Josiah and Lauren 16: Just Another Young Fundie Couple

[Iamtheway]

I don’t think there is anything wrong with Lauren’s clothes. She looks fine. But there are several photos where she looks lonely and out of place. She is sitting by herself with Bella while everyone else is hanging out together. 

She could just want some peace with the baby but the look on her face is a bit sad. I hate their views and pretty much everything they stand for but they do seem to have a good time together as a family (you know if you forget about Jill and her family that weren’t invited) and it would suck so bad to be in such a big gathering and feel alone. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by Iamtheway
Double post

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

I was raised in church by numbers, you did mass every Sunday, did religion classes on Wednesday night, did holy days, don't question authority just do it blah blah blah, but during the week it was all bitter shouting matches between my parents. My mother is still like this, you MUST go to mass you MUST follow these rules or you will go to hell. ? My mom is still pissed at my father because he refused to have their marriage annulled 20 years ago, because in his words, we were married for 30 fucking years and had 3 kids, it happened, I'm not paying them $ to say otherwise.   As a child with ADHD and a nasty habit of questioning authority, I was not only labeled a trouble maker, but defiant, difficult and disrespectful, needless to say my catholic learning was next to nothing, if they couldn't be bothered to answer my 7 year old self's questions then I couldn't be bothered to believe their BS.

 

[libgirl2]

7 minutes ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

I was raised in church by numbers, you did mass every Sunday, did religion classes on Wednesday night, did holy days, don't question authority just do it blah blah blah, but during the week it was all bitter shouting matches between my parents. My mother is still like this, you MUST go to mass you MUST follow these rules or you will go to hell. ? My mom is still pissed at my father because he refused to have their marriage annulled 20 years ago, because in his words, we were married for 30 fucking years and had 3 kids, it happened, I'm not paying them $ to say otherwise.   As a child with ADHD and a nasty habit of questioning authority, I was not only labeled a trouble maker, but defiant, difficult and disrespectful, needless to say my catholic learning was next to nothing, if they couldn't be bothered to answer my 7 year old self's questions then I couldn't be bothered to believe their BS.

 

I was married in the Catholic church. No annulment, just a divorce. When I remarried, we ended up having a Lutheran minister. He did a wonderful job. I do like my religion, I still do my signs of the cross, pray the same prayers, but I felt that we were married, we had a child, the marriage did exist. He cheated on me. For me that ended the marriage right there and then. Paying someone to "end my marriage" isn't worth it. If the Bible says no man can end a marriage, then how come a priest can? 

12 minutes ago, Iamtheway said:

I don’t think there is anything wrong with Lauren’s clothes. She looks fine. But there are several photos where she looks lonely and out of place. She is sitting by herself with Bella while everyone else is hanging out together. 

She could just want some peace with the baby but the look on her face is a bit sad. I hate their views and pretty much everything they stand for but they do seem to have a good time together as a family (you know if you forget about Jill and her family that weren’t invited) and it would suck so bad to be in such a big gathering and feel alone. 

I think she looks fine too. I used to love to dress up when we would go to family for dinner! Not sure why she was by herself but it does look kind of sad. Maybe Bella was crying and she moved her to calm her down? 

Edited December 30, 2019 by libgirl2

[Not that josh's mom]

My opinion only - Lauren sitting by herself and pouting. More drama queen.  Others were walking around carrying babies and joining groups. I can hear her when she and Josiah got home. "No one talked to me. They all hate me. We're not going there again. We'll go to MY  family's after this." Yes, I'm sure it's overwhelming. I wouldn't be comfortable,  but she's pouting to get her way.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 minutes ago, Not that josh's mom said:

My opinion only - Lauren sitting by herself and pouting. More drama queen.  Others were walking around carrying babies and joining groups. I can hear her when she and Josiah got home. "No one talked to me. They all hate me. We're not going there again. We'll go to MY  family's after this." Yes, I'm sure it's overwhelming. I wouldn't be comfortable,  but she's pouting to get her way.

Wow.  There is a fine line between opinion and fan fiction and I think this blew right past it.

Opining on the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of a total stranger to this degree is a level of emotional investment I don't understand.

[Not that josh's mom]

2 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Wow.  There is a fine line between opinion and fan fiction and I think this blew right past it.

Opining on the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of a total stranger to this degree is a level of emotional investment I don't understand.

 

Sorry, it does sound bad when I reread it. I've seen people act this way and we know Lauren already dropped out of part of the marriage retreat deal with a lie about a headache, so I really don't see her behaving much differently here. I should have worded it better. sorry, still my opinion.

[libgirl2]

37 minutes ago, Not that josh's mom said:

My opinion only - Lauren sitting by herself and pouting. More drama queen.  Others were walking around carrying babies and joining groups. I can hear her when she and Josiah got home. "No one talked to me. They all hate me. We're not going there again. We'll go to MY  family's after this." Yes, I'm sure it's overwhelming. I wouldn't be comfortable,  but she's pouting to get her way.

And I can see that happening too. A new baby isn't that big of a deal when new babies are a monthly occurrence. If she wanted to feel special and have Bella be special, she should have married an only child. 

[raspberrymint]

I still can't find the pictures referred to in the last pages.

[theotherelise]

@raspberrymint I'm pretty sure it's based off Jana's last 4 instagram posts: https://www.instagram.com/janamduggar/?hl=en

[LucilleJ]

On 12/29/2019 at 7:23 PM, HerNameIsBuffy said:

That rule was only for men.  And back in the day women had to cover their heads in Catholic church and would wear hats to mass...my mom always had a lace handkerchief to cover her head in case she had to go to church impromptu.

Yes it's only men that are forbiden to wear hats inside, women have to take it off if it's dinner (but not to lunch or garden party...) but shouldn't the kind of hat count? What Lauren is wearing on the pictures isn't really a "woman hat" (I think as "woman hat": the ones Kate Middleton wears, or the ones you wear in church... not that kind of fedora hat) so shouldn't she follows man rules with a man hat?

[Peaches-n-Beans]

2 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

And I can see that happening too. A new baby isn't that big of a deal when new babies are a monthly occurrence. If she wanted to feel special and have Bella be special, she should have married an only child. 

I'm not gonna lie when I saw someone say Lauren was off by herself looking Sad my first thought was also that she was pouting. Again I have no evidence for it, and it's probably not fair to her, but given the amount of pouting we know her to do it wouldn't surprise me. 

It also wouldn't surprise me if she was genuinely sad, but has pouted over stuff so much that everyone in the family pretty much ignores her when she does it and thus assumed it was another pouting episode. Lauren reminds me a LOT of my sister, and she's known for this sort of thing, and I hate to say it but it's to the point where I pretty much don't pay her mind when she's being dramatic because 1) it's not gonna get anywhere 2) it's pure attention seeking 95% of the time and 3) all it does is put more strain on me. I could kind of see some of the Duggars getting to this point with Lauren when there aren't cameras around. 

Oh another possibilities, if there were cameras, we all know how painfully boring Lauren and Josiah are, and the whole thing could just be something to give them a story line. 

And then there's the other likely possibility, that maybe Bella had been fussy and she took her off to calm her down and this one snapshot caught her looking sad or frustrated over a fussy baby. She's a young mom learning her baby's routine, she's gonna have frustrated moments.  Maybe someone (I honestly cannot be bothered to go back and read who took the picture) just happened to catch a picture of this one.

[Bad Wolf]

She could be just overwhelmed by the number of people. I used to feel that way sometimes when we had a family gathering at my in-laws.

[JDuggs]

If I were Lauren, I’d be trying to isolate my infant from all of the germs that a huge roomful of Duggars probably contains. Maybe she choosing to be “present” without really trying to closely interact with everyone.

[Ms. Squishels]

Because of how Lauren reacted to her miscarriage and not being able to let go and get it behind her, I have wondered if she would have postpartum depression when she had her baby.  She might be experiencing that.  I also had the same thought as @JDuggs that maybe she was trying to keep Bella away from everyone and all the germs.  When my son was a baby, I wouldn't have made it 30 minutes at that kind of a family gathering.  I would have lost my mind trying to keep all those kids from touching him!  You know with all those small children, at least one (and maybe more) had runny noses and coughs.

[apandaaries]

Bella is really young to be around that many kiddos, but isn’t JoKen’s baby about the same age?

Looking through Jana’s Instagram, she really does look isolated in all her pix. Jana’s got other close ups of folks, but you can see they’re up in the mix. For example, Spurgeon has a close up, but he’s also pictured with others later. Lauren is just always off to the side with Bella, not once pictured with Josiah within the house. 
It does give off an isolated, sad vibe to her pix. Kendra is sitting on the floor [edit: on the sofa; weird angle. Still, she’s surrounded by people] laughing with several others, her baby in someone else’s arms. I wonder how Lauren is doing, integrating into that giant family.

Edited December 31, 2019 by apandaaries

[adidas]

I (sort of) remember my baby’s first Christmas - I was so insanely sleep deprived that I didn’t have the energy to move my body to different places. Where I sat is where I stayed and I just let people come to me as I fed the baby and wondered if I would ever have more than an hour of sleep at a time for the rest of my life. Ugh. It was not a fun time.

But in photos of me from that Christmas I look like a zombie. Lauren looks really good. Having said that, there was no pressure on me to keep sweet. Everyone did whatever they could go help me and my husband because it was so tough (colic and reflux combined sucked so much).

[Xan]

I hate the way Jim Bob failed to deal with the Josh situation.  His next biggest sin, in my opinion, is the way he's treated Josiah.  Siah used to be a happy free spirit.  And there's nothing that Jim Bob hates more than a free spirit.  Siah was sent away longer than any of the other boys.  Now JB has married him off to someone that isn't even suited to him.  Goodness knows, Lauren wasn't really mature enough to marry anyone yet.

I look at the two of them and all I see is tragedy.  They don't look close and neither one really looks happy when they're together.  We don't know if Lauren is depressed, feeling isolated, or isolating herself.  Now they have a baby.  Any way you look at it, Dwain Swanson and Jim Bob really made a mess of this for their kids. 

[QuiverFullofBooks]

5 hours ago, raspberrymint said:

I still can't find the pictures referred to in the last pages.

Jessa also posted a video on YouTube.

[Snarkasarus Rex]

1 hour ago, Xan said:

Any way you look at it, Dwain Swanson and Jim Bob really made a mess of this for their kids. 

Boob's only real criterion for women marrying into the family: is her family worthy of being in the Circle of Trust?  It's simply a bonus if the two actually are suited for each other...

[JDuggs]

3 hours ago, apandaaries said:

Bella is really young to be around that many kiddos, but isn’t JoKen’s baby about the same age?

Kendra’s baby brother Isaiah was just in the ER after Christmas with a respiratory and ear infection. So maybe the Caldwells and Kendra aren’t as concerned about exposing their children to germs because Jesus, but Lauren might have learned something about precautions to take with infants in her brief study of nursing. (I’m giving her a lot of credit!) If I had babies now, I think I’d be super paranoid about communicable diseases, especially pertussis.

Lauren seemed much more enthused on IG to have a visit from just Michelle and JB.

[kmachete14]

Lauren is trying to dress hip, like Josie Bates. It just sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the goodwill  / old navy / matronly outfits of the other Duggars residing in AK. I wonder if they consider her “high maintenance” 

[JDuggs]

55 minutes ago, kmachete14 said:

Lauren is trying to dress hip, like Josie Bates. It just sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the goodwill  / old navy / matronly outfits of the other Duggars residing in AK. I wonder if they consider her “high maintenance” 

Geez, girlfriend sticks a hat on her head and she’s suddenly high maintenance. She’s boho chic, like Jinger was before she became “pastor’s wife chic” and like a million other girls on Instagram. Her actions, her beliefs, her attitude all seem like fair game, but a 20 year old girl who wants to look nice on Christmas? She gets a pass from me on that.

Edited December 31, 2019 by JDuggs
Typo

[kmachete14]

@JDuggs I’m merely stating an observation, not condemning Lauren. It’s totally normal a young woman would want to look more polished than Joys casual look or Kendra’s matronly look. It just doesn’t fit in with the other AK residents clothing, and I wonder what they think considering she’s the first person in the family to try out this style. Jinger had a unique sense of fashion but she wasn’t “hip,” just creative in the circumstances. Maybe Lauren thrifted that modern look, maybe she didn’t. But when daddy continually beat it into your head to thrift, you might have some thoughts about people who go out of their way to be the best/trendiest dressed at a family gathering. 

[apandaaries]

2 hours ago, JDuggs said:

Kendra’s baby brother Isaiah was just in the ER after Christmas with a respiratory and ear infection. So maybe the Caldwells and Kendra aren’t as concerned about exposing their children to germs because Jesus, but Lauren might have learned something about precautions to take with infants in her brief study of nursing. (I’m giving her a lot of credit!) If I had babies now, I think I’d be super paranoid about communicable diseases, especially pertussis.

Not 100% sure if it’s true, but Reddit had screenshots of the Caldwell parents saying they didn’t vaccinate Isaiah. Not sure about JoKen, but I’d be worried. So maybe there’s something more to what she’s up to, which would be wise. Young babies and highly communicable germs are a bad combination.

ETA: The no-vax thing seems legit. I can try to post screenshots from Instagram (Jill, Joy, and others commented, so the page seems sound). They also posted a video of the poor boy sobbing as he had something done (IV line?). Something where you’d expect to cuddle your kid, not film them, then post the results online.

Here are the pix!

Edited December 31, 2019 by apandaaries
Technical issues

[CarrotCake]

If you compare Kendra and Lauren, it makes such a difference.

Of course, Kendra has known the Duggars for a longer time but she fits right in with everyone and feels comfortable having her kids roam free in the house where Lauren always seems so distant.