Webster4Eva 10: If Alyssa Doesn't Record It, Then Does It Really Exist?

[rebeccawriter01]

41 minutes ago, Jackie3 said:

I find it astonishing that they trust a 14-year old to babysit four small children, including a crawling baby, all day in a house with a pool. So much for treating them like blessings!

I bet someone with his family probably did help. Maybe a sister in law or cousin was there or maybe John's mom took Maci and Zoey.

Ellie is slightly younger than Addallee and not in the wedding. So I'm guessing that to Ellie (who would be normal school and chores if at home, it was actually something different and fun (in the sense she got to feel important and in charge) to get to be in Florida with Alyssa's kids and get to enjoy the pool herself. While it is hard work to care for children, I would have thought I was at big shot at 14 to get a several day babysitting job and to be away from my parents, etc. 

[Jackie3]

52 minutes ago, rebeccawriter01 said:

I bet someone with his family probably did help. Maybe a sister in law or cousin was there or maybe John's mom took Maci and Zoey.

Ellie is slightly younger than Addallee and not in the wedding. So I'm guessing that to Ellie (who would be normal school and chores if at home, it was actually something different and fun (in the sense she got to feel important and in charge) to get to be in Florida with Alyssa's kids and get to enjoy the pool herself. While it is hard work to care for children, I would have thought I was at big shot at 14 to get a several day babysitting job and to be away from my parents, etc. 

Ellie might very well enjoy it.  Who cares?  I don't think it's safe for little Websters.

Developmentally, a 14 year old does not have the same judgment as an adult. She's in charge of four little kids, including a baby, in a house with a pool. She's too young to drive so they are stuck at home. Adults can find that challenging (and boring!), let alone a young teen.

The fact that she'd enjoy it does not mean it's age-appropriate. She might enjoy driving a car, too, or going out clubbing.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Jackie3

[Jackie3]

Alyssa's new Q&A is up on youtube. This stood out at 4:08. Someone asks how much time it takes to film their youtube videos. She responds that since John works during the week, they film on the weekends.

Alyssa: "We rarely have, like, weekends that are not dedicated to filming."

John: "Almost every Saturday we're filming."

Alyssa: "Then Sundays are church all day. Pretty much from morning till night."

What a bizarre life! They've got four little girls, and that's how they spend their family time? What about walks in the woods, playgrounds, museum trips, movies, birthday parties. .. all the things that are so much fun with kids.

 

 

[Tdoc72]

10 minutes ago, Jackie3 said:

Alyssa's new Q&A is up on youtube. This stood out at 4:08. Someone asks how much time it takes to film their youtube videos. She responds that since John works during the week, they film on the weekends.

Alyssa: "We rarely have, like, weekends that are not dedicated to filming."

John: "Almost every Saturday we're filming."

Alyssa: "Then Sundays are church all day. Pretty much from morning till night."

What a bizarre life! They've got four little girls, and that's how they spend their family time? What about walks in the woods, playgrounds, museum trips, movies, birthday parties. .. all the things that are so much fun with kids.

 

 

I think the things you mentioned in the last paragraph are the things they do on Saturdays (or her during the week) but they film the activities for their channel. All day church sounds awful. (I know they mentioned before that they go, then go eat at John’s parents and then go back to church.) This raised Catholic, now former, girl could barely stand an hour at mass. 

[Jackie3]

17 minutes ago, Tdoc72 said:

I think the things you mentioned in the last paragraph are the things they do on Saturdays (or her during the week) but they film the activities for their channel. All day church sounds awful. (I know they mentioned before that they go, then go eat at John’s parents and then go back to church.) This raised Catholic, now former, girl could barely stand an hour at mass. 

All day church DOES sound awful. 

I'm glad they do activities with the girls, but are they really present for them if they're filming?

Say they go to a children's museum. How does it work to film the kids' activities?  Does John hold the camera while Alyssa wrangles the kids? What about the baby? Are they talking to the camera the whole time or interacting with the kids? Do they have to do several takes? ("Let's walk in the museum again, kids, but this time don't look at your feet."). When other children video-bomb, don't they have to get consent from the parents to use the footage? Isn't it so incredibly noisy that the footage is useless anyway? 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Jackie3

[JuanitaBanana]

On 11/5/2021 at 8:03 PM, Jackie3 said:

Alyssa's new Q&A is up on youtube. This stood out at 4:08. Someone asks how much time it takes to film their youtube videos. She responds that since John works during the week, they film on the weekends.

Alyssa: "We rarely have, like, weekends that are not dedicated to filming."

John: "Almost every Saturday we're filming."

Alyssa: "Then Sundays are church all day. Pretty much from morning till night."

What a bizarre life! They've got four little girls, and that's how they spend their family time? What about walks in the woods, playgrounds, museum trips, movies, birthday parties. .. all the things that are so much fun with kids.

 

 

Church from morning till night? What are they doing in church that it takes all day? I thought church services were like an hour long. 

[JanasTattooParlor]

1 minute ago, JuanitaBanana said:

Church from morning till night? What are they doing in church that it takes all day? I thought church services were like an hour long. 

From what she’s said, they go to morning service, then lunch with his family, and then go back for AWANAs since the girls go and her and John volunteer and teach classes for it. I feel like there’s something else she’s said they do but I can’t remember. The actual church service probably is an hour and gets out around noon just in time for lunch. 

[JuanitaBanana]

9 minutes ago, JanasTattooParlor said:

From what she’s said, they go to morning service, then lunch with his family, and then go back for AWANAs since the girls go and her and John volunteer and teach classes for it. I feel like there’s something else she’s said they do but I can’t remember. The actual church service probably is an hour and gets out around noon just in time for lunch. 

Oh, I see... Then she's exaggerating because a church service and AWANA should be like 4 hours maybe? I mean, eating lunch at her inlaws doesn't count as church. 

[browngrl]

On 11/5/2021 at 10:03 PM, Jackie3 said:

Alyssa: "We rarely have, like, weekends that are not dedicated to filming."

John: "Almost every Saturday we're filming."

Alyssa: "Then Sundays are church all day. Pretty much from morning till night."

 

I find Alyssa and John's family a bit sad. The girls are nicely dressed and have a nice house/pool but it seems like everything is for show and in terms of other activities it seems to be limited to co op once a week and getting to watch their dad play baseball on occasion and going to church. Alyssa doesn't seem interested much. Contrast this with Bethany Beasley who has about the same number of children but seems much more engaged in teaching them and regularly includes  activities like hiking or exploring local nature areas. 

It is too bad Alyssa can't send her children to an actual school and either get a job or do something else she enjoys more than childcare. I think she and the children would benefit.

[JermajestyDuggar]

9 minutes ago, browngrl said:

I find Alyssa and John's family a bit sad. The girls are nicely dressed and have a nice house/pool but it seems like everything is for show and in terms of other activities it seems to be limited to co op once a week and getting to watch their dad play baseball on occasion and going to church. Alyssa doesn't seem interested much. Contrast this with Bethany Beasley who has about the same number of children but seems much more engaged in teaching them and regularly includes  activities like hiking or exploring local nature areas. 

It is too bad Alyssa can't send her children to an actual school and either get a job or do something else she enjoys more than childcare. I think she and the children would benefit.

I agree. She wants to be an Instagram influencer. I don’t think homeschool mom life is cut out for her. 

[UnicornHunter]

I’ll never get over when she took them to the library once a week for like, three weeks, and said they were always so excited to pick out ONE book. One. When my kids and I go we never leave with less than 20. We homeschool and read all day. Over meals, at bedtime, listen to audiobooks in the car. I really don’t think she reads to them ever. 

[Jackie3]

8 minutes ago, UnicornHunter said:

I’ll never get over when she took them to the library once a week for like, three weeks, and said they were always so excited to pick out ONE book. One. When my kids and I go we never leave with less than 20. We homeschool and read all day. Over meals, at bedtime, listen to audiobooks in the car. I really don’t think she reads to them ever. 

If you are trying to keep your home instagram-tidy, a bunch of children's books will mess up the house. If each child was permitted to take out six books, that'd be 18 books. Alyssa probably considers the books messy, rather than educational.

[Tatar-tot]

9 hours ago, Jackie3 said:

If you are trying to keep your home instagram-tidy, a bunch of children's books will mess up the house. If each child was permitted to take out six books, that'd be 18 books. Alyssa probably considers the books messy, rather than educational.

I was watching something Alyssa posted  recently and there were 2 instances that really left me questioning her perfect family façade:

1.  One was she was picking up the girls from homeschool co-op.  The oldest (Allie ?) was learning about clouds. Allie had a piece of paper with pencil drawings of all sorts of clouds.  Rather than ask her about the clouds or what their names are she was rather dismissive of what she had done.  You could just see the little girl go from being so proud of what she learned to folding up the paper in a tiny rectangle & ask her mom to hold it with a sad look on her face as Alyssa fawned over the younger girls colorful artwork.  It left me with the impression the Alyssa has no interest in homeschooling other than to do arts and crafts or decorate the classroom. 
2. The second was her sitting by the pool on a dreary day by herself with a cup of coffee.  Despite her words she just looked miserable.

In all honesty, why doesn’t she send the girls to a Christian Academy and go to work at the family HVAC company.  Alyssa would be excellent answering phones, scheduling appointments and interacting with customers.  Alyssa could always use her previous health issues as an excuse to send the girls to a bricks and mortar classroom.  
 

Life is too short to be miserable and not everyone is called to homeschool.  Alyssa  you can be an excellent living mom and not be your children’s primary teacher.

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Tatar-tot

[SassyPants]

13 hours ago, UnicornHunter said:

I’ll never get over when she took them to the library once a week for like, three weeks, and said they were always so excited to pick out ONE book. One. When my kids and I go we never leave with less than 20. We homeschool and read all day. Over meals, at bedtime, listen to audiobooks in the car. I really don’t think she reads to them ever. 

I’ve mentioned before my granddaughter, like Allie, is in 2nd grade ( although she is one year older, the age of most 2nd graders). My GD has hundreds of books and will be getting many more for Christmas. Since my GD’s family lives in So America, is bilingual, and she goes to an American school and speaks English in her home with her mom, the local library does not offer much to meet her needs. She does have a Library card for when she visits the states, but ebooks ( for other times) are just not the same. What a gift libraries are. My GD is so excited when she gets to check out books from her school’s library. 
 

TL;DR, it’s too bad that the people who procreate prolifically seemingly are the same people who have zero interest in children and fostering appropriate child development-

[SassyPants]

Just thought of something else, my GD regularly FT’s with us so she can read to and with us. She is so excited to do this. Of course books can be a huge catalyst for intellectual curiosity and an introduction to “other” which we all know is verboten in their circles. 
 

[SassyPants]

Sorry I am spamming this thread, but something else I thought I could pass along in case anyone else here doesn’t have easy access to the library. You can get gently used books, especially classics, on EBAY at a fraction of retail prices or Amazon.

[Jackie3]

5 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

Sorry I am spamming this thread, but something else I thought I could pass along in case anyone else here doesn’t have easy access to the library. You can get gently used books, especially classics, on EBAY at a fraction of retail prices or Amazon.

You can also buy used books on Amazon. It's much easier than ebay (no bidding, more choices, reviews of sellers). High school and college students can rent textbooks on Amazon too.

Anybody who has ever bought books on Amazon would have seen the ability to buy the same copy used.

[SassyPants]

20 hours ago, Jackie3 said:

If you are trying to keep your home instagram-tidy, a bunch of children's books will mess up the house. If each child was permitted to take out six books, that'd be 18 books. Alyssa probably considers the books messy, rather than educational.

Yet she has baskets full of plastic toys. Books can be stored neatly too. And if Allie and Lexi are allowed the responsibility of bottle feeding a human baby, they are each old enough to keep track of 6 books. 

[socalrules]

Alyssa doesn’t cross me as a big reader so if it is not an interest of hers, she may assume her kids wouldn’t enjoy it either. Same with education. I think she believes the only thing of interest to them will be clothes, hair and looking pretty. 

[Joyster]

5 hours ago, Jackie3 said:

You can also buy used books on Amazon. It's much easier than ebay (no bidding, more choices, reviews of sellers). High school and college students can rent textbooks on Amazon too.

Anybody who has ever bought books on Amazon would have seen the ability to buy the same copy used.

I have bought used books from Amazon and eBay, but my favorite place to try is Better World Books. If you subscribe to the email list, they send good discount codes.  I've had success buying multiple copies of children/young adults books I want to use for a novel study with students or to buy other books by an author a student likes.  Goodwill also has some great finds if you have a store near you; that was my favorite place to spoil my daughter with books, besides the library, as she was growing up. She is 18 now, and the hard part is that she doesn't want to get rid of any books.  We're out of room!

[SorenaJ]

Kid: "Hey mom, I am learning something cool!" 

Alyssa: "Well, is it pretty?" 

[nolongerIFBx]

On 11/7/2021 at 7:19 PM, JuanitaBanana said:

Church from morning till night? What are they doing in church that it takes all day? I thought church services were like an hour long. 

I sure wished they were only an hour long! Only Sunday School was that short.

8:45 Choir Practice

9:30 Sunday School

11:00 Sunday Morning Service

12:30 Morning Service ends. Some churches have a potluck following the service.

3:00 Some kind of kids program or outreach (like nursing home visitation) program

4:00 Choir Practice

6:00 Sunday Evening Service

8:00 Evening Service ends

We somehow never lived close to the church so we often had a picnic lunch at some park near by and were gone from home from 8 AM - 9:00 PM

Edited November 9, 2021 by nolongerIFBx

[formergothardite]

17 hours ago, nolongerIFBx said:

I sure wished they were only an hour long! Only Sunday School was that short.

8:45 Choir Practice

9:30 Sunday School

11:00 Sunday Morning Service

12:30 Morning Service ends. Some churches have a potluck following the service.

3:00 Some kind of kids program or outreach (like nursing home visitation) program

4:00 Choir Practice

6:00 Sunday Evening Service

8:00 Evening Service ends

We somehow never lived close to the church so we often had a picnic lunch at some park near by and were gone from home from 8 AM - 9:00 PM

This is how my Sundays were too, except we did at least get to go home briefly in the afternoon. Sundays were such high stress days. My dad for a bit ran the bus ministry so we would have to be out of the house super early and wouldn’t get home till late. It was exhausting. People would tell me how lucky I was I had parents who had us in church every moment the doors were open, but I was ridiculously jealous of those kids who just showed up for Sunday morning. 

[SassyPants]

For the last 4 years, I have served on the Board of my UU Fellowship. I have also chaired the Membership Team. One of the things we constantly talk about is the lack of young families in our church. It is my thought that among other reasons, one of the things that church requires is time, and lots of young parents have decided that half of 1/2 of their work free time is not going to be dedicated to another “I gotta, time suck.” Life is too short.

Edited November 10, 2021 by SassyPants

[JillyO]

9 hours ago, SassyPants said:

For the last 4 years, I have served on the Board of my UU Fellowship. I have also chaired the Membership Team. One of the things we constantly talk about is the lack of young families in our church. It is my thought that among other reasons, one of the things that church requires is time, and lots of young parents have decided that half of 1/2 of their work free time is not going to be dedicated to another “I gotta, time suck.” Life is too short.

Yup, I was just thinking that, reading through these responses about spending all of Sunday in church. The weekend is already so short, and there are always things we’re just too tired to take care of during the work week. I can’t imagine wasting a whole day each week at church on top of all our other responsibilities. On recent Sundays, we’ve taken our daughter to the pumpkin patch, to the beach, to a farm, to one of her playground friends’ birthday parties, to ride a steam train, to a wine tasting (okay, that last one might have been more for our benefit 🙃) … Weekend family activities are my favorite. I feel sorry for those kids and everything they miss out on.