Safe At Home 6: PIGS ARE FLYING! Luke is Engaged!

[TheLastFundiecorn]

So I am sorry if this is too random, but I just need to share that my last Covid (virtual) cocktail hour with friends ended with me going on a rant about the Arndts and how they're basically trapped in a penguin-themed version of Groundhog Day. Which is weird, because I hadn't looked at this thread in awhile.

Checking here now, it's sad, but not surprising, to see things are more or less the same.

[Antipatriarch]

Any word on a release date for Vine Valley? 🤣

[Giraffe]

1 minute ago, Antipatriarch said:

Any word on a release date for Vine Valley? 🤣

2050. /s

[GreyhoundFan]

10 hours ago, Antipatriarch said:

Any word on a release date for Vine Valley? 🤣

It’ll be out on the twelfth of never. 

[zee_four]

On 9/10/2021 at 7:34 AM, Howl said:

We visited Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah (near Moab) awhile back.  In the parking lot, we watched a crow/raven peck on the top of a cooler left in the shade beside  a van until the bird got the cooler lid open, and got into the food in the cooler. We ran over and shooed the bird away, closed the lid, put a rock on top and left a note for the owners.  Still impressed by the sheer chutzpah, smarts and problem solving by that bird: had to know from experience where the food was,  had to realize that commitment to pecking might open the lid (most coolers have a latch; this one was just a friction fit).  Get the lid open once it's loose and dive in. 

I used to live in Moab, so shout out to how amazing Dead Horse Point is! We went there a lot instead of Arches or Canyonlands because it's really cheap for Utah residents to get an annual state park permit, and we shared those among roommates/families. 

Anyway onto the enmeshment with the Arndts. I don't judge adults living at home with their parents because in Hawai'i/with Native Hawaiians, multigenerational homes are the norm. Part of it is is the cost of housing in Hawai'i which is ridiculously out of control and most Natives could never afford their own homes in the present market with their regular minimum wage jobs, the Homelands list for housing is a 10-15 year waiting list right now and public low income housing regardless of ethnicity isn't much quicker. But it's not the only reason, traditionally Kanaka maoli or Native Hawaiians lived in multigenerational households and communities, and it's one of the few things we've been able to hold onto without interference from missionaries. They tried to push nuclear families on us but they was way less opposition to multigenerational households than any of out other traditional cultural norms and values. To us, it's more appalling to have kupuna, or elderly, being forced into nursing or care homes than it is for adults to be living at home. I understand why in the mainland that happens, smaller families make caring for elders in home much harder and can be very unhealthy when there are high needs and only one main caretaker, and then there's also a lot of geographical barriers.

But it's very much the norm here for adult children after 18, if they go to school, it's often local and they live at home, work full time and take courses. If they don't do college, which is more common in our communities, they work full time and live at home. We marry younger or at least have children younger than the average in the US, and it's common to continue to live at home with your keiki. Even if we get married, in many communities, you continue to live with your extended ohana in one household. Like I mentioned on another post, when I was little and lived in Hawai'i for a year with my aunties, we had 10-15 people on average at the house, and these aren't huge homes. A lot of older homes that are in a great aunties name and that ohanas have had forever get do it yourself add ons, but I remember sharing a mattress in the front room and sometimes out on the lanai depending on the weather with a few other younger cousins on their own mattresses. Transient older cousins would sleep on the couch. It does allow all the capable adults to work, even those who are single parents with young children, because the kupuna or elderly, are there for childcare. It's not a bad lifestyle. I live with my dad now and care for him, I get more judgement from my Colorado friends for not "being on my own" and none from my Hawaiian friends and ohana, if I didn't live with my dad, then I'd get more judgement leaving him on his own.

That  all said it's not the same as the Arndts of course. We're all expected to work full time jobs if possible, to date and marry and have children. We can have our own beliefs, own politics, own values, we don't have to mimic our parents. Definitely different, but it's not the problem that the kidults live at home. It's the enmeshment with the family and the lack of their own lives that's the issue. 

[Smee]

My sister and I both had a rough 2021 in which our long term relationships ended (I was married, she was de facto with a toddler after living together several years). We now live together, along with our children, and it’s great - we’re still very much our own small families within a bigger family, each responsible for our own kids/laundry/cleaning etc, but we have the additional support, friendship, cousin playmates, shared meals and housing costs. I think it’s great to be close to your family and to live with them if that’s what you want. But it shouldn’t stifle you from living your life, meeting people, falling in love, exploring career goals, travelling or whatever else a grown ass adult might want to do. It’s not even as if some have married and moved their families onto the cult compound. They’re just… men in their 30s living like teenagers. It’s SO odd.

I feel like when Rick eventually dies and one of them gets therapy, their memoir  will be fascinating.

[WiseGirl]

Hopes that something happened dashed again...

This family is so strange. In my mind it's like The GiverGiver where they give the community pills to suppress emotions....I just don't get it.

[CaptainFunderpants]

10 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Hopes that something happened dashed again...

This family is so strange. In my mind it's like The GiverGiver where they give the community pills to suppress emotions....I just don't get it.

That's a really good analogy and a really, really good book. If you haven't read the full quadrilogy (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, Son) I would highly recommend all of them. I think either 'Gathering Blue' or 'Son' is my favorite, because those both focus on strong female protagonists.

[quiversR4hunting]

On 1/25/2022 at 8:55 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

It’ll be out on the twelfth of never. 

It will be out on the 30th of February, every year. 

[AmazonGrace]

I got nothing on the Arndts but this made me think of y'all.

[Howl]

At some point in the past, there was to be satellite house on the compound for the grown ass kidult males.   Did this manifest and if so, do we know which kidults reside there?  Does each have his own room?  And how do they communicate with the mother ship?  Endless texting?  Phone calls on the land line?  Communal meals in the cafeteria? 

What if there was suddenly a major diaspora of Arndtlets heading out on their own, like the Maxwell daughters?

Or a mass marriage event, where all the brothers get married at the same time. 

But no, just same same same same. 

Edited February 15, 2022 by Howl

[wolfi_fox]

On 2/14/2022 at 10:42 PM, AmazonGrace said:

I got nothing on the Arndts but this made me think of y'all.

This sums it up pretty well actually lol. I don't think they had a "traditional" education and I heard some of them didn't get high school deploma equivalents until their 20s....

But the penguin obsession is lasting them well into their 40s and will probably never die.

On 2/15/2022 at 7:19 AM, Howl said:

At some point in the past, there was to be satellite house on the compound for the grown ass kidult males.   Did this manifest and if so, do we know which kidults reside there?  Does each have his own room?  And how do they communicate with the mother ship?  Endless texting?  Phone calls on the land line?  Communal meals in the cafeteria? 

What if there was suddenly a major diaspora of Arndtlets heading out on their own, like the Maxwell daughters?

Or a mass marriage event, where all the brothers get married at the same time. 

But no, just same same same same. 

None of them are allowed to do anything alone, soo...they need wives who will

1. do anything Rick says, your opinion does not matter 

2. Always be surrounded by manboys (gives me the creeps the way they look at girls)

3. Be willing to have their entire honeymoon filmed and/or chaperoned by other manboys so that everything gets reported back to Rick

Edited March 6, 2022 by wolfi_fox

[wolfi_fox]

On 8/20/2021 at 2:08 PM, Tatar-tot said:

You know, I have zero pity empathy etc for this clan of freaks.   Poor little Rick while you were farting around with a movie camera my hubby and I were busting our butts working.

While you were steering your kids away from an education to be self sufficient we bit the bullet supported our kids and pushed them to educate themselves so they had fulfilling careers. 
In 6-7 years my husband and I will be ready for retirement.  Our kids will all be out of the house unless something bizarre happens.  Why did this happen?  We worked very hard.  My husband did not float around the country with a home video camera pretending to be a movie producer.  We supported each other to obtain our mutual goal.  
Rick if you cannot afford to live in the big house downsize and let the little penguins migrate.  But please do not whine at me or anyone else to financially support you. 

Preach! Rick is a parasite 🐜

 

I feel bad for the manboys, I really wanted to believe that one actually would take the chance to be in a relationship (sadly nothing in the horizon on that front) What I REALLY want to know: what does Rick have over these manboys? The manboys literally do all the work, they bring in all the money, and essentially have all the power. Why are they letting Rick have all the power and make every decision in their lives?? Poor Cathy is looking more like a grandma every day but only "grandbunnies" to show for it .

Edited March 6, 2022 by wolfi_fox

[gustava]

9 hours ago, wolfi_fox said:

feel bad for the manboys

I don't.  Not choosing to leave or marry is a choice to stay and be single.  They are past the age when they can blame Mommy and Daddy.

[JermajestyDuggar]

39 minutes ago, gustava said:

I don't.  Not choosing to leave or marry is a choice to stay and be single.  They are past the age when they can blame Mommy and Daddy.

I’m mixed on this. There are 15 other adults all thinking the way Rick wants. The one person to go against Rick also has to go against 13 siblings and a mother on top of it. That has to be harder than just going one on one with a person. 

[Tatar-tot]

On 2/15/2022 at 8:19 AM, Howl said:

Or a mass marriage event, where all the brothers get married at the same time. 

 

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS!!!

[wolfi_fox]

1 minute ago, Tatar-tot said:

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS!!!

I bet that is their favorite movie!

[GoddessOfVictory]

If Rick really holds all the kidults in thrall (and I assume he must considering they continue to toe the line), I wonder what will happen when Rick passes away?
Will one of the kidults step into the vacuum of power and keep the rest in line? Will there be a free-for-all if/when they recognize their freedom? Will the family fracture as some escape while others cling desperately to the past? Will Vine Valley finally be released?

[Cults-r-us]

I am ashamed I ever suggested fixing up Arndt sons and Maxwell daughters. It seems the Maxwell girls just needed an opportunity to exit stage right to THRIVE. The Arndts would have only weighed them down.

[AmazonGrace]

Well but it could be worse. They could all be married to some meek young thing and raising a batch of future kidults to be SafeAtHome.

[church_of_dog]

On 2/15/2022 at 5:19 AM, Howl said:

diaspora of Arndtlets

I love this phrase.  That is all.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

I don't like the Ardnts. They are one of my least favorite fundie families. 

That being said the Ardnt children are definitely victims of their parents. Yes, they earn their own money, but clearly lack the freedom and agency to leave.  Their parents are cult leaders (both of them) and have found a way to keep their children at home. One of the ways you can tell is that all 14 kids are still at home.  If two or three were still there, that might be luck and their choice, but all 14 out of 14? Something is going on there.

@wolfi_fox Where did they reveal their father broke up Luke and his girlfriend?

[wolfi_fox]

@Bluebirdbluebell Word of mouth. Apparently happened around Valentine's Day. I doubt they are going to broadcast the breakup if you can even call it that. More like he was never going to officially commit to her.

 

I say good for her. She is better off away from the kidults.

Edited March 7, 2022 by wolfi_fox

[wolfi_fox]

19 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Well but it could be worse. They could all be married to some meek young thing and raising a batch of future kidults to be SafeAtHome.

True. 

[gustava]

16 hours ago, wolfi_fox said:

@Bluebirdbluebell Word of mouth. Apparently happened around Valentine's Day. I doubt they are going to broadcast the breakup if you can even call it that. More like he was never going to officially commit to her.

 

I say good for her. She is better off away from the kidults.

As for producing spawn;  Given that their only experience is probably with Mr Right and Mr. Left, unless they watched penguins on NatGeo, spawn might be unlikely.  EWWWWW...I can't believe I just said that