Joy & Austin 33: Pregnant Again

[xenobia]

Joy posted a new vlog. 

TLDR: They get up early, get some building material. Joy drives an excavator. You have only one guess: are the kids wearing seat belts in it or not? They go to a Christmas party with the Mediccorps guys and the Real Houswives of Mediccorps. The end. 

 

 

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

8 hours ago, xenobia said:

Joy posted a new vlog. 

TLDR: They get up early, get some building material. Joy drives an excavator. You have only one guess: are the kids wearing seat belts in it or not? They go to a Christmas party with the Mediccorps guys and the Real Houswives of Mediccorps. The end. 

 

 

 

I wondered who those people were. I don't follow the medic corps thing- it makes me mad.

Apparently Austin's had his CDL since 18 yrs old. At least he works.

They seem happy doing their life. Joy seems to appreciate being outdoorsy. 

I wonder who edits the videos and adds music. They seem very "fancy" /not DIY.

Shame about the cult.

[Cam]

14 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

I wondered who those people were. I don't follow the medic corps thing- it makes me mad.

Apparently Austin's had his CDL since 18 yrs old. At least he works.

They seem happy doing their life. Joy seems to appreciate being outdoorsy. 

I wonder who edits the videos and adds music. They seem very "fancy" /not DIY.

Shame about the cult.

Was this the vlog where Joy is putting makeup on while sitting in the truck? It seems an odd activity for tomboy Joy in that circumstance. Does she lack creativity to find something to do to fill up vlog time? I don’t get it. Wait till she has about five+ kids and has to stay home with them while Austin gets to go out and do all the manly stuff. She seems to revel in her tomboy status now but as she gets older and bears more kids, I think she’ll be called upon to do a lot more of the drudgery fundie female stuff at home and will be bored out of her ever lovin mind plus resentful. While required to remain joyfully available. 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Cam

[CaptainFunderpants]

18 minutes ago, Cam said:

Was this the vlog where Joy is putting makeup on while sitting in the truck? It seems an odd activity for tomboy Joy in that circumstance. Does she lack creativity to find something to do to fill up vlog time? I don’t get it. Wait till she has about five+ kids and has to stay home with them while Austin gets to go out and do all the manly stuff. She seems to revel in her tomboy status now but as she gets older and bears more kids, I think she’ll be called upon to do a lot more of the drudgery fundie female stuff at home and will be bored out of her ever lovin mind plus resentful. While required to remain joyfully available. 

 

I don't remember the fruits of the discussion -wasn't there some speculation that Joy and Austin would limit their pregnancies at some point? Austin doesn't come from a mega family at all, and while we can all hope that Joy's pregnancies become more spaced out, she got started young. If she keeps going, they're gonna have 12+ kids, when they'd be way better off maxing out at six.

[JDuggs]

After the stillbirth of Annabell, I read somewhere that Joy was talking with Austin and they thought they’d have around four kids. I think it was partially to set “realistic” goals after the shock of losing a baby to think that a smaller family size would be a good idea.  Maybe two less complicated births after Annabell will be enough to convince them that they won’t need to limit their family size. However, I do think that Austin and Joy both value travel and adventure, and too many kids won’t be conducive to that lifestyle. After finding out this baby’s sex, Austin said he was glad that Gideon will have a brother. Maybe they just need a sister for Evelyn and then they’ll be done.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

Joy is too much a conspiracy believer imo.  She is one of the most dangerous fundies, because people find her appealing.

That being said I don't know whether Joy and Austin plan to have a large family.  This baby will be over 2.5 years younger than Evelyn and that seems like a good spacing. 

1 hour ago, JDuggs said:

After finding out this baby’s sex, Austin said he was glad that Gideon will have a brother. Maybe they just need a sister for Evelyn and then they’ll be done.

And many kids will they have before Evelyn has a sister?

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

3 hours ago, Cam said:

Was this the vlog where Joy is putting makeup on while sitting in the truck? It seems an odd activity for tomboy Joy in that circumstance. Does she lack creativity to find something to do to fill up vlog time? I don’t get it. Wait till she has about five+ kids and has to stay home with them while Austin gets to go out and do all the manly stuff. She seems to revel in her tomboy status now but as she gets older and bears more kids, I think she’ll be called upon to do a lot more of the drudgery fundie female stuff at home and will be bored out of her ever lovin mind plus resentful. While required to remain joyfully available. 

 

I think she was putting on make up in the truck because they left really early to go pick up cement blocks with a semi-truck.

Which strikes me as a very tomboy leaning activity. Most people I've known who are more girly girl wouldn't have left home without make up no matter how early.

[Cam]

Yeah, I don’t find Joy appealing. I think many anti-fundie people gave/give her a pass because she was the youngest of Josh’s victims and probably not told the truth of what happened by her parents who also minimized it. So she had to attend trial to learn the truth. And that outrage of how she was treated is understandable. But past that, Joy is still ensconced by and embraces much of the fundie lifestyle.

Sure, maybe she and Austin seemed like they had a genuine love relationship at first. Over time he seems to be less kind in some video clips and who knows how he is when he’s not on video? 

I’m not sure where I saw the following book excerpt, but it rings very true for fundie men. None of them admire women for any damn thing. (Sadly, I know many non fundie men who fit the description, too.) Austin comes to mind. Joy thinks because he permits her to exhibit some tomboy qualities and not completely conform to traditional fundie women appearance and behavior that she’s somehow going to escape the fundie female fate. But she won’t. 

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I never thought Austin was particularly into her. Most of their love story seemed like Joy sorta of puppy love stalking him (writing their names together in hidden places).

I cant recall anything he said about her early on that seemed like he was deeply in love. But who knows. It's easy to make judgements about all this based on very info that we see.

I dont get the sense he much likes the youtube channel though. I wonder if it will last long.

[Bobology]

1 hour ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

never thought Austin was particularly into her. Most of their love story seemed like Joy sorta of puppy love stalking him (writing their names together in hidden places).

I cant recall anything he said about her early on that seemed like he was deeply in love. But who knows.

Austin is the one who spoke about their 'love story' as in he was sitting there thinking about marriage one day, maybe someone told him Joy had a crush on him, I don’t know, and he thought... hmm, why not Joy?

That's a poor paraphrase but the best I can remember.

[Sk8ter]

2 hours ago, Bobology said:

Austin is the one who spoke about their 'love story' as in he was sitting there thinking about marriage one day, maybe someone told him Joy had a crush on him, I don’t know, and he thought... hmm, why not Joy?

That's a poor paraphrase but the best I can remember.

That's the way I remember it, too. And I thought run, Joy, run! He just not into you. 

[GuineaPigCourtship]

Not that I think Austin is anyone to aspire to, but some of that can be knowing her from a very young age.  She's the younger sister of his friends and is just always around.  Makes sense the realization that she could also make a good romantic partner might be sudden/unexpected and doesn't mean he settled for her.

My husband was a friend who I had turned down romantically and all of a sudden I had a change of heart one day when he was telling me about a date he'd gone on.  So far it's worked out well for us.

[AprilQuilt]

34 minutes ago, GuineaPigCourtship said:

Not that I think Austin is anyone to aspire to, but some of that can be knowing her from a very young age.  She's the younger sister of his friends and is just always around.  Makes sense the realization that she could also make a good romantic partner might be sudden/unexpected and doesn't mean he settled for her.

My husband was a friend who I had turned down romantically and all of a sudden I had a change of heart one day when he was telling me about a date he'd gone on.  So far it's worked out well for us.

yes, my now-partner was a friend for several years before we got together. Actually an ex of mine who knew us both laughed very heartily when I first said we were seeing each other 😶 I certainly did not consider him a romantic prospect until the penny dropped one night.

I give Austin a pass on this one bc he does seem to be a good match for Joy, and as a couple they seem to understand and enjoy one another. I also think they both HATED being on Counting On - the whole marriage prep stuff really didn't suit Joy and she didn't know what to do with herself - so they came over poorly because of that.

[Idlewild]

I thought Joy and Austin were the most likely candidates to opt out of any public life after the show finished - neither seemed bothered or comfortable and Austin had a proper job that didn’t depend on grifting.

Yet they have public Instagram and a YouTube channel, so I guess they must like the money it earns.

[OHFL2009]

This is just a guess, but I think their continued social media presence is influenced by Joy's friendship with Carlin. She took a 6 month break from social media but started posting again right after she took the kids to visit Carlin. I think she saw how much Carlin was making and either decided on her own or was convinced by Carlin and Evan that it would be a quick money making route for her too. I also think Evan may be editing/producing their videos, which is why the quality seems to have improved. 

[moreorlessnu]

On 1/1/2023 at 5:50 PM, Bobology said:

Austin is the one who spoke about their 'love story' as in he was sitting there thinking about marriage one day, maybe someone told him Joy had a crush on him, I don’t know, and he thought... hmm, why not Joy?

That's a poor paraphrase but the best I can remember.

Jessa commented something along the lines of, "I never would have seen that coming a few years ago".

Perhaps Austin repeatedly rebuffed Joy's interest to the point that the family thought they would never be together?

[Cam]

I never watched Counting On so I don’t know their story. But looks like they’ve been married about six years, two kids, another one soon. Easy enough to keep it together at this point. By the time she has four, how good is she going to be at homeschooling? Will it even matter to her? I don’t know what kind of birth control method(s) are used by these fundies who choose to limit family size. Joy may have said she doesn’t want a quiverful but is she really going to stop at four when she sees her sisters-in-law and younger sisters pushing out babies for years to come? Sure, maybe Austin didn’t come from a huge family but……

[marmalade]

13 minutes ago, Cam said:

I never watched Counting On so I don’t know their story. But looks like they’ve been married about six years, two kids, another one soon. Easy enough to keep it together at this point. By the time she has four, how good is she going to be at homeschooling? Will it even matter to her? I don’t know what kind of birth control method(s) are used by these fundies who choose to limit family size. Joy may have said she doesn’t want a quiverful but is she really going to stop at four when she sees her sisters-in-law and younger sisters pushing out babies for years to come? Sure, maybe Austin didn’t come from a huge family but……

Austin's sister, Megan Ballinger, is on #4, I believe. 

[JDuggs]

I have a feeling Joy will struggle a lot with the homeschooling. Gideon seems a little more high energy than a first born homeschool son like Spurgeon and it’s going to overwhelm Joy. But I also think that education isn’t as important to the Forsyths as it is to the Seewalds, Dillards, Vuolos, so Joy will give more of a halfhearted effort.

I think Austin will be happy with two sons and won’t really care about his daughters that much, so I don’t think he’ll want too many kids. He seems to appreciate a less chaotic home than the Duggars. Joy currently seems to look up to Abbie and Jinger, and I doubt either of them will have huge quivers, so hopefully that will influence her choices too.

[JDuggs]

28 minutes ago, marmalade said:

Austin's sister, Megan Ballinger, is on #4, I believe. 

His half-brother has five and his half-sister has six.

[marmalade]

35 minutes ago, JDuggs said:

His half-brother has five and his half-sister has six.

Yup. They're not adverse to large families. I'm sure Joy will have six in no time flat.

[Mama Mia]

9 hours ago, JDuggs said:

I have a feeling Joy will struggle a lot with the homeschooling. Gideon seems a little more high energy than a first born homeschool son like Spurgeon and it’s going to overwhelm Joy. But I also think that education isn’t as important to the Forsyths as it is to the Seewalds, Dillards, Vuolos, so Joy will give more of a halfhearted effort.

I think Austin will be happy with two sons and won’t really care about his daughters that much, so I don’t think he’ll want too many kids. He seems to appreciate a less chaotic home than the Duggars. Joy currently seems to look up to Abbie and Jinger, and I doubt either of them will have huge quivers, so hopefully that will influence her choices too.

Joy so far has been surprisingly pro-active regarding her kids education and development . She was concerned that 3 year old Gideon wasn’t hitting all his milestones, and was struggling in sone areas compared to other kids his age and took him for a comprehensive assessment at some real child development center.  She also has been having him do  basic academic pre-school activities for quite awhile.  That seems pretty on-top of it, even for a “regular” family, since he’s so young and her concerns were about relatively minor issues.  
 

I could see Joy and Austin going either way on limiting family size. They seem to love to travel and work together outdoors and do all the sporty things and that would be increasingly hard the more kids they have. On the other hand if they have a new baby every  2 1/2 to 3 years they might find it manageable. particularly with family around for support.

There is a gigantic difference between trying to juggle 8-10 kids and homeschool! when the oldest is 10, and you’re pregnant, and still have another 10+ years to keep having more  — and trying to raise your total of 8-10 but they are spaced over 20+ years and range fairly evenly from young adults, teens, elementary aged and a couple of under 5 .  Personally, for their interests, it seems like more than 5-6 total would be really pushing their stress / fun level.   

Interesting, but not surprising, that so far it’s the Duggar sons, not the daughters, who are working on baby after baby after baby. Anna’s spacing was consistently 2 years, if Josh hadn’t gone to prison she would likely have hit 10-12, Joe has a regular baby making machine in Kendra. Jed is early to the game but so far has the closest back-to-back blessings.   
 

 

[Cam]

The sisters in law are really producing and I’m not sure the Duggar sisters anticipated being outshined in that way. I think it started dawning on Joy when she and Katey got pregnant at the same time even tho Joy had space between her last one and this one while Katey practically just gave birth and is already pregnant with another. I bet Joy, who hoped to bask a bit in the pregnancy limelight, didn’t like being a bit upstaged by Katey. 

It’s easier for Jill and Jinger to limit size as Jing is removed from the constant family gatherings and Jill seems to have other things going on in her life. Those two seem to have given thought to how they hope to live their lives. Joy doesn’t seem like she ever had much of a plan, just let Austin tell her what it is. 

Being around the constant pregnancies, how much peer pressure will be on the Forsyths. Do the men get their digs in when the womenfolk arent around by making remarks like, “hey aint you gettin any, you havent had any babies in awhile”. Or “gotta keep them women barefoot and pregnant and prove you a man”. This would be said jokingly but intentionally. I even wonder if Austin got ribbed by other fundie men for “allowing” his wife to get her hair cut: “Whoa, Austin, next thing you know Joy will be wanting to preach in church! Can’t have that now, can we? Plus do you really think that short hair even looks good?” People make snide remarks to all the time out of earshot from others.

As for them liking to travel, once Austin’s boys become tweens he’ll be out male bonding with them and Joy will be tasked with keeping the home fires burning. 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Cam

[JermajestyDuggar]

I think it’s very possible that by the time some of these fundie moms get to 6, they realize it’s their limit and decide to stop. Plans change all the time in families. I could see young fundie moms saying, “we will let god decide.” And then 10 years later their lives look very different and they have matured. They could then decide it’s time to stop. I don’t see many of these second generation quiverful fundies actually being quiverful. I will be shocked if most of the 19 kids end up being quiverful. I would say most won’t be quiverful until menopause. 

[Pecansforeveryone]

There are slight shades and gradations to the Quiverful movement. Natural family planning isn't as across the board taboo as hormonal birth control or surgical sterilization, especially if the family has a generally large family of 6-8. Having your tubes tied after 7 children may be permissible if the mother has life threatening complications.