegant Mess]

19 minutes ago, kpmom said:

They began the blog after Nathan and Melanie were married, so I wonder if she’s counting Teri and Steve, their 8 kids, and Melanie?

 

I think so, especially since there are 11 people in the photo right above that statement in her blog post.

She also mentioned that there were 27,724 comments.  Does that total include the ones that we know were submitted but didn't get past Steve?

[anjulibai]

37 minutes ago, Fun-Dee said:

They have been online longer than 12 years, but possibly just doing the mom and dad corners.  Those go back before Mary was born.  I've read some of the really old ones.  If I remember right, Terri tells the story of when she first started homeschooling, and just couldn't handle it.  Steve told her to shut the kids in their rooms all day, and he would do the schooling when he got home from work.  Now I need to go find that post, because it sounds horrible, even for Maxwell standards.  

Other little gems you will find, is the story of Mary getting her teeth fixed, and the dentist having the audacity to ask Mary her opinion!

I remember the teeth fixed one. That, I think, occurred about the time I started following them, which was 10 years ago. It's so bizarre that asking a child how they feel is considered such a horror. 

[treemom]

Here is the orthodontist daring to ask Mary’s opinion post.

 

https://articles.titus2.com/whose-mouth-is-it/

I forgot how ranty and log the dad’s corners could get.

[treemom]

So I was trying to find the corner where Terri talks about how she shut the kids In the room for the day and Steve homeschooled after he got home from work  and I have fallen down a rabbit hole of Maxwells and Maxwell sadness.

Here is Terri's letter to her parents about homeschooling because they are going to hate it because she doesn’t really like her kids. (Homeschooling did not make that better.  Her kids getting older did, combined with the oldest and youngest set having such a big divide the older ones could help put with the younger ones as they arrived)

https://articles.titus2.com/seventeen-down-thirteen-to-go/

Here we have the sad pancake story where she uses the phrase “pride over wanting to be paid attention to” when she expected Steve to actually do what he said he would.

https://articles.titus2.com/case-against-anger-part-1/

An officer would totally be pissed if he pulled you over three times a day.  One of the more scary things about Steve is his need for no one to ever be angry.  Angry is an emotion and we feel it sometimes.  That is ok.  Behavior, yes we need to watch it and improve.  But refusing to feel angry is not healthy.

https://articles.titus2.com/3-key-steps-to-destressing-life-with-children/

How do you deal with the pull smartphones can have?  By scheduling computer time.  (The answer is always use a schedule) 

https://articles.titus2.com/the-modern-curse/

Steve grieved over this day.  Like it seems like he acted fine,  yeah he was angry, I think that’s a normal response but he realized it was an accident and he said he kept his composure (unles...Steve is lying)

https://articles.titus2.com/love-your-wife/

I have reached my maxwell threshold for the day.  But maybe one day I will find that utterly depressing mom’s corner.

[16strong]

They admitted in the comments that they made a counting mistake. Even the Maxwells themselves don't know how many kids there are.

[Granwych]

1 hour ago, treemom said:

Here is the orthodontist daring to ask Mary’s opinion post.

 

https://articles.titus2.com/whose-mouth-is-it/

I forgot how ranty and log the dad’s corners could get.

Nothing's changed.

[Melissa1977]

9 hours ago, treemom said:

Here is Terri's letter to her parents about homeschooling because they are going to hate it because she doesn’t really like her kids. (Homeschooling did not make that better.  Her kids getting older did, combined with the oldest and youngest set having such a big divide the older ones could help put with the younger ones as they arrived)

https://articles.titus2.com/seventeen-down-thirteen-to-go/

OMG! It's worse than I could imagine.

It's always shocking that such an hypocrite family has such sincere posts sometimes. Teri has always been so transparent about her lack of mothering abilities and about the fact she didn't enjoyed her children. The funny thing is that she's so stubborn that cannot understand that other mothers actually enjoy children! 

Her message is: children suck but it's your duty to have them, isolation sucks but you cannot have a job, cooking sucks and actually you are not required to make edible meals.

[danvillebelle]

9 hours ago, treemom said:

So I was trying to find the corner where Terri talks about how she shut the kids In the room for the day and Steve homeschooled after he got home from work

Not defending their awful parenting, but...that anecdote was in the Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit book, and I don't think it actually happened, or if it did, it was only one day.  Steve presented that as an option when Teri was frustrated and said she wanted to put the kids in Christian school.  

[treemom]

1 hour ago, danvillebelle said:

Not defending their awful parenting, but...that anecdote was in the Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit book, and I don't think it actually happened, or if it did, it was only one day.  Steve presented that as an option when Teri was frustrated and said she wanted to put the kids in Christian school.  

Thanks.  That sounds about right.  That was the utterly depressing part....that Steve preferred to have his kids in a room and teach them after work.  Not actually caring about the fact that Terri was overwhelmed and resolving that, no they must homeschool so that they can have obsessive control over everything.

[daisyjane1234]

10 hours ago, Granwych said:

Nothing's changed.

Can't teach girls and women too early that their bodies and their thoughts are never their own.  Only men get to decide what goes on, or in, female bodies and minds.

 

[Lisafer]

1 hour ago, Melissa1977 said:

OMG! It's worse than I could imagine.

It's always shocking that such an hypocrite family has such sincere posts sometimes. Teri has always been so transparent about her lack of mothering abilities and about the fact she didn't enjoyed her children. The funny thing is that she's so stubborn that cannot understand that other mothers actually enjoy children! 

Her message is: children suck but it's your duty to have them, isolation sucks but you cannot have a job, cooking sucks and actually you are not required to make edible meals.

You're so right. I think the posts from years ago revealed a lot more of Teri than she ever shows now. That letter is just sad. She was stressed to the max and yelling at her school-age son to get his homework done, and she and her husband decide homeschooling would be a good idea? She knew her parents wouldn't be happy, that's probably why she wrote a letter, so she didn't have to face their objections.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I can always relate to Teri because I would be absolutely miserable too if I had 8 children and had to homeschool them. But that’s where it stops. Teri had a choice and she chose to be a martyr. I chose not to be a martyr so I stopped at two children and put them in school. 

[crawfishgirl]

13 hours ago, treemom said:

Here is the orthodontist daring to ask Mary’s opinion post.

 

https://articles.titus2.com/whose-mouth-is-it/

I forgot how ranty and log the dad’s corners could get.

Asking someone's opinion on a topic that affects them is just the polite thing to do in most circumstances.  

Sometimes asking people for their opinions is essentially a way to get a buy-in to a decision - that method is commonly used in the corporate environment.  I had a manager who would lay the groundwork for a decision and knew what she wanted, but would phrase things so that the team thought that they were the ones with the idea, so that they would be supportive of the change.

It could also be a way to make sure the person in question has provided all of the relevant details.  My teenager currently has braces, and they will ask her for her opinion to make sure that everything has been discussed. I'm sure that they are fully aware that she is a minor, but she has a right to provide input on something that affects her so closely.

[MamaJunebug]

14 hours ago, treemom said:

Here is the orthodontist daring to ask Mary’s opinion post.

 

https://articles.titus2.com/whose-mouth-is-it/

I forgot how ranty and log the dad’s corners could get.

And that hussy orthodontist was a FEMALE!  Insult to injury in Maxworld. 

4 hours ago, danvillebelle said:

Not defending their awful parenting, but...that anecdote was in the Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit book, and I don't think it actually happened, or if it did, it was only one day.  Steve presented that as an option when Teri was frustrated and said she wanted to put the kids in Christian school.  

I don't recall being “locked in their rooms all day” as part of the story. What I recall is Steve saying (snidely, I’m sure)  Teri should babysit them til he came home (poor, heroic Dad!) to do the schooling (poor, heroic Dad!).  

[treemom]

36 minutes ago, MamaJunebug said:

And that hussy orthodontist was a FEMALE!  Insult to injury in Maxworld. 

I don't recall being “locked in their rooms all day” as part of the story. What I recall is Steve saying (snidely, I’m sure)  Teri should babysit them til he came home (poor, heroic Dad!) to do the schooling (poor, heroic Dad!).  

It definitely involved putting the boys in their room.  It probably was as discipline. 

[MamaJunebug]

5 minutes ago, treemom said:

It definitely involved putting the boys in their room.  It probably was as discipline. 

Ah, yes — those sports-deprived pre-reversals. I stand corrected.