Bontrager/Bowers 8: Cringeworthy

[Bluebirdbluebell]

58 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I could easily see Allison pretending her life is total perfection while spending half her day in the bathroom throwing up. 

Well one of her dearest dreams was to have a husband who held her hair back while she threw up. 

[ophelia]

11 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

She says there were celebrations but there is not a single picture of those, neither a written example. Not a diner, flowers or a walk or a simple coffee date. she sounded as if she hadn't done anything special at all and was trying to hide it. 

 

This may not only apply to her V-Day celebrations, but to her whole married life so far. Probably a real nightmare since she always had such fairytale expectations about being married.

 

[Nothing if not critical]

New post up on the Bontrager blog about their winter tour, aka "spreading COVID around America one concert at a time". Lots of fellowshipping, no masks in sight. Special feature: the Bontrager boys breaking into a locked up basketball court, because rules don't apply to them (pic behind spoiler)...

I'd say I'm speechless but it's really not surprising, considering Marlin's "plandemic " speech at Allison's wedding.

 

Spoiler

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by Nothing if not critical

[Melissa1977]

31 minutes ago, Nothing if not critical said:

Special feature: the Bontrager boys breaking into a locked up basketball court, because rules don't apply to them (pic behind spoiler).

I hope the "angry reaction" does not count as downvote. I couldn't avoid! Breaking the law plus posting it! Incredible! Those boys, when they were toddlers, were punished for not behaving like adults, but now that are teens/young adults are praised for their antisocial behaviour. How neat.

[MomJeans]

I am cracking up that Mom Bontrager thinks a small child being shy around complete strangers is so awful it needs a full blog post, but hey, private property is locked up, so we just climb over the fence!

Also is it me, or is this way more photos of Joe than I've ever seen in one post?  (I could be wrong, I tend to fast forward through tour posts.)

12 hours ago, ophelia said:

This may not only apply to her V-Day celebrations, but to her whole married life so far. Probably a real nightmare since she always had such fairytale expectations about being married.

 

Yes, if her husband had taken her out to a romantic dinner, or bought her flowers (like she recieved before the wedding), I'm positive pictures would be on the 'gram. 

I'm not saying they are miserable - the smiles seem sincere.  But the we're strangers on the internet, and we know Allison wants over-the-top romantic gestures. Someone needs to clue-in her husband. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

19 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

I hope the "angry reaction" does not count as downvote. I couldn't avoid! Breaking the law plus posting it! Incredible! Those boys, when they were toddlers, were punished for not behaving like adults, but now that are teens/young adults are praised for their antisocial behaviour. How neat.

Remember they were at the insurrection. They claim they didn’t go in the Capitol but I’m sure they cheered on the people who did. They obviously don’t care about laws against trespassing. 

In their pictures, they visited with the Shaws. There are a lot of teen daughters in the Shaw family and I believe they live in TN. I always kind of assumed a Bates and a Shaw would eventually court. 

Edited February 17, 2021 by JermajestyDuggar

[VBOY9977]

Well, Allison is pregnant and due late spring

[SPHASH]

2 minutes ago, VBOY9977 said:

Well, Allison is pregnant and due late spring

Well fuck.

[JermajestyDuggar]

No surprise there!

Allison makes long winded posts about how wonderful marriage is and then announces her first pregnancy with a short post and no cutesy picture. It just seems so unlike her not to make some long drawn out post announcing this pregnancy and talking about how amazing it all is. 

[MomJeans]

JermajestyDuggar called it!  I just hope her prenatal care is more than a couple of vials of essential oils. 

Okay, this makes so much sense as to why her sister-in-law is hosting the Young Women's Retreat, and not Allison.  

[HereticHick]

3 hours ago, Nothing if not critical said:

New post up on the Bontrager blog about their winter tour, aka "spreading COVID around America one concert at a time". Lots of fellowshipping, no masks in sight. Special feature: the Bontrager boys breaking into a locked up basketball court, because rules don't apply to them 

Can anyone explain this caption from their blog post to me?:

"Family dinner at a Prophets chamber!"

[Melissa1977]

1 hour ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

No surprise there!

Allison makes long winded posts about how wonderful marriage is and then announces her first pregnancy with a short post and no cutesy picture. It just seems so unlike her not to make some long drawn out post announcing this pregnancy and talking about how amazing it all is. 

It's so weird. No emotion at all. I really don't understand Allison.

[Bethy]

31 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Can anyone explain this caption from their blog post to me?:

"Family dinner at a Prophets chamber!"

I'm not 100% sure but I think it might be sort of a small efficiency apartment installed in a church. A visiting pastor or missionary could stay there and avoid the cost of a hotel stay and restaurant meals, and have a quiet place to study and prepare right there at the church.

[MomJeans]

40 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

It's so weird. No emotion at all. I really don't understand Allison.

Yes, no mention of this 'exciting new season of life' God's special blessing upon their marriage.  

For comparison, here is Chelsy's last baby announcement. http://www.chelsyrenee.com/search/label/personal?updated-max=2020-01-30T17:35:00-05:00&max-results=20&start=4&by-date=false

If she's really sick, I feel for her.  I expected her to get bored with blogging & instagram the first few years of marriage, but maybe she's just over it. Her December promo for her essential oils MLM had more excitement and passion.

[becky_m2001]

3 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I always kind of assumed a Bates and a Shaw would eventually court

That's still a possibility. The three younger Shaw daughters (Elley, Amy, Lilly) are prime ages for the three middle Bates boys (Jackson, Warden, Isaiah).

[JermajestyDuggar]

Someone asked her how she’s feeling. This is her answer. So obviously she’s not having a perfectly blissful pregnancy. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Late spring makes me think late may or early June. Which means she got pregnant fairly soon after they got married. Most pregnancies aren’t problem free. Meaning it’s pretty likely she’s had to deal with some possibly morning sickness, fatigue, gas, heartburn, bloating, and maybe some aches and pains. Imagine getting married and immediately becoming pregnant soon after you first kissed and had sex. You don’t get much time to enjoy sex and married life if you are dealing with pregnancy right away. 

[fundiefan]

4 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Late spring makes me think late may or early June. Which means she got pregnant fairly soon after they got married. Most pregnancies aren’t problem free. Meaning it’s pretty likely she’s had to deal with some possibly morning sickness, fatigue, gas, heartburn, bloating, and maybe some aches and pains. Imagine getting married and immediately becoming pregnant soon after you first kissed and had sex. You don’t get much time to enjoy sex and married life if you are dealing with pregnancy right away. 

That's true of women in relationships where what they think & feel are relevant, and they don't hold back just to keep their partner's life all sunshiney & rosy. 

Allison, being a perfectly perfect little fundie wife, will not deny her husband because she doesn't feel well. She will be pretending everything is perfect & participating joyfully in sweet fellowship. 

As far as her husband is concerned, and the internet, Allison is living her best life and has no issues and is never unhappy in her husband's presence.

As far as Allison herself is concerned, she's turned off every single aspect of "Allison" almost since birth, so she may feel off once in  a while but she will then quote herself a few bible verses, put on her makeup and romp off as though the world is a rainbow just for her. Then she'll tell the Internet how perfectly perfect her perfectly godly marriage is and how joyfully joyful she is.

Now, she may not enjoy sex when she feels like she's going to vomit, but no one will ever know. That is a secret she'll take to her grave. 

[browngrl]

I regularly see women who have been handed a terrible diagnosis for their fetus. I think this situation is very hard no matter what but I think it must be particularly hard for a fundie who doesn't have the option to terminate and who can't acknowledge that they might feel great anger/sadness as they mourn the life they imagined they'd have. I hope that Alison has chosen to leave social media for a good reason and not because she just can't keep up appearances when she is facing something bad regarding the pregnancy.

I'm probably overthinking things but today was a challenging day at work when I seemed to do nothing more than hand out awful news. I'll leave my morbid musings now and go and hug my dog and hope tomorrow lets me hand out happy news.

[TheGleeTeam]

For those not on insta, Allison's post simply says "Baby Helferich coming late spring!!! We’re excited + grateful for this gift from the Lord.❤️" with a picture of her and Jeremiah. I finally realized that Jeremiah reminds me a bit of my ex-bf, yuck. Anyway, Allison will be pretty far along by her brother/Jeremiah's sister's wedding in March but not right at her due date or anything, it sounds like. 

The Bontragers traveling around spreading Covid makes me want to scream but I did like the picture of Rebecca (? the youngest) practicing an acoustic bass guitar. Really curious how many more tours they'll manage as kids keep getting married and having babies. Oh, and seeing the picture of their huge group in a restaurant without masks makes me VERY glad I haven't even attempted outdoor dining since early summer.

[Jigsaw3]

We've been wondering why Allison hasn't posted much since she's gotten married, and why her posts haven't been full of over-the-top bliss. Maybe pregnancy was kicking her ass? Maybe she had a horrible first trimester, and social media and her blog weren't her priorities? Maybe it's so bad she'll space out her kids more? (Ha, sure, and pigs might fly.)

[International speculation bus incoming!]

I've been wondering about Allison and the Helferich farm business. Modern farm wives are busy women and full partners on the farm: even if they've chosen to be responsible for the majority of childcare, they're also doing the books and talking to the seed suppliers and driving the hay trailer and getting dirty with anything that needs an extra hand, as well as keeping the entire farm fed. Other farm wives do all that and also bring in a badly-needed salary from off-farm work. And of course, more and more women are themselves the principal farmer, or wholly sharing farming duties with their spouse! My point is, there's always work on a farm: Allison is a farmer's daughter and is not new to the necessary chores, plus a lot of the business management would be comparable to the work she enjoyed when she was managing the Bontrager motel.

So why isn't she posting about the work she's doing on the farm? I only remember one insta about taking Jeremiah his lunch in the fall. Is it possible that she's come into an already-functioning business with really no place for her? Kind of like we've speculated about the house: yes, she's got the house, but it's already all decorated and no one else is really interested in making changes. On the farm, there's always work, but it's not necessarily work she cares about because those responsibilities are already taken and no one is interested in sharing. And of course, Jeremiah gets to carry on same as before (but better now, actually, because he gets sex!) and isn't even noticing her unhappiness. If any of my speculation is at all close to right, sounds like a pretty lonely place to be. Maybe she's hoping the baby will give her more purpose, or more attention, or more respect? I don't think so, but then I'm a cynical snarker.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Jigsaw3
Typos

[Ozlsn]

10 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

They obviously don’t care about laws against trespassing. 

Pretty sure they'd care if it was their property.

5 hours ago, fundiefan said:

As far as Allison herself is concerned, she's turned off every single aspect of "Allison" almost since birth, so she may feel off once in  a while but she will then quote herself a few bible verses, put on her makeup and romp off as though the world is a rainbow just for her. Then she'll tell the Internet how perfectly perfect her perfectly godly marriage is and how joyfully joyful she is.

I have been wondering if she's starting to realise that she really doesn't have much in common with her husband.  

[Bluebirdbluebell]

So much where to begin?

I think the basketball court photos are disgraceful. It's probably a public lot, but so what? Marlin gave a dogwhistle type comment about Black Lives Matter at Allison's wedding. Marlin, if your sons were black and caught climbing the fence and entering a closed area, the penalties would much harsher. Because they're white, they have a better chance of getting away with it if they had been caught.

I also wonder if Marlin saw the photos of Jill R's boys climbing the rock walls and is trying to one up her. I've said it before I'm still praying that the Bontragers and Rods intermarry, because they're perfect for one another. I know they probably won't, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed they do. They deserve each other.

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

Pretty sure they'd care if it was their property.

I have been wondering if she's starting to realize that she really doesn't have much in common with her husband.  

I think that's it. She hasn't really shared much about him, other than he's wonderful. She seems to be trying to make it work. I don't think they're a good fit. 

Of course now they're having a baby together. 

Do the Shaws have a blog?

Edited February 18, 2021 by Bluebirdbluebell

[Melissa1977]

5 hours ago, Jigsaw3 said:

So why isn't she posting about the work she's doing on the farm? I only remember one insta about taking Jeremiah his lunch in the fall. Is it possible that she's come into an already-functioning business with really no place for her?

Is Jeremiah a full time farmer? I thought he also worked in construction. Maybe the farm is still the in-laws business and no need for Allison's help. But the explanation may also be that she's having a hard pregnancy, or that her role is only as a homemaker.

I'm a bit worried for the baby. She's 6 months pregnant (?). It's a very late announcement. I wonder if it's been a risky pregnancy or if she had major health problems. The lack of emotion worries me, because even Maxwells are warmer in their announcements. And the picture she used is from last summer, as if she had no recent pictures. 

[Ozlsn]

16 minutes ago, Melissa1977 said:

I'm a bit worried for the baby. She's 6 months pregnant (?). It's a very late announcement. I wonder if it's been a risky pregnancy or if she had major health problems. The lack of emotion worries me, because even Maxwells are warmer in their announcements. And the picture she used is from last summer, as if she had no recent pictures. 

I'm hoping it's "just" hyperemesis gravidarum, and she's "just" feeling like death. And if it is she has my total sympathy because HG sucks. It is very high on my list of "things I do not ever want to get in pregnancy", possibly even #1.