Alyssa & John 9: It’s All About Dressing Up and Looking Perfect on Instagram

[SassyPants]

In recent days A. Has photographed their dinner, a couple of times, for the gram. Looks like she doesn’t know how to scale the meals for a family of 2 adults and 3 small children (baby excluded). Today she served chicken AND beef fajitas. Maybe they will eat leftovers for the next week- 

[CanadianMamam]

30 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

In recent days A. Has photographed their dinner, a couple of times, for the gram. Looks like she doesn’t know how to scale the meals for a family of 2 adults and 3 small children (baby excluded). Today she served chicken AND beef fajitas. Maybe they will eat leftovers for the next week- 

Warden is visiting, though. Teenage boys can eat a lot. Plus when I make fajitas, I often make two meats. Her serving seemed similar to what I make for 3 adults/3 kids. 

[Sheltie]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

In recent days A. Has photographed their dinner, a couple of times, for the gram. Looks like she doesn’t know how to scale the meals for a family of 2 adults and 3 small children (baby excluded). Today she served chicken AND beef fajitas. Maybe they will eat leftovers for the next week- 

It looks normal to me.  Some people will want chicken and some people will want beef.  Some people might even want both!

Edited September 16, 2021 by Sheltie

[Mama Mia]

4 hours ago, SassyPants said:

In recent days A. Has photographed their dinner, a couple of times, for the gram. Looks like she doesn’t know how to scale the meals for a family of 2 adults and 3 small children (baby excluded). Today she served chicken AND beef fajitas. Maybe they will eat leftovers for the next week- 

Ummm….I’m feeling judged here 😆 this doesn’t look like too much food to me. Especially since one is a teen boy, and one a fairly big man who works a physical job. And she may still be nursing. Or, honestly, even just regular folks. Fajitas and leftovers aren’t usually a thing in my experience lol. 

[MaryOrMartha]

9 hours ago, Mama Mia said:

Ummm….I’m feeling judged here 😆 this doesn’t look like too much food to me. Especially since one is a teen boy, and one a fairly big man who works a physical job. And she may still be nursing. Or, honestly, even just regular folks. Fajitas and leftovers aren’t usually a thing in my experience lol. 

I agree. It looked like a normal amount of food, and if there's leftovers - bonus!

[Jackie3]

Interesting. In her story, Alyssa posted a picture of her water bottle along with the word "Hidrate." Then later on, she posts a text interaction with a reader, who says, "If you are going to homeschool your kids, you should know how to spell simple words." Alyssa responds that her phone autocorrected it to "Hidrate" because that is the brand name of a popular water bottle.

OK, MAYBE her phone autocorrected it to "Hidrate" (though I doubt it). But I have a feeling that Alyssa had no idea it was an error.

[Tdoc72]

4 hours ago, Jackie3 said:

Interesting. In her story, Alyssa posted a picture of her water bottle along with the word "Hidrate." Then later on, she posts a text interaction with a reader, who says, "If you are going to homeschool your kids, you should know how to spell simple words." Alyssa responds that her phone autocorrected it to "Hidrate" because that is the brand name of a popular water bottle.

OK, MAYBE her phone autocorrected it to "Hidrate" (though I doubt it). But I have a feeling that Alyssa had no idea it was an error.

Saw that. It made me want to scream “but you spelled it dinning a thousand times!” 

[MaryOrMartha]

Warden made a 'your mom' joke in Alyssa's vlog. I didn't know that extended to fundieland 😳

[UnicornHunter]

I know it’s been said before but it’s sad seeing Alyssa trying to live like a single 20 something while being the “perfect Pinterest mom” to 4 girls. This week she did some dumb photo challenge with her friends, which at 25 I totally would have done too. It’s just weird to think of them doing that while her 4 kids sleep upstairs. She goes on weekly dates which no one I’ve ever met does after kids. Stays up to 1 am to just “hang out” which seems impossible with young kids at home. 

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, UnicornHunter said:

I know it’s been said before but it’s sad seeing Alyssa trying to live like a single 20 something while being the “perfect Pinterest mom” to 4 girls. This week she did some dumb photo challenge with her friends, which at 25 I totally would have done too. It’s just weird to think of them doing that while her 4 kids sleep upstairs. She goes on weekly dates which no one I’ve ever met does after kids. Stays up to 1 am to just “hang out” which seems impossible with young kids at home. 

It boggles the mind, doesn’t it? Last night I was thinking about Kendra and Joe. Kendra could wait 5 years before having another baby, and she would only be twenty eight! I was 28 when I had my first and I was young compared to many of my peers, and that was nearly 35 years ago! 

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, UnicornHunter said:

I know it’s been said before but it’s sad seeing Alyssa trying to live like a single 20 something while being the “perfect Pinterest mom” to 4 girls. This week she did some dumb photo challenge with her friends, which at 25 I totally would have done too. It’s just weird to think of them doing that while her 4 kids sleep upstairs. She goes on weekly dates which no one I’ve ever met does after kids. Stays up to 1 am to just “hang out” which seems impossible with young kids at home. 

It’s sad because they are pressured into this kind of life. If they want a little freedom, they have to get married. But because they are shamed into not using birth control, they lose freedom with each child. Many of them only have 9 months of marriage before they become parents. All of their 20s is spent knee deep in dirty diapers and homeschooling. You can see some of them try so hard to still have the 20s fun they are missing out on. 

[SassyPants]

27 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

It’s sad because they are pressured into this kind of life. If they want a little freedom, they have to get married. But because they are shamed into not using birth control, they lose freedom with each child. Many of them only have 9 months of marriage before they become parents. All of their 20s is spent knee deep in dirty diapers and homeschooling. You can see some of them try so hard to still have the 20s fun they are missing out on. 

Trading 1 shackle for many shackles-

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, SassyPants said:

Trading 1 shackle for many shackles-

The lucky ones aren’t very fertile. But I’m sure they don’t see themselves as lucky. 

[CanadianMamam]

11 hours ago, UnicornHunter said:

She goes on weekly dates which no one I’ve ever met does after kids. Stays up to 1 am to just “hang out” which seems impossible with young kids at home. 

My husband and I have 3 kids and do regular date nights. I am lucky to have my mom close by and being willing to watch my kids. The regular date nights are really good for my marriage Becuase they give us time to disconnect from the craziness of day to day life and just have some time together. The majority of my friends also try for regular date nights (definitely harder during the height of the pandemic), but of course it depends on access to child care. However, I don’t think that going out on dates is unusual. 

also, I really value my time after the kids and my husband go to bed. The hour between 11 and midnight is my me time, when it’s just me and the pets awake.

Edited September 20, 2021 by CanadianMamam

[Phyllis_Stein]

In looking at the most recent pictures, the girls' hair is lighter. Allie's is the most dramatic in color change, but the two older girls both have noticeably lightened hair. In pictures from a couple of months ago, Allie had brown hair. In the latest pictures, it's light blonde. I wonder if Alyssa is lightening their hair? It seems highly likely. Trying to make them the Instagram perfect ideal (in their world)? 

[therulesofjinx]

44 minutes ago, Phyllis_Stein said:

I wonder if Alyssa is lightening their hair? It seems highly likely. Trying to make them the Instagram perfect ideal (in their world)? 

She absolutely could be...but it could also just be due to sun exposure or the fact that they're still young and their hair is changing color naturally as they age. I was born with dark, dark, dark hair that lightened over time. By the time I was about 2, it was medium-to-light blonde. However, every summer when I'd spend lots of time in the sun, it got white blonde. As I aged, probably starting in late high school or college, it started darkening naturally and I'd use Sun-In to lighten it. Alyssa could definitely be using Sun-In or something similar on their hair, if she is in fact lightening it. It could also be due to a filter on the photo.

[Mama Mia]

On 9/19/2021 at 5:47 AM, UnicornHunter said:

I know it’s been said before but it’s sad seeing Alyssa trying to live like a single 20 something while being the “perfect Pinterest mom” to 4 girls. This week she did some dumb photo challenge with her friends, which at 25 I totally would have done too. It’s just weird to think of them doing that while her 4 kids sleep upstairs. She goes on weekly dates which no one I’ve ever met does after kids. Stays up to 1 am to just “hang out” which seems impossible with young kids at home. 

Errr…..what’s sad about any of that? I thought people WANTED to achieve some sort of balance in their lives between everything being all about the kids, all the time - and having friend/ relationship/ me time? 

The main advantage of having kids young, to me (there were also drawbacks) is I had more energy than I would of if I’d had them older. 

[Angelface]

8 hours ago, Phyllis_Stein said:

In looking at the most recent pictures, the girls' hair is lighter. Allie's is the most dramatic in color change, but the two older girls both have noticeably lightened hair. In pictures from a couple of months ago, Allie had brown hair. In the latest pictures, it's light blonde. I wonder if Alyssa is lightening their hair? It seems highly likely. Trying to make them the Instagram perfect ideal (in their world)? 

It could be from the chlorine in their swimming pool. 

[Jackie3]

10 hours ago, Phyllis_Stein said:

In looking at the most recent pictures, the girls' hair is lighter. Allie's is the most dramatic in color change, but the two older girls both have noticeably lightened hair. In pictures from a couple of months ago, Allie had brown hair. In the latest pictures, it's light blonde. I wonder if Alyssa is lightening their hair? It seems highly likely. Trying to make them the Instagram perfect ideal (in their world)? 

I wondered the same thing!! I assumed she was using a filter. It didn't occur to me that she'd lighten their hair.

7 hours ago, Mama Mia said:

Errr…..what’s sad about any of that? I thought people WANTED to achieve some sort of balance in their lives between everything being all about the kids, all the time - and having friend/ relationship/ me time? 

The main advantage of having kids young, to me (there were also drawbacks) is I had more energy than I would of if I’d had them older. 

It's sad because she' pretending to be carefree, but she's really not.

She needs to keep her goofing around quiet because the kids are sleeping. She may have  to stop at some point and feed Macy. I'll bet one or two of the girls interrupted them,  asking for a drink or wanting to join the fun. If her friends decided to dash out for a late-night pizza, she had to stay home.

In fact, she has to stay home a lot. I remember having babies. Your life is centered around their nap/eating/pooping. Plus, if you are out too long, they get overtired and melt down. It's just not a time in life where you can easily put yourself first. That's what Alyssa missed out on.

[sparrow]

Alyssa posted photos of Lexi anx Zoey' room and I know I'm being BEC but I hate it. Why do little kids' rooms need to look like they were designed on Pinterest? That room looks so barren and sad to me. No toys that I could see the kids spending time playing with. No comfy spots to cuddle up. And that stupid cloud "bookshelf" holds like, four books. I know the fact that the room is pink and had unicorns and rainbows (don't even get me started on ☆tryndy☆ rainbows in limited color palettes that completely defeat the purpose of a rainbow)... means she ticked all the boxes of what the girls wanted. But it's all so heavily filtered through Alyssa's own style, that it comes out looking rather sterile. Like a hotel room rather than a place for real people to store their real stuff, develop their interests, collect things, create, imagine. Would the girls even be allowed to have something if it didn't match the overall color scheme?  Blah. I find these heavily curated influencer homes opressive and unhealthy. End rant.

[nelliebelle1197]

Well, does it?