M is for Mama 15

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, theotherelise said:

She claimed that there is some total amount that they would contribute to higher education but instead of using it for college, Ezra will ask for it as a lump sum. IDK I'll believe that when I see it. (ETA: they did say he would go do a programmer bootcamp next year then start working for shaun, but we'll see for that too)

I am young in my class and as such I was 17 when I graduated high school, but I don't make some kind of claim that I was young or ahead or whatever. Ezra turns 17 in a couple weeks, but of course she's going on about how he is graduating at 16. Like, he is a year ahead, but he's essentially graduating at 17. It's May 1, most high schoolers are still going to school through the next 3-4 weeks at least and Ezra would turn 17 during that time. She just wants to force this whole second generation of 16 year old "graduates."

This "apprenticeship" for Ezra is exactly what we all feared would happen for the past year or so. Hopefully he finds some kind of ways to experience life outside his bubble. Going to college at this time with his very limited independence or experience might be a rough. But the idea of him just continuing to live in the boys dorm and spending all his time with the family still is sad.

I think there is a good chance Simon will go into the military. I think they're going to get to Della before any child tries to deviate from the limited choices. Abbie has frequently expressed consternation at Della's personality. 

Exactly. I turned 17 Christmas week of my senior year in HS. So essentially, Ezra is 5 months younger than I was at his HS graduation. This was no big deal.  Difference is, I went to college and was working as an RN and supporting myself when I was 21- Actually, I took the boards and passed them BEFORE I graduated from college. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Me, my husband, and both of his sisters graduated at 17. It’s just how our birthdays fell. None of us skipped grades. Braggie is obsessed with talking about graduating at 16. But it’s pretty easy to graduate a homeschool kid when you cut out everything but the basics. 

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

I graduated HS at 17, and turned 18 3 weeks later. Thus I graduated college at 21, and turned 22 3 weeks later.

My brother started college at 17 and turned 18 a month into the semester. A close friend started college at 17, and turned 18 in Nov.

This happens all the time. 

Braggie -- you are not special for graduating early and neither is Ezra.  You just graduated him early because you could fudge the dates, not because he actually finished. 

[SassyPants]

Those kids could go to a local JC and on to a state university for a fraction of $100,000. And if she finds public education too expensive, she can, perhaps, think of why HER state might have higher PUBLIC education cost. Connect the freaking dots, lady. 

[fluffernutter]

I have some friends that homeschool, and their kids graduate very differently than how my public school kids graduated (18, 18, and 19, all after four years of HS). The youngest that I know is 16 and just got his license. My kids were sophomores at that age. I guess they hit the state's requirements, whatever they may be, and then they are done. I can't wrap my head around it. Two are going to a bible-type college, and one to a CTC program for welding (He will most likely be fine, I think). One, a female, is just at home. I don't want to stereotype homeschoolers, hell I almost homeschooled our kids because Columbine happened right before our oldest was going into kindergarten, but the people I personally know just seem to follow their own rules and rarely seem to value college unless it is a bible college, which the local one here is the kind that doesn't even have transferable credits. The one friend was having financial struggles and I asked if she was considering going back to work, but she said she couldn't because she needed to homeschool the kids. I said well they could go to public school, my kids turned out fine, and she said public school would "crush their spirit." I kind of feel like keeping your kids sheltered and their worlds small crushes their spirit more. 

[Ozlsn]

I finished year 12 when I was 17 and a half, and did an exchange year so I could start uni at 18 and a half (over legal drinking age here - not the only reason for the exchange, but certainly a factor!) When I started school the age cut off was the middle of the year, so large numbers of people finished their final year aged 17 - I wasn't even the youngest in my year.

[SassyPants]

Per IG they have arrived in London. One twin screamed for 20 minutes pre-take off. I am sure those passengers sitting close to the H’s thought, “Here we go.” I can only imagine the area around those kids’ seats at the end of the flight. People trashing the plane and refusing to pick up their garbage (AKA throwing it on the floor) is a huge pet peeve of mine. It really bothers me in first class. It’s as if the attendants are personal servants. 

Now we all get to live vicariously through Abbie.

[Giraffe]

5 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

Now we all get to live vicariously through Abbie.

We could add another couple threads by the time they’re home! I’d love to hear other passengers experiences with the family. I imagine them as generally unruly passengers that others and the staff are still talking about. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

19 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

We could add another couple threads by the time they’re home! I’d love to hear other passengers experiences with the family. I imagine them as generally unruly passengers that others and the staff are still talking about. 

This is how I imagine the plane ride. The Nanny, Ezra, Simon, and Della are all taking care of the youngest 5 while Braggie is on her phone for most of the flight and Shaun is sitting way in the back away from the family on his laptop. Everyone around them wonders, “where are the parents?” And can’t figure it out until the end of the flight when Braggie finally gets up to do a little parenting so no one forgets their precious carry on luggage. 

[Nancy-Druesel]

Abbie is up on her high horse because she got yelled at by a French woman on the train for letting the little twins have a screaming meltdown wrestling match. She thinks the woman was in the wrong because, "Toddlers who have been traveling for 26 hours or not known for their emotional regulation." Yeah no shit Abbie, That's why responsible parents will do their best to avoid making their toddlers travel for 26 hours straight. And that's why the woman was chewing you out and not them!

 

I love that the culture shock has already set in that Europeans will absolutely call you out if you are a being a public nuisance. I have a feeling this trip is going to be a series of IG meltdowns as Abbie realizes not everyone thinks the sun shines out her ass.

[danvillebelle]

Good for the French woman.  I imagine that in Paris they will be immediately pegged as the clueless American tourists they are and get numerous glares and sniffs.  I hope Braggie is miserable and can't enjoy it.  I feel very sorry for Titus and Toby, whom I'm sure would much rather be at home in their own house and sleep in their own beds.  The fact that one of them immediately asked for *Evy* when he woke up in a strange, scary place is so very telling, but Braggie just thinks it's a flex.  🙄

I cannot believe she wore/lugged her stupid Paddington hat to Europe.  She looks ridiculous. 

Edited May 2, 2023 by danvillebelle

[SassyPants]

In the photos posted post encounter, Shaun looks embarrassed, and AH looks like a smug Karen. The twins aren’t the problem, the entitled parents decision making is what the woman was addressing-

These idiots are going to be in Europe for 45 days and will be spending time, at later date, in London. Maybe they should have planned to spend today in London instead of tacking on another leg to the trip. Perhaps they are equally clueless about jet lag as they seemingly are about anticipating the behaviors of exhausted young children who are 100% out of their own element.

For how smart she thinks they are, they sure make rather dumb decisions.

 

ETA: They made a very parent-centric decision. All parents do this from time to time. I get that, but now they need to gracefully deal with the fallout. Sorry, AH doesn’t get to deflect blame to the 26 hours of travel and tired toddlers. This is where she is wrong. Suck it up, buttercups. You both made a bad decision and got called on the carpet for the fallout!

Edited May 2, 2023 by SassyPants

[danvillebelle]

Adding...I hope that the older kids experience something...an encounter, overhear a comment, something...that plants a tiny seed in their head of "hmmm, not everyone thinks my parents have it all together." Or they see something that makes them realize there's a whole big world out there that they CAN go choose to be a part of.

4 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

In the photos posted post encounter, Shaun looks embarrassed, and AH looks like a smug Karen. The twins aren’t the problem, the entitled parents decision making is what the woman was addressing-

Braggie has always been the kind of parent that lets her kids wreck stores, restaurant tables, etc. and thinks the staff is the problem.

She's a freaking sociopath, IMO.  She shows no emotion or empathy for anyone, ever, including her own children. 

[SuperNova]

42 minutes ago, Nancy-Druesel said:

Abbie is up on her high horse because she got yelled at by a French woman on the train for letting the little twins have a screaming meltdown wrestling match. She thinks the woman was in the wrong because, "Toddlers who have been traveling for 26 hours or not known for their emotional regulation." Yeah no shit Abbie, That's why responsible parents will do their best to avoid making their toddlers travel for 26 hours straight. And that's why the woman was chewing you out and not them!

 

I love that the culture shock has already set in that Europeans will absolutely call you out if you are a being a public nuisance. I have a feeling this trip is going to be a series of IG meltdowns as Abbie realizes not everyone thinks the sun shines out her ass.

Abbie's poor planning strikes again. Maybe just throw money at the problem and fly direct instead of driving 2 hours to Dallas, flying Dallas to Atlanta, Atlanta to London, then on to Paris, then back again to London. F*#king what?!

This trip isn't for the children or Shaun. This is a chance for bestselling Christian author Abbie Halberstadt to take the grand tour and soak up all the admiration from her throngs of European fans. I hope she has the trip that she deserves.

[SassyPants]

Not WKing for the airline travel, but…we have homes on 2 continents, so we fly a lot. Post covid, choices and especially routes for travel have changed drastically. Dallas would be the closet decent airport for her. A smaller airport would run the risk of cancelled or delayed flights. I live this life…and are there many direct flights from Dallas to Paris? Maybe, but since Shaun travels for work, I’m assuming they are using mileage points for many of the flights, and thus are tied to a certain airlines. Or maybe the direct flights available did not mesh well with their plans.

As an example… our door to door mileage from 1 house to house 2 is 3800 miles. If we flew direct (not possible) it would take about 12 hours of flight time. 2 weeks ago it  took us 2 days to get home. Why? Our first flight out time has changed (it used to leave at 0100, so we could get an early flight out of Miami to CA). Now, the flight leaves So America at 0600, so we have to take the late afternoon flight to Phoenix, and then run to catch our flight to CA. This last time we got delayed in Miami and missed the CA flight, which really sucks after sitting for a long 6 hour layover in Miami-

TL;DR- flying international is precarious these days.

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by SassyPants

[Wifey4Lifey]

14 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

Not WKing for the airline travel, but…we have homes on 2 continents, so we fly a lot. Post covid, choices and especially routes for travel have changed drastically. Dallas would be the closet decent airport for her. A smaller airport would run the risk of cancelled or delayed flights. I live this life…and are there many direct flights from Dallas to Paris? Maybe, but since Shaun travels for work, I’m assuming they are using mileage points for many of the flights, and thus are tied to a certain airlines. Or maybe the direct flights available did not mess well with their plans.

 

Airline travel is definitely convoluted these days, but if you plan to go to multiple cities, why not just start wherever is cheapest to fly into? My guess is that they initially planned for the first leg of the trip to be London, then pivoted to Paris due to the upcoming coronation making accommodations too expensive/non-existent.

[SassyPants]

Another thing AH said that bugged me was she didn’t know the exact number of suitcases/luggage that they had. What???? We always know the exact number, color, brand, shape of every piece of luggage that we check and carry on.

Sometimes Abbie presents as such a flake.

9 minutes ago, Wifey4Lifey said:

Airline travel is definitely convoluted these days, but if you plan to go to multiple cities, why not just start wherever is cheapest to fly into? My guess is that they initially planned for the first leg of the trip to be London, then pivoted to Paris due to the upcoming coronation making accommodations too expensive/non-existent.

Then you had better have a plan for containing/entertaining/pacifying those youngest kids on that final leg. Abbie has always shown the propensity for inconveniencing others vs putting the onus on herself. Probably a good thing that it happened on day 1. My guess is Abbie and Shaun weren’t dealing with the little boys, leaving it all up to the help and older kids and that’s why the woman said something.

Abbie, have you ever heard about owning it? Turning the other cheek as opposed to turning to IG?

Edited May 2, 2023 by SassyPants

[JermajestyDuggar]

Sorry but this is why you don’t take your ten kids (2 toddlers) in an insanely long plane ride and then expect them to behave on a train. Her planning is so fucked. I bet they will spend a lot of time in their hotel rooms because taking everyone out to sightsee will be so poorly planned that meltdowns and cluster fucks will run rampant. Along with dirty looks and whispers behind her back. I hope someone loudly whispers about her ugly ass hat.

[SassyPants]

28 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Sorry but this is why you don’t take your ten kids (2 toddlers) in an insanely long plane ride and then expect them to behave on a train. Her planning is so fucked. I bet they will spend a lot of time in their hotel rooms because taking everyone out to sightsee will be so poorly planned that meltdowns and cluster fucks will run rampant. Along with dirty looks and whispers behind her back. I hope someone loudly whispers about her ugly ass hat.

Sadly, 2 trains. The hour long ride into London and then what I’m assuming was the Chunnel. I can just see the 2 of them scrolling their phones while the littlest boys screamed, kicked’ licked the floors and threw things around. Young kids be damned.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

I graduated high school at 18. Based on my birthday, I could have graduated at 17. Both are normal in my community.

As for Ezra and college, I'm not surprised that Abbie doesn't support her own kids going to college. If they had started saving when each kid was born, they could go to state schools, maybe get aid/scholarships and the money would be manageable. The real problem with fundamentalism is that it's about controlling others. The kids will probably be married young. Early marriage is often more effective at keeping kids in the fold than later marriage, especially if the kids aren't allowed to move out until after marriage. Hopefully at least some of Abbie's kids will move out before marriage, even if she doesn't want them to.

[Jigsaw3]

8 hours ago, SassyPants said:

Sadly, 2 trains. The hour long ride into London and then what I’m assuming was the Chunnel. I can just see the 2 of them scrolling their phones while the littlest boys screamed, kicked’ licked the floors and threw things around. Young kids be damned.

Not just the trains, but two sets of customs -- Heathrow, and then a train, and then French customs at St. Pancras before the Eurostar train, so add in extra amounts of lines and waiting rooms and general aggravation.

And now she's in France, which is not exactly calm and peaceful at the moment: there's lots of protests going on about pension changes, and some of them are quite violent. If she stumbles into any of that she'll have a shock, and she'll struggle to cope if their travel plans are disrupted by any strikes. My parents changed their travel plans this month to avoid France entirely.

Gonna pop some popcorn....

[Ozlsn]

8 hours ago, SassyPants said:

Sadly, 2 trains. The hour long ride into London and then what I’m assuming was the Chunnel. I can just see the 2 of them scrolling their phones while the littlest boys screamed, kicked’ licked the floors and threw things around. Young kids be damned.

Holy crap, I didn't realise they flew into London and then went straight on to Paris. Yes accommodation is expensive in London due to the coronation right now but seriously how long have they been planning this? Why the hell would you not have at least the first night booked somewhere close to your arrival point? What were they going to do if their bags went haywire, one of them stay  back? Honestly they could have hired a car and driven to the accommodation then taken the ferry across.

Or, you know, flown into Paris which would have made more sense.

[danvillebelle]

They missed their train to Versailles because they couldn't get the stroller folded up quickly enough. 

Why do I have the feeling this is going to be the theme of the whole trip...Braggie being prevented and invonvenienced from what she wants to do because kids.  

Bitch, why didn't you just go to Europe by yourself for a month? You know that's what you really wanted. 

And seeing her kids, particularly the little boys who are known for their lack of impulse control, next to an open train track is giving me major anxiety.

Edited May 3, 2023 by danvillebelle

[Giraffe]

17 hours ago, SassyPants said:

Another thing AH said that bugged me was she didn’t know the exact number of suitcases/luggage that they had…

Wow. She’s such a lazy, uninvolved parent that she doesn’t even know what luggage they have with them?!! I hope this trip opens some of her followers eyes to show Abbie’s “cute, relatable parenting foibles” is actually severe neglect. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

25 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

Wow. She’s such a lazy, uninvolved parent that she doesn’t even know what luggage they have with them?!! I hope this trip opens some of her followers eyes to show Abbie’s “cute, relatable parenting foibles” is actually severe neglect. 

I don’t think it will. I think her followers have seen how uninvolved she is and they still hump her leg. I’m always amazed by how much humpers can ignore while putting fundie mommy bloggers on a pedestal.