Bates 32: More Weddings, More Babies

[Idlewild]

Why did they seek asylum in the US? There are other countries in the EU where they would have had freedom of movement and could have homeschooled - including the UK as this would have been before Brexit.

[Jana814]

24 minutes ago, Idlewild said:

Why did they seek asylum in the US? There are other countries in the EU where they would have had freedom of movement and could have homeschooled - including the UK 

I wondered the same thing. 

[rebeccawriter01]

4 hours ago, gobucks said:

Addallee is starting "college" and learning ASL. She is 17 and learning to drive. 

How long do we think it will be before she gets married???

Before she gets too far with ASL. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Poor girl. My niece is the same age and has a steady boyfriend. But she has no plans on marriage. Her thoughts are on college. She’s not the type to get married while in college. Although I could see her possibly marrying after college. But even that might be a stretch. 

[rebeccawriter01]

3 hours ago, Idlewild said:

Why did they seek asylum in the US? There are other countries in the EU where they would have had freedom of movement and could have homeschooled - including the UK as this would have been before Brexit.

Because they couldn't get publicity and raise money/accept offerings if they did things logically. Instead, they came to the United States where they claim the US is persecuting Christians too (or one political party is at least). Apparently, Mr. Romeike can support his family of 7 children (5 at home now) on the salary of an accompanist and piano tuner. No proof but seems to me that is one heck of a stretch.  

[OyHiOh]

2 hours ago, rebeccawriter01 said:

Because they couldn't get publicity and raise money/accept offerings if they did things logically. Instead, they came to the United States where they claim the US is persecuting Christians too (or one political party is at least). Apparently, Mr. Romeike can support his family of 7 children (5 at home now) on the salary of an accompanist and piano tuner. No proof but seems to me that is one heck of a stretch.  

I am one of 4 children.  My father was a piano tuner/technician (he had additional training to fix and adjust the moving parts inside a piano; a real certification from Yamaha pianos, although not the sort of thing that was exclusive to the brand).  He also sang for weddings and funerals, played organ for weddings and funerals, was the director of music for a large, mainline church, and occassionally did accompanist work.  He did not cobble together enough income on that mix of activities (the technician work was paid the best) to support four kids.  My mom taught piano lessons damn near close to full time (about 6 hours a day, 6 days a week) and it was still iffy some months if we were going to have enough to make to the 1st.

 

Now, it **might** be possible, if he's got some special in with the Nashville studios, or if he's the only tuner in like a 200 mile radius (my dad was one of two in that radius of home), and he takes absolutely every job and someone (his wife, probably) aggressively makes follow up phone calls/otherwise makes damn sure every client books a tuning every six months **and** he's charging higher than usual rates because he has additional skills or services on offer, but if he's literally just your basic piano tuner who charges about $100 per tuning, nope, don't see it.  One of the things that helped us a lot was when my dad got the contract to tune pianos at the university in town.  Every practice room piano, every teacher instrument, every performance piano.  The reason it made a difference was that he could tune a regularly serviced instrument in about an hour, walk to the next room and do it over again with no travel time at all.  If this dude is driving much at all, the gas alone is killing their budget.  They're getting support from somewhere, or else he's got nice contracts with schools/colleges/universities/studios

[AussieKrissy]

On 9/26/2023 at 1:55 AM, gobucks said:

Addallee is starting "college" and learning ASL. She is 17 and learning to drive. 

How long do we think it will be before she gets married???

Rufus Bless she will be able to god bother the poor hearing impaired now...

[Mrs Ms]

Isn’t she hearing impaired herself? If so, then it is a fucking tragedy that it has taken 17 years for her to get the chance to learn it!

[Travlr98]

1 hour ago, Mrs Ms said:

Isn’t she hearing impaired herself? If so, then it is a fucking tragedy that it has taken 17 years for her to get the chance to learn it!

I'm in my late 40's and also hearing impaired.  I never learned or felt the need to learn ASL.  

[rebeccawriter01]

1 hour ago, Mrs Ms said:

Isn’t she hearing impaired herself? If so, then it is a fucking tragedy that it has taken 17 years for her to get the chance to learn it!

It has become a hobby, if you will, picked up by some evangelicals to translate during church services. I'm teaching a PR class at a community college this term. Across the hall is a woman teaching ASL. More than half, according to her, want to use the skill for ministry and don't actually know anyone who communicates with ASL.

[JDuggs]

31 minutes ago, Travlr98 said:

I'm in my late 40's and also hearing impaired.  I never learned or felt the need to learn ASL.  

If this is a new interest of Addee’s, then it seems like a good idea for her to learn it. But she didn’t need to wait until she was in college. Involved parents would have helped her pursue learning ASL as soon as she expressed interest. Maybe the interest just got sparked in her recently.

What @rebeccawriter01 said above about it being a ministry makes sense with  someone like Addee.

[gobucks]

14 hours ago, Mrs Ms said:

Isn’t she hearing impaired herself? If so, then it is a fucking tragedy that it has taken 17 years for her to get the chance to learn it!

Yes, she was the one that was a homebirth gone awry. I believe she was unresponsive at some point. Her hearing loss is attributed to her birth.. I think.  I know Gil spelled her name with 2 of every letter "because she got a second chance at life". 

[imokit]

On 9/25/2023 at 6:37 PM, Idlewild said:

Why did they seek asylum in the US? There are other countries in the EU where they would have had freedom of movement and could have homeschooled - including the UK as this would have been before Brexit.

Because large parts of Europe (including the UK) have free accessible birth control and abortions available to teenagers without need for parental knowledge.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I feel the the US is the dream country for homeschooling Christian fundies because some states have extremely lax homeschooling rules, while having almost complete abortion bans, and conservative representatives. 

[Kiki03910]

I just watched the Tori/Bobby wedding episode and was struck by a few things.

Tori's dress had fit very well in the earlier episodes. I think it was too loose at the wedding because she looked to have lost a significant amount of weight. It made me kind of sad.

Bobby having significant male friendships is a big plus. Too many men don't, and that puts a lot of pressure on their partners.

Erin is so so SO smug. Carlin is a twit, but a sad twit. And all the brothers who participated in the updo-shaming were sanctimonious pricks. I'm looking at YOU, Nathan. Like I'm gonna take hairstyle tips from someone who looks like a fucking Sleestak half the time.

[Giraffe]

On 9/27/2023 at 8:40 AM, gobucks said:

Yes, she was the one that was a homebirth gone awry. I believe she was unresponsive at some point. Her hearing loss is attributed to her birth.. I think.  I know Gil spelled her name with 2 of every letter "because she got a second chance at life". 

Oh FFS! Did she feel honored by this? Or is it just Gil being a religious douchebag?

[rebeccawriter01]

4 hours ago, Kiki03910 said:

I just watched the Tori/Bobby wedding episode and was struck by a few things.

Tori's dress had fit very well in the earlier episodes. I think it was too loose at the wedding because she looked to have lost a significant amount of weight. It made me kind of sad.

Bobby having significant male friendships is a big plus. Too many men don't, and that puts a lot of pressure on their partners.

Erin is so so SO smug. Carlin is a twit, but a sad twit. And all the brothers who participated in the updo-shaming were sanctimonious pricks. I'm looking at YOU, Nathan. Like I'm gonna take hairstyle tips from someone who looks like a fucking Sleestak half the time.

Erin was practically unbearable during the lead-up to weddings. It would have done wonders for the ratings if one of the engaged sisters slapped her and told her to shut up. She was the first Bates to get married. She didn't invent the concept.

[Kiki03910]

On 10/5/2023 at 11:41 AM, rebeccawriter01 said:

Erin was practically unbearable during the lead-up to weddings. It would have done wonders for the ratings if one of the engaged sisters slapped her and told her to shut up. She was the first Bates to get married. She didn't invent the concept.

Erin seems to be perhaps the only sister who has the same level of smug self-assurance as all her unbearably assholish brothers. In other circumstances I might admire her strength of character. But much like her brothers, she's just an egotistical shitbird.

OT, I came across the hilarious European Middle Ages fever dream of witches' "penis pets" and wonder if the Bateseseseses would faint at the very concept.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mbqjap/witches-allegedly-stole-penises-and-kept-them-as-pets-in-the-middle-ages

[Kiki03910]

I just watched Zach and Whit's 2nd wedding/vow renewal.  I feel so confused; what happened in her background? If her father had fucked off, why would she want him there? My parents divorced when I was 9 and all I could think about was being around my southern ME grandparents again. My father fucked off and that was fine. All I wanted was to be with my grandparents in York ME.

[marmalade]

4 hours ago, Kiki03910 said:

I just watched Zach and Whit's 2nd wedding/vow renewal.  I feel so confused; what happened in her background? If her father had fucked off, why would she want him there? My parents divorced when I was 9 and all I could think about was being around my southern ME grandparents again. My father fucked off and that was fine. All I wanted was to be with my grandparents in York ME.

No one knows why, but she lives in a foster home as a teen. For a while, she considered that family her own. That man ended her down the aisle.

We do not know exactly what happened, but after her marriage, she reconciled with her birth parents. Gothard encourages this, so Kelly may have gotten in her ear. At any rate, I believe they were there when Bradley was born, and her father walked her down the aisle at her vow renewal.

[rebeccawriter01]

1 hour ago, marmalade said:

No one knows why, but she lives in a foster home as a teen. For a while, she considered that family her own. That man ended her down the aisle.

We do not know exactly what happened, but after her marriage, she reconciled with her birth parents. Gothard encourages this, so Kelly may have gotten in her ear. At any rate, I believe they were there when Bradley was born, and her father walked her down the aisle at her vow renewal.

More than likely the family Whitney lived with were friends of the family or church affiliated. They took in a large number of children and would not have been approved as proper foster care due to lack of bedrooms/space/training, etc. The theory is that Whitney either had a hard time getting along with her parents. It could be as simple as she felt they were strict or didn't let her do something she wanted to do. If it was abuse (as some think), a more formal situation would have resulted. 

Yes, Whitney's guardian father walked her down the aisle at her first wedding. They have said that she completely cut off contact with them around the time the show started filming. Kelly is suspected because she "encouraged" Whitney to wear skirts and do more IBLP approved things such as quit her job at Sonic. 

[rebeccawriter01]

John Oliver did a great piece on homeschooling last night. He also discussed the group HSLDA which represents the Romeikes. It's available on Max (formerly HBO/Max) and Youtube if you are interested. In it he briefly discusses ABEKA, the curriculum many of the Bates use. 

Edited October 9, 2023 by rebeccawriter01

[CarrotCake]

On 10/8/2023 at 9:27 PM, rebeccawriter01 said:

More than likely the family Whitney lived with were friends of the family or church affiliated. They took in a large number of children and would not have been approved as proper foster care due to lack of bedrooms/space/training, etc. The theory is that Whitney either had a hard time getting along with her parents. It could be as simple as she felt they were strict or didn't let her do something she wanted to do. If it was abuse (as some think), a more formal situation would have resulted. 

Yes, Whitney's guardian father walked her down the aisle at her first wedding. They have said that she completely cut off contact with them around the time the show started filming. Kelly is suspected because she "encouraged" Whitney to wear skirts and do more IBLP approved things such as quit her job at Sonic. 

Is she still in contact with her foster family and/or were they at the vow renewal? 

[JermajestyDuggar]

22 hours ago, rebeccawriter01 said:

John Oliver did a great piece on homeschooling last night. He also discussed the group HSLDA which represents the Romeikes. It's available on Max (formerly HBO/Max) and Youtube if you are interested. In it he briefly discusses ABEKA, the curriculum many of the Bates use. 

Bethany Wissmann Beasley is also married to a lawyer who works for HSLDA. 

[rebeccawriter01]

8 hours ago, CarrotCake said:

Is she still in contact with her foster family and/or were they at the vow renewal? 

No she cut off all contact with them as far as anyone knows. The family said on a private social media site that they hadn't heard from her since shortly after the wedding.