Justin and Claire: Woe Is Me

[Meggo]

1 hour ago, nausicaa said:

Someone is getting married who was born the year I graduated high school. Excuse me while I go stare off into the abyss. 

I got married in 2002 - I am absolutely in the ball park to be his MOM … and hers too - frankly.

 

[DLA]

10 minutes ago, FluffySnowball said:

Sooner or later, there’ll be another Duggar scandal. And by that, I don’t mean that some other sibling has groped or abused someone, but I cannot believe that all of these marriages will work out. That’s just damn unlikely... 

Maybe Justin and Claire will have a strong, healthy, long relationship and I don’t wish them anything but happiness. But some kidult’s courtship will lead to an unhappy marriage so that there’ll be a divorce or cheating or something along those lines. Also, it’s likely that among 19 people, at least one is gay. This (and I’m not speculating who it might be and certainly don’t suspect Justin, I don’t even really know who he is) might also lead to issues (divorces, a break with the cult and/or the family) in the future.

Now, for the Duggar children’s sakes, I hope every one of them will be happy with their IBLP-condoned quick courtships and arranged marriages. Cause that’s all they can get without either remaining singles or breaking with their parents’ beliefs. But I cannot really get myself to trust that that’s how it’ll turn out. 

Exactly. Its part of why I take an interest in the Duggars. At some point something or someone is going to break. I cannot believe one can have 19 teenagers married to strangers and there all going to live happily ever after . Even in a cult.

Edited September 21, 2020 by DLA

[Meggo]

4 minutes ago, DLA said:

Exactly. Its part of why I have an interesent in the Duggars. At some point something or someone is going to break. I cannot believe one can have 19 teenagers married to strangers and there all going to live happily ever after . Even in a cult.

Maybe the Venn diagram cross over is with the Married at First Sight show. I mean those people have never met - but have had "experts" pick apart their lives, their stories, their histories... They might actually stand a better chance than a couple of KIDS who can't have serious conversations with each other without a chaperone...

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Meggo

[AprilQuilt]

2 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

He can barely remember to pick up after himself. 

doubt this is a prerequisite for any Duggar husband. 

[xenobia]

Her mother posted a happy birthday post last year (for Justin, that is). So... this has been brewing for at least a year or more. 

 

 

[Italiangirl]

Well according to Duggar Data the father's family come from Little Rock and the Duggar probably knows them before they moved to Tx but at the time they likely had only a couple of children (Claire and the second oldest) so they may not remember them...

[HereticHick]

so glad Lauren's hat got to attend the videochat. ?

[I know I know, she's young and I shouldn't make fun of her desire to express herself. If wearing a big hat indoors is her jam, go for it. On 2nd thought, I should make fun of Abby's "wifey" tshirt instead. I assume all fundy gals receive a "wifey" shirt or mug at their bridal showers]

[onekidanddone]

What the actual fuck. He is one year older than my daughter. She is taking three science classes and pre calc in the 11th grade and is starting to research colleges which have a good pre med program.  

Two totally different worlds. 

[FaithAndReason]

2 hours ago, QuiverFullofBooks said:

Since Claire is the oldest, I was thinking that Justin might have a baby sibling-in-law like Josiah, but her mom is 42 and she hasn’t had a baby in four years, so it would be a surprise.

Now that the middle boys are aged 16-21, maybe we should stop calling them the Howlers. Any suggestions?

How in the hell are the Howlers 16-21????? When did that happen? ?

Other random thoughts today:  Duggars are pretty good at marrying off sons and daughters. Why are Bates only able to marry off the girls? (besides Zach)

[Idlewild]

Well JB has to do something to try and sustain the series and if it means marrying off 2 teenagers then so be it.

So we’ll have the whole faux shock of the proposal that she absolutely knew was coming, over to Miss Renee to pick a dress, Jana decorating their home ( quick plug for Jana’s business) , the ‘guys’ eating manly steaks and discussing men things and the women asking her if she’s pregnant. They’ll be kissing for the 1st time after the wedding and leaving the number of children up to God.

Have I missed anything out? 

[NoKidsAndCounting]

When I see Justin, I see this...I know, I'll see myself out.

[ignorantobserver]

20 minutes ago, FluffySnowball said:

Sooner or later, there’ll be another Duggar scandal. And by that, I don’t mean that some other sibling has groped or abused someone, but I just don’t believe all of these marriages will work out. That’s just damn unlikely... 

Didn't the cheating already happen in Josh's marriage ? I am not so sure about a scandal. I agree that those marriages are not all going to work out, maybe not even most of them, but that doesn't mean the public will learn about anything unsavory going on. The whole claim to fame of the Duggar clan relies on their image as a wholesome, religious mega-family. Anything contradicting this image is going to be kept under wraps for as long as possible. And as long as nobody decides to publish a tell-all, this strategy might just work. I think of it like a 1950s rural community - lots of men are cheating, beating their wives, secretly sleeping with guys ; lots of wives are cheating, insulting their husband on a regular basis and drinking hard alcohol, but everyone stays quiet about these things so the outside world never learns about them. A homosexual person can perfectly well marry someone of the opposite gender, have a few kids and never cheat on their spouse. A smiling wife can secretly hate her husband, or be afraid of him. A friendly, hard-working family man can secretly struggle with addiction or depression. We can't read their thoughts. For us to learn about the private problems of the young Duggars, they would need to decide to share them, which in their case seems inherently improbable. Even if one or several young adults were to break away from the cult, they might (and probably would !) decide that they want privacy, allowing the network to reframe the event as something normal, which absolutely would happen because a major quarrel within the family would be contrary to the show's basic premises.

[Satan'sFortress]

Wowzer. He's younger than my youngest boy.  Can't. Even. Imagine.

 

[Lgirlrocks]

I always find it weird when they say our families have known each other for years but we met last year. Or just started talking last year. If it was a normal family it might not be a big deal but males and females that aren’t related don’t talk to each other. 

[Caskett4ever]

Damn. I know this was somewhat expected, but they're both so young. It seems like they've been getting to know each other for a while and since it's a quarantine courtship, they could have courted for six months already. That would be longer than a number of his siblings (John, Jill, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, and Joy all had official courtships shorter than this I believe). My guess is that they will get engaged on or after his 18th birthday since it sounds a bit better if an adult is getting married and not a child. It's somewhat likely they end up getting married sometime in winter or spring of 2021. The scary thing is, if they get married in the first few months of 2021, these two could be parents by the end of next year.

Now that these two are public, how long do we think until some of his other brothers go public with their relationships (I think Jeremiah is seeing someone and there's speculation that James or Jason or some Duggar boy is with Lauren Caldwell)?

[sansan]

2 hours ago, Tatar-tot said:

The only thing on a 17 year old boys brain is SEX.  Seventeen year old Boys are too emotional immature to get married, work full time & raise a family. Plain & simple.
I am done.....next!!!!

Don't be silly, they told him to not think about sex, so he won't........right?

[Italiangirl]

It's confirmed that this is the official Justin Instagram...some of the photos (well basically all except the first) show how really young they both are, and I think a couple are from last year. Definitely see them engaged by his bday

[Melissa1977]

3 hours ago, Giraffe said:

He’s not even a legal adult yet! Any bets he’ll propose on his 18th birthday? I know some people have good marriages to their high school sweetheart but I really hope they have a longer pre-engagement and engagement than normal. 

A friend of me started dating her current husband when they were 15. 20 years later, they are still happy. BUT but but they dated for years, travelled alone, and live as a couple for several years before having a baby.

[Bridgecape]

47 minutes ago, FluffySnowball said:

Sooner or later, there’ll be another Duggar scandal. And by that, I don’t mean that some other sibling has groped or abused someone, but I just don’t believe all of these marriages will work out. That’s just damn unlikely... 

Maybe Justin and Claire will have a strong, healthy, long relationship and I don’t wish them anything but happiness. But eventually, some kidult’s courtship will lead to an unhappy marriage so that there’ll be a divorce or cheating or something along those lines. Aside from that, it’s likely that among 19 kids, at least one is gay. This (and I’m not speculating who it might be and certainly don’t suspect Justin, I don’t even really know who he is) might also lead to issues (divorces, a break with the cult and/or the family) in the future. All our snark aside, just imagining someone in their cult having to go through such emotional trauma makes me incredibly sad. No one deserves this and I do hope none of the second gen Duggarlings are gay for their own sakes. 

Now, for the Duggar children’s sakes, I hope every one of them will be happy with their IBLP-condoned quick courtships and arranged marriages. Cause that’s all they can get without either remaining singles or breaking with their parents’ beliefs. But I cannot really get myself to trust that that’s how it’ll turn out. 

I think things will continue to look toasty and nice till the show ends and then the gloves come of.

If they are genuine, then things will last.  If not and then God forbid! Jim bob passes, you are going to see the whole pack of cards come falling down on these marriages.  

For some reason, I have a feeling about Justin and  I may be wrong that the  marriage (if any) will probably be pushed by both members of their families and not him.   For all these kiddos to absolutely love living like their parents is a rarity.

Now  the Duggars seem to be loving in some ways compare to some parents and at least (with one exception), the kids are not on drugs or criminals but they are in a cult run by a toxic man and its ruining lives and everyone acts like robots at times.  

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

I was really not expecting the 2nd youngest howler to be the 1st howler to marry. I'm guessing he was having a hard time (pun intended) with lustful thoughts so JB had to let him marry quickly to avoid any more bad press.  I guess 5 of the 6 howlers are marriage age.  This means they are down to 6 kids under 18, since I guess we don't need to count Justin, even though he's not going to be 18 for 8 more weeks.  

This is sad AF. 

[llucie]

I had not seen photos of him in years and wow he really doesnt look like a Duggar (and i say that as a compliment).

They seem in love, at least i think they must be to be rushing the relationship this much when he is still 17, but its sad that they will be getting marry and having kids in less than a year. And even sadder that they will completely depend on Jim Bob for money.

[FluffySnowball]

13 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

A friend of me started dating her current husband when they were 15. 20 years later, they are still happy. BUT but but they dated for years, travelled alone, and live as a couple for several years before having a baby.

True, one cannot compare an arranged relationship within a cult with an “organically grown” one - even when both couples started dating/courting when they were really young. 

[SPHASH]

Shouldn't the twins and Jason be ahead of Justin in the courtship game?

[Bridgecape]

50 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

so glad Lauren's hat got to attend the videochat. ?

[I know I know, she's young and I shouldn't make fun of her desire to express herself. If wearing a big hat indoors is her jam, go for it. On 2nd thought, I should make fun of Abby's "wifey" tshirt instead. I assume all fundy gals receive a "wifey" shirt or mug at their bridal

 I admire her desire to express herself and shes a little more stylish than many fundies.  She seem's a little lost at times in that family.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

So the Duggars have had several underage courting scenarios. Here is a brief rundown:

1. Ben Seewald showed up at their church at 17 to meet then 19/20 year old Jessa. They started getting to know each other and they had a longer than average courtship. They officially got engaged after Ben 19. He was about 19.5 when he married Jessa who was 21. Jessa turned 22 a few days later.

2. Si and Marjorie Jackson. He was 18, she was 17. It didn't work and she is still single.

3. Joy and Austin. They announced the courtship when she was 19 and he was 22 around her 19th birthday. They married when she was 19.5 and he was 23. His birthday is 2 months after hers so it's almost a four year age difference. Austin later revealed they had been together since Joy was 17. When Joy turned 17, Austin was 20. Two months later he turned 21. I think these two are actually an arranged match. 

4. Justin and Claire. See above

I think they're showing an underage boy courting so they can later announce a Johannah or Jennifer courtship very young. It's disappointing.

Michelle was 17 and JB was 19 when they married. (They got married in between their birthdays so right after he turned 19.)   So far besides Michelle all of the Duggar/Bates have been at least 19 when they got married. (Kendra, Lauren, Alyssa, Josie Bates, Ben and Joy were all 19. Everyone else was older.) Maybe because of their ages and the pandemic, Claire and Justin will be older too.