Jana 8: Now with Instagram

[HarleyQuinn]

I don't know, Jana has been so marinated in the koolaid, I'm not sure "staying in the girls room to protect her sisters" is actually a thing. If she was offered another room, JB&M probably shamed the hell out of her for thinking of taking it during said offer. 

[theotherelise]

I mostly believe Jana feels/acts exactly how she tells us she feels/acts. I don't think there are any conscious layers to her actions or hidden feelings she is hoping people notice. Jana has said she's not out to marry the first guy who asked and she's waiting for "the one."  She has said that waiting for the one is not always easy and that when she feels discouraged, she looks for ways to bless and serve others around her, as her parents encouraged. She encouraged other singles to be content and joyfully serve Jesus wherever God has them. Jana said her parents offered her a room to move into but she declined because she likes sharing with her little sisters. 

She's not Jessa. Just because we feel like some of her feelings and decisions are based on her indoctrination doesn't mean she is hiding something. 

[tabitha2]

Jana is largely a blank slate. People see what they want to see. 

[Mama Mia]

5 hours ago, SorenaJ said:

It would be so efficient if they combined all their home-schooling at the TTH, because then you could separate them into groups of similar age, making it easier to teach, while someone was watching the little kiddos who were not old enough for schooling, so each mum wouldn't have to deal with a screaming 2 year old whilst teaching the 6 year old to read. 

It could go like: 

Group 1: Jordyn, Josie, Mackynzie, Michael 
Group 2: Marcus, Israel, Meredith 
Group 3: Spurgeon, Henry, Samuel, Mason 
Group 4: Gideon, Garrett, (Felicity), Threewald 

They might even do some of that as time goes on. Anna is the only 2nd generation one with actual school age children so far, and she seems to do a fair amount of activities that involve her kids and Jordyn, Josie, Jennie etc. 

How close to each other do they all live? If they’re within 20 minutes or so I could see doing 2-3 co-op “big house” days a week, and the rest at home, especially as the school age group gets larger.

[viii]

I think people give Jana a lot more credit than she deserves. I think people project way too much depth on to her, and it always bothers me that she gets a pass for living their toxic beliefs because people are certain she's there to 'protect'. I think it's much more likely that she just believes the same as the rest of her family. 

[seraaa]

12 hours ago, HurricaneBells said:

We could all be wrong and this could be time she really values. The girls are older now and don't need her mothering them as much so maybe have a more sibling type relationship these days. They probably adore her... as little sisters do. 

Yes. So much of this is supposition based on what people think she probably wants, but we don't actually know anything

Edited February 5, 2019 by seraaa

[wandering woman]

Jana seems content with her life. I have no idea why she continues to share a bedroom with her sisters or why she has chosen to stay single. There is no way of knowing any of this.

[SassyPants]

It’s very hard to have a conversation about adult Jana because speculation about adult issues is taboo here with regards to adult fundies who still live at home. There’s really not much to talk about a 29 YO woman? Young lady? Who basically lives the life of a 12 YO, AND even worse, doesn’t do anything that an average 12 YO does. Does Laura also live in the TTH? If so, does Laura have the same restrictions that Jana does? Is Jana more a Mary Poppins vs Cinderella? Does Jana have any adult relationships with peers other than the people whose children she seems to babysit (AKA, her sisters)?

[seraaa]

10 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

It’s very hard to have a conversation about adult Jana because speculation about adult issues is taboo here with regards to adult fundies who still live at home. There’s really not much to talk about a 29 YO woman? Young lady? Who basically lives the life of a 12 YO, AND even worse, doesn’t do anything that an average 12 YO does. Does Laura also live in the TTH? If so, does Laura have the same restrictions that Jana does? Is Jana more a Mary Poppins vs Cinderella? Does Jana have any adult relationships with peers other than the people whose children she seems to babysit (AKA, her sisters)?

I imagine she knows people in church groups and things, because not everyone they know will feature on the TV programmme 

Edited February 5, 2019 by seraaa

[tabitha2]

She enjoys going to the Journeys to the Heart, Big Sandy and other similar outings. She will surely have many close girlfriends in her off camera life.

[SassyPants]

Does journey have a program for 29 YO women?  Where would she meet with these close girlfriends? Big Sandy attracts people nation wide, not likely she’s going to coffee or shopping with any of those friends. What church do the Duggars attend? Photos , anyone?

[welshdoll]

@HarleyQuinn I agree with you. She is the second oldest of the children and has had more time to drink that fundie kool-aid. Enough so that JimBoob and J'chelle have given the wifi password and a lot of authority over the littles. I honestly don't see her breaking free. I have felt the same way about Michael Bates Keilen.

[tabitha2]

10 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

Does journey have a program for 29 YO women?  Where would she meet with these close girlfriends? Big Sandy attracts people nation wide, not likely she’s going to coffee or shopping with any of those friends. What church do the Duggars attend? Photos , anyone?

Yes, they have programs for adults as well. And She has been a councilor more than once. People come and visit the Duggars frequently and send their daughters to stay. And they can travel easy enough on John David Airlines As well to see friends. Besides Its 2019 not 1819. Anyone with a smart phone  can connect with people.

 

The idea that Jana meets 29 yr old  unmarried Godly Susie Q Fundie at an ATI meet up and they connect through shared experiences, hopes, fears, ETC is very realistic and more than likely And real talk you know that there are many like her . JB and M would probably be fine with a woman like that as a companion.   

 

The idea that Jana is a cloistered nun who never see’s or talks to anyone but family and has no friends but family is patently ridiculous 

[SecularMusic]

On February 3, 2019 at 9:04 AM, TheMustardCardigan said:

 I think Jana is probably just quite shy, has had limited opportunities to meet suitable fundie bachelors, and maybe has a very specific type of guy in mind that no one has measured up to yet.

Jana also seems more overtly religious than her sisters and maybe she struggles with the purity culture internally a little. It's so hammered into fundie women that when you are a virgin, you are valuable and special. Then you find a man, have a wedding where you're suddenly a spectacle and everyone in the room knows you're losing your virginity that night. It's all probably uncomfortable for a lot of these girls, and especially so for a girl that is shy. 

I agree with what you wrote about losing your special virgin status once you marry. I remember being excited, but a little sad as I prepared for m honeymoon. 

So much emphasis is placed on my wedding night that the rest of the honeymoon was a bit anticlimactic.

 

at least my church was ok with birth control other than the pill. Jana has to worry about going from a special virgin to a brood mare in less than a year.

I'm kinda sad that FJ's predictions about Jana marrying Tebow never came true. He's more fundie light and could have shown her the world beyond TTH while respecting her values. But, of course, like many eligible Christian men, he was looking for someone more sexy and glamorous and apparently found it on Miss Universe.

[Lurky]

Remember it's not just the Duggars at the TTH, as JB and M seem to really enjoy having extra young people living with them.  There are the spare fundy Maidens who come to teach the SotDRT, who also seem to stay in the girls' room, and then kids like the Hartonos who lived there for a few years, and other teenagers who've lived with them for short periods of time.  So I can imagine that while they have daughters at home to run the household, it will never be just Jackson and Tyler in the boys' dorm alone.

The weirdest thing about the TTH, to me, is that it would need major re-modelling to sell on, just because the set-up is so strange.  Those 2 rooms with HUGE floorspace, but they are domitories, for example.  Even if they plan to pass it down to (eg) Josh and Anna, it would be hard to live in for anything other than a mega-family, and it's definitely been designed with the filming in mind, and has things like the epic-sized pantry, but no school room.  Imagine their bills, for keeping that house going!   I'd cover the massive roof in solar panels, to solve one bill, but still, wow.

[HarleyQuinn]

17 hours ago, viii said:

I think people give Jana a lot more credit than she deserves. I think people project way too much depth on to her, and it always bothers me that she gets a pass for living their toxic beliefs because people are certain she's there to 'protect'. I think it's much more likely that she just believes the same as the rest of her family. 

This. I never buy she's purposely putting off kids or protecting her sisters or anything like that. Joy threatened the lost girls with getting Jana on an episode of 19KAC, clearly she's in charge of a lot of discipline. 

I understand wanting Jana, as a single almost 30 year old woman to break free but I think she's sometimes put on a pedestal. I think with all this time, her days of "maybe understanding why evolution makes sense" are far behind her. 

[welshdoll]

@HarleyQuinn, I agree. I think that she and John-D try to be a good example for the younger kids (especially since  Joshley got outed), but protecting them? I don't buy it. 

[Sullie06]

11 hours ago, SecularMusic said:

I agree with what you wrote about losing your special virgin status once you marry. I remember being excited, but a little sad as I prepared for m honeymoon. 

So much emphasis is placed on my wedding night that the rest of the honeymoon was a bit anticlimactic.

 

at least my church was ok with birth control other than the pill. Jana has to worry about going from a special virgin to a brood mare in less than a year.

I'm kinda sad that FJ's predictions about Jana marrying Tebow never came true. He's more fundie light and could have shown her the world beyond TTH while respecting her values. But, of course, like many eligible Christian men, he was looking for someone more sexy and glamorous and apparently found it on Miss Universe.

Tebow actually lived in my town for awhile. He was playing Baseball for our AA baseball team which is a Farm Team for the NY Mets. From what I've come to understand he isn't very nice. I've never personally talked to him but my brother ran into him a few times and he was arrogant, talked down to people and wouldn't even sign autographs for the kids. Seems like Jana lucked out there. 

[Mama Mia]

6 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

This. I never buy she's purposely putting off kids or protecting her sisters or anything like that. Joy threatened the lost girls with getting Jana on an episode of 19KAC, clearly she's in charge of a lot of discipline. 

I understand wanting Jana, as a single almost 30 year old woman to break free but I think she's sometimes put on a pedestal. I think with all this time, her days of "maybe understanding why evolution makes sense" are far behind her. 

To be fair, that episode seemed to be one of the first times that Joy was being pushed from the role of vaguely disinterested teen sibling who hangs out with the kids once in awhile, to being in charge of getting a group of small kids to do something.

While I’m sure she’d had to wrangle /help/watch them occasionally, I think up until then her experience had been more like most middle kids in a family - just going along doing her thing without a ton of responsibility, or babying. Just  amplified cause of the sheer number of kids. 

Her saying “I’ll get Jana” seemed like any frustrated sibling saying “knock it off or I’m telling!” . Jana might be a horribly harsh disciplinarian, she might be gentle as a lamb - but kids everywhere make the threat of telling an authority figure no matter that figures personality or discipline philosophy. 

IIRC , that episode the kids were doing something for the parents? So in that case it’s not really even strange that it’s Jana, not Mom or Dad that’s in charge. 

[Carm_88]

59 minutes ago, Mama Mia said:

IIRC , that episode the kids were doing something for the parents? So in that case it’s not really even strange that it’s Jana, not Mom or Dad that’s in charge. 

I'm pretty sure it was their anniversary or something, but yes it was a surprise for JB and Michelle. 

[HarleyQuinn]

17 hours ago, Mama Mia said:

 

IIRC , that episode the kids were doing something for the parents? So in that case it’s not really even strange that it’s Jana, not Mom or Dad that’s in charge. 

Yes, she was trying to teach them a song for their parent's anniversary and in her words they weren't "obeyin'" so that's why it struck me as disciplinary and not frustration, but you do make a good point too. I suppose it could go either way.

[Mama Mia]

3 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

Yes, she was trying to teach them a song for their parent's anniversary and in her words they weren't "obeyin'" so that's why it struck me as disciplinary and not frustration, but you do make a good point too. I suppose it could go either way.

Yea- “obey” always sounds so much harsher to me than “co-operate” “ or “do what I asked you” - although they mean essentially the same in that context. And obviously, from their own statements not obeying can have very extreme consequences. Although, given the startling difference in behavior from the robotic stepford children of the early specials - and the running amok on countertop howlers and lost- girls  - It appears the teen sis-mom’s didn’t (thankfully) hold up the same standards. I would be shocked if there wasn’t some corporeal punishment - even the public schools there hit kids with boards. But it’s more likely the occasional smack as ones running by than the ritualized abuse of blanket training. 

That could be from a feeling of protection, or just not giving a f#@$&, or just being tired and outnumbered. Or a combo. JB & Michelle seem a lot more like visiting grandparents by the point the youngest were toddlers. Helping out, but not the ones who are really in charge. 

 

[Pecansforeveryone]

I still remember Jordyns birthday videos where she seems to be cringing away from Michelle's touch. It was multiple videos so I can't write it off as one awkward video. I do consider Michelle to be very much a surrogate grandma figure and to a lesser extent Jim Bob a surrogate grandpa. 

[JPatti]

Conjecture:

I have to wonder if maybe Jana realized, as her sisters left the nest, that she was able to perhaps make up for some lost childhood since Michelle and JB suddenly had more time for her.

She was probably the child that had to "adult" the most and the earliest. She clearly displays the Stockholm Syndrome-like agreement with her parents' cult.  Even though she agrees with everything she has been through, and hopes to emulate Michelle, she has been working full time from very young and lost a lot of childhood time.

This may have resulted in a woman who is immature for her age in many ways and even on a very deep level "wants her mommy."  She knows how to wrangle children and run a household, but she very clearly never got to be one of the carefree children in the pack (or not for very long, anyway).  Maybe (consciously or unconsciously) she figures, now is her time to get some of it back.

I'm not trying to say anything bad about Jana, just pondering why she is seemingly contented staying put as the years go by.

Edited February 7, 2019 by JPatti
Edited to clarify an idea.

[TatiFish9]

Yesterday, Laura was doing another ask me anything. She says she was never a tutor, but was homeschooled.

She also stated she met Jana at conferences a loooooong <----- (she typed it like this) time ago.