Seewalds 42: Trying to Stay Relevant

[HereticHick]

2 hours ago, TuringMachine said:

I found the tweet. He did vote, we just don't know for whom

 

He also tweeted this yesterday in response for someone acusing him of being a hypocrite for calling out Trump advisor Paula White yet being an alleged Trump supporter:

Edited November 7, 2019 by HereticHick

[AprilQuilt]

Good for Ben. I do admire his integrity on that one. It's hard to resist the political binary, whichever side you're on.

That said, I wish he felt he could just, you know, listen to rap music. Sucks that it needs to be Christian in content for him to get on board. There's a lot he'd probably enjoy if he let himself.

[LacyMay]

Ben might be a manchild who is "employed" by his father in law. But at the very least he does seem capable of some critical thought. 

I feel like if I was forced to be at a dinner party with him I could have polite conversation and not want to leave in a blind rage. 

[TZmom]

45 minutes ago, LacyMay said:

Ben might be a manchild who is "employed" by his father in law. But at the very least he does seem capable of some critical thought. 

I feel like if I was forced to be at a dinner party with him I could have polite conversation and not want to leave in a blind rage. 

This is why I still have hope for Ben. He was married into extremism very young (after a very conservative upbringing), and he's been trapped there by the babies. But he does have enough brainpower not to blindly follow the Trumpers surrounding him. And as inarticulate as he seems at time, I think he is genuinely interested in learning. Maybe some bigger cracks in his foundation will appear over the years, and he can get out.

This also gives me hope for Jessa. While I believe she still wears the pants in the family, he is her headship and she'll do what he wants. When the TV money dries up, I can see them moving farther away from this lifestyle—if they don't end up with more babies than they can handle. If they keep breeding at their current rate, they're going to become dependent on the aunt-moms, and they'll be stuck.

[LacyMay]

5 hours ago, TZmom said:

This also gives me hope for Jessa. While I believe she still wears the pants in the family, he is her headship and she'll do what he wants. When the TV money dries up, I can see them moving farther away from this lifestyle—if they don't end up with more babies than they can handle. If they keep breeding at their current rate, they're going to become dependent on the aunt-moms, and they'll be stuck.

This is why I see them as wildcards right now. 

Jessa appears shrewd and smart (not wanting a bigger house because it equals more cleaning etc) I think right now she looks at the costs vs the benefits and sees what that sweet TLC money does for her babies and isn't keen on giving that up. I feel like I genuinely don't know enough about them (which could be by design) to make a call. Sure Jessa is still in skirts but she could just honestly prefer them and feel more comfortable in them. We have no clue what Ben is doing. Am I the only one who feels like even though they are key players in the show that I really don't know much about them?

Edited November 8, 2019 by LacyMay

[PurpleCats]

I feel like Jessa may be the type to wear skirts for social media/in public, but girlfriend borrows Ben’s comfy sweats (& maybe even wears leggings!) when she’s home alone. 

[theotherelise]

Baptist and reformed churches have long been opposed to prosperity gospel preachers. Not liking Paula White would probably be a very common feeling, although sadly many might avoid saying to not piss off the god of trump they follow.

I don’t know a ton about Moody where Ben is studying, but I don’t think it demands a single denominational point of view. But they are not progressive and while they accept women students and faculty, they seem to reject egalitarianism. 

Ben is less annoying mostly because he doesn’t talk much. I doubt they are hiding their time for an escape.

[SassyPants]

I have long thought that Jessa dresses based on her body image. She has just mentioned her body too many times for me to speculate otherwise. Even in her current IG where she is trying on new clothes she mentions how one of the dresses is slimming to the waistline. Like many people, girlfriend has body image issues. Pants to tend to accentuate legs, butt, waist etc...

Has Jessa mentioned a smaller house being more economical? IMO, if she was truly worried about or concentrated on fiscal issues, she wouldn’t have popped out 3 kids in 5 years of marriage. 

Moving is a PITA. Moving with little ones, even more so. I’ve done it too many times to count. Unless they can get TLC to do the work and finance the move, I don’t see it happening. Duggar Time is counter moving a family to new digs.

[nolongerIFBx]

I'll hazard an opinion that Ben voted Constitution Party. IIRC, the Seewalds were Vision Foum not ATI/IBLP. 

[melon]

On 10/3/2019 at 11:21 AM, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

I took what @SassyPants said as Ivy is a cute little butterball, She's grown and filled out, like babies are SUPPOSED to do. What happens when we see skinny babies? We assume the child is either malnourished, neglected or sick. 

I called my daughter "my adorable little chunky monkey", My sister called her daughter chunky monkey, I have a friend who called her son tank.  Another friend of mine has a 3 month old right now and her and her husband say she's a little chubbs, they aren't making fun of her, I wasn't making fun of my kids, they are descriptors of how we think they are perfectly adorable. 

Now if Sassypants had said "Ivy is fat" THAT would be fat shaming.    

Two of my three boys were exclusively breastfed,my oldest ended up on the bottle,after about 2 months.

All three of them were big babies,all three weighed about 21 lbs ,at 6 months.

I had people admire them,and I ask what I fed them.

My grandmother was very concerned that they'd be overweight.And I once I was with a friend,we went to go swimming with all three of my boys,her daughter,at a friend,'s(they ran a motel) at the motel pool.My youngest son was a baby,about 2 months old,my friend was holding my baby and tried to get her friend to hold my baby...she said she did not want to hold him,that he was "too big".He was always big,and was fat shamed most of his life.

When my second son was a baby,I sent photos of him and my older son to my parents.My father was so proud and took them to work to show his friends at work.A co worker told him that that baby is a "Tank".My father told me this over the phone,and my older son heard,and he even told my mother in law and Mr Melon that Jesse(not his real name) is a tank.

[JDuggs]

I thought I’d bring this topic over from the Counting On thread since it’s about the Seewalds. It appears that Henry has some speech delays. I’m wondering if this could be their first step in deciding to limit their quiver if Henry will require more of Jessa’s homeschooling time. Spurgeon seems so bright, so Jessa probably first thought homeschooling would be a breeze. Now realizing that Henry might require more attention and effort, she might start to think that being pregnant and caring for more babies and toddlers will be detrimental to her homeschooling the three that she already has. I do think they’ll have a few more kids, but not double digits.

[QuiverFullofBooks]

15 minutes ago, JDuggs said:

I thought I’d bring this topic over from the Counting On thread since it’s about the Seewalds. It appears that Henry has some speech delays. I’m wondering if this could be their first step in deciding to limit their quiver if Henry will require more of Jessa’s homeschooling time. Spurgeon seems so bright, so Jessa probably first thought homeschooling would be a breeze. Now realizing that Henry might require more attention and effort, she might start to think that being pregnant and caring for more babies and toddlers will be detrimental to her homeschooling the three that she already has. I do think they’ll have a few more kids, but not double digits.

It’s Ben that’s doing the homeschooling, not Jessa. He’s working as the Duggars’ tutor and Spurgeon seems to be one of the students.

[JDuggs]

7 minutes ago, QuiverFullofBooks said:

It’s Ben that’s doing the homeschooling, not Jessa. He’s working as the Duggars’ tutor and Spurgeon seems to be one of the students.

That arrangement doesn’t seem very sustainable long term. And being a homeschooling dad probably isn’t Ben’s idea of a career.

[justmy2cents]

2 hours ago, QuiverFullofBooks said:

It’s Ben that’s doing the homeschooling, not Jessa. He’s working as the Duggars’ tutor and Spurgeon seems to be one of the students.

I got the impression that the scene was just for the show. Ben does seem good with kids though.

[grandmadugger]

10 minutes ago, justmy2cents said:

I got the impression that the scene was just for the show. Ben does seem good with kids though.

He also seems to be the only one that understands cooking isn’t just opening cans. I can see him wanting to impart that knowledge on the younger kids. 

[baldricks_turnip]

I was surprised by the revelation that Henry has a speech delay. I haven't seen much of Counting On (doesn't air here) and what I had seen of Henry was him reading sight words on Jessa's instagram not long after he had turned 2. I wonder if the ability to read words by rote is considered so separate from typical speech development that they are not counting them towards his total words, or if he had regressed in some way.

I know no one here likes to give the fundies head pats just for doing what any decent person would do, but I am finding it refreshing that they are addressing this on the show. Anything less than perfect is often glossed over (and that goes far beyond the fundie world) and if they really want the show to have longevity they need to address real life.

[tabitha2]

The program has been on for 10 years in both specials and regular serious. Unless recent events are finally the death knell as long as they keep having babies/getting married  and people keep watching just to snark on them the show will continue. It’s cheap to make and The younger Duggars  are living off it as well so They won’t give it up at will.  

[theotherelise]

@baldricks_turnip I think you might either be thinking of Spurgeon or saw something like this (video on last slide) and remembered him talking. He clearly has hearing and comprehension/memory skills. I rarely look at Jessa's IG and never watch videos on the platform at all, but checking back, Henry's lack of speech in videos is pretty apparent around the time those segments were likely filmed for CO.

 

@baldricks_turnip I found it! This is weird. I am not sure how much of "sight word" identification I buy from this. Maybe it was something they did to get him talking, but it's frankly a bit unbelievable that he's not just occasionally guessing similar sounds. Henry is approximately 2 years 3 months here. Speech delays can certainly delay some reading skills later, but from everything I've every read about toddler speech at that age, you're really going for how many words they use on their own, sounds they can make, and beginning to string words together ("go car"). 

The Duggars' homeschooling is so performative and not learning focused.
 

 

[Iamtheway]

In the photo of Henry as a baby Ben looks a lot (A LOT! ) like Mr Way. That’s really disturbing to me. But might explain why Ben has always been my favourite Duggar-husband. 

Also the competition is pretty much a joke. 

[FaithAndReason]

I think that photo of Henry looks like Jinger! That’s her facial expression 

[RainbowSky]

19 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

The program has been on for 10 years in both specials and regular serious. Unless recent events are finally the death knell as long as they keep having babies/getting married  and people keep watching just to snark on them the show will continue. It’s cheap to make and The younger Duggars  are living off it as well so They won’t give it up at will.  

Add 5 years to that

[nst]

what is even more shocking is that Ben aka Jessa is posting pictures of the kids to his instagram. 

Gone are the days of ravens and coffins !! !

[Bobology]

On 11/20/2019 at 7:14 PM, JDuggs said:

I thought I’d bring this topic over from the Counting On thread since it’s about the Seewalds. It appears that Henry has some speech delays.

Thank you for bringing this topic over to the Seewald's page. 

**I am not a Speech Language Pathologist, nor do I know Henry**

There is at least one (maybe more) speech issues that cannot be professionally diagnosed before the age of 3. If an SLP suspects this be the issue, it can be diagnosed as only "Suspected XYZ." There was likely a lot of conversation that was not filmed or shown, and it is possible Henry could have one of these diagnoses. If he does (I don't know if he does) then Jessa's comment about waiting 6 months, and the SLP saying 4-6 weeks (which I believe was slip of the tongue and she meant months) would not be out of line. Being 3 years old can make a difference in the diagnosis and the treatment.

What is good is that Jessa and Ben are being open about their concern for Henry's speech, and that can help other parents. If we ultimately see that Henry is evaluated again, whether a Dx or not, it could encourage (gag me with Michelle's word, sorry) parents watching to pay attention and investigate any speech concerns they have with their own kids. 

[Markie]

Looking at a photo of Ben and Jessa’s house, they should able to add an addition in the carport. The roof goes right over it. IT would give them a bit more square footage of living area. I’m not a contractor, but it appears to be a fairly simple renovation.  

Edited November 23, 2019 by Markie

[Glasgowghirl]

39 minutes ago, Markie said:

Looking at a photo of Ben and Jessa’s house, they should able to add an addition in the carport. The roof goes right over it. IT would give them a bit more square footage of living area. I’m not a contractor, but it appears to be a fairly simple renovation.  

I can see them making at least an extra room for Ivy and any other girl's they have. Jessa has stated she doesn't care about having a massive house but they will need some more space when the children get older.