Shiny Happy People: A Duggar and IBLP Documentary

[Giraffe]

1 hour ago, Columbia said:

I thought this section was... interesting.
 

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WTF?!? Farris WAS “the fringe of the fringe”!!! I hope he gets a shit-ton of pushback on that!

[CanadianMamam]

10 hours ago, FiveAcres said:

This is a great story. For those who are not subscribers to the Washington Post, here is a gift link to the article:

https://wapo.st/45DlNn3

 

I felt teary reading this and how many things the parents missed out and how brave they were to take that first step. 

[Bethella]

Here’s another fascinating article from the LA Times about the documentary. I personally find the financial revelations from the Dillards to be the most interesting. The six “revelations” they discuss:

-Jim Bob wanted Josh to come clean about his abuse — after he got married (to Kayleigh Holt)

-Why that Megyn Kelly interview was a ‘suicide mission’ for Jill

-Amid Bill Gothard’s resignation, Jim Bob was ready to lead the IBLP

-Jim Bob secretly locked Jill into a long-term TLC contract a day before her wedding

-How TLC got footage of Jill giving birth, even though she didn’t allow it

-Jim Bob was going to pay his older kids a lump sum — if they signed another contract

 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-05-30/shiny-happy-people-duggar-family-highlights-amazon-studios

[Jasmar]

I noticed that the maiden name of the wife/mom in the WaPo story is Comfort. I wonder if she’s related to Banana Man.

[JermajestyDuggar]

26 minutes ago, Jasmar said:

I noticed that the maiden name of the wife/mom in the WaPo story is Comfort. I wonder if she’s related to Banana Man.

Since Ray is Australian, I sort of doubt it. 

[Giraffe]

26 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Since Ray is Australian, I sort of doubt it. 

Doesn’t he live in the states though?

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, Giraffe said:

Doesn’t he live in the states though?

We know Ray is not the father or grandfather of the guy in the article. So I figured if they are related, it would have to be a cousin or something. And who knows if Ray’s relatives immigrated to the US too.  Ray is semi famous so he probably would have been mentioned if they were first cousins. 

[Hane]

My 15-year-old grandson (the first out and proud atheist in our family) isn’t a fundie follower, but he happened across Ray Comfort’s banana talk and was flabbergasted at its idiocy.

[Giraffe]

6 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

We know Ray is not the father or grandfather of the guy in the article. So I figured if they are related, it would have to be a cousin or something. And who knows if Ray’s relatives immigrated to the US too.  Ray is semi famous so he probably would have been mentioned if they were first cousins. 

Oh, ok. Thanks. 

1 minute ago, Hane said:

My 15-year-old grandson (the first out and proud atheist in our family) isn’t a fundie follower, but he happened across Ray Comfort’s banana talk and was flabbergasted at its idiocy.

That’s awesome!

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, Hane said:

My 15-year-old grandson (the first out and proud atheist in our family) isn’t a fundie follower, but he happened across Ray Comfort’s banana talk and was flabbergasted at its idiocy.

I feel like it went a bit viral because it was so sexually suggestive and just plain stupid at the same time. I’m glad some youngins are getting a kick out of it. 

[Anne Of Gray Gables]

Here are some early reviews of the series.

https://www.leisurebyte.com/shiny-happy-people-duggar-family-secrets-review/

https://ohmr.themailnewspapers.com/duggars-dark-secrets-from-fame-to-infamy/

 

 

[Cheetah]

Just saw this on reddit and will add to the Jill thread if it isn't there already... Jill and Derrick have a book coming out next January!  https://www.amazon.com/Counting-Cost-Jill-Duggar-ebook/dp/B0C6L2JQX9/ref=sr_1_4?crid=12KIE2MGFBG8B&keywords=jill+duggar&qid=1685500144&sprefix=jill+duggar%2Caps%2C514&sr=8-4

[JermajestyDuggar]

6 minutes ago, Cheetah said:

Just saw this on reddit and will add to the Jill thread if it isn't there already... Jill and Derrick have a book coming out next January!  https://www.amazon.com/Counting-Cost-Jill-Duggar-ebook/dp/B0C6L2JQX9/ref=sr_1_4?crid=12KIE2MGFBG8B&keywords=jill+duggar&qid=1685500144&sprefix=jill+duggar%2Caps%2C514&sr=8-4

I’m sure it will be better than Jinger’s. 

[klein_roeschen]

On 5/19/2023 at 9:45 AM, CarrotCake said:

I hope we will be able to see it in Europe as well... I don't think it will be very popular here but who knows

I can't speak for the Netherlands, but I'm able to watch the trailer on Prime in Germany and have been able to add it to my watch list and I'm looking forward to it.

[Cam]

Great article from the WaPo. They actually mentioned Jinger. I wonder if she’ll see the article and read it. 
 

Homeschooling isn’t just a way to keep kids dumbed down, it’s also another way to control women who do most of the teaching. Their days are filled with doing classwork with your kids. No break from children 24-7. No time to do much of anything else. The Christian nationalist movement is sounding worse than what 1950s housewives dealt with back in the day. So much oppression and insistence upon conforming to rigid gender roles. No room for independent thinking. It’s nauseating and unsettling.

Wow, so Jill and Derick are gonna spill the tea in a book. At least let’s hope so. I had a feeling the documentary was sort of a prelude to Jill being more forthcoming.

Edited May 31, 2023 by Cam

[treemom]

8 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Just saw this on reddit and will add to the Jill thread if it isn't there already... Jill and Derrick have a book coming out next January!  https://www.amazon.com/Counting-Cost-Jill-Duggar-ebook/dp/B0C6L2JQX9/ref=sr_1_4?crid=12KIE2MGFBG8B&keywords=jill+duggar&qid=1685500144&sprefix=jill+duggar%2Caps%2C514&sr=8-4

Well that’s going to be more revealing than Jinger’s.  Also interesting that Craig Borlase is the ghost writer.  He’s a Christian ghostwriter to some extent (He ghostwrote 27 summers and it’s heavily Christian.)  But he’s also a very good writer and will not shy away from the harder bits.

It’s going to have somewhat of a focus on their continued faith but it won’t be like Jinger’s. 

I know Jill and that annoying husband of hers have growing to do and the likely still have deeply abhorrent beliefs.  But I truly believe it’s possible for both of them to end up shedding them. And I think Jill is incredibly brave.

Edited May 31, 2023 by treemom

[wendy-sparkles]

There's a preview on ET featuring Jill and Amy

https://www.etonline.com/jill-duggar-dillard-says-she-didnt-want-to-do-interviews-for-duggar-family-secrets-exclusive-205397

[SassyPants]

3 hours ago, Cam said:

Great article from the WaPo. They actually mentioned Jinger. I wonder if she’ll see the article and read it. 
 

Homeschooling isn’t just a way to keep kids dumbed down, it’s also another way to control women who do most of the teaching. Their days are filled with doing classwork with your kids. No break from children 24-7. No time to do much of anything else. The Christian nationalist movement is sounding worse than what 1950s housewives dealt with back in the day. So much oppression and insistence upon conforming to rigid gender roles. No room for independent thinking. It’s nauseating and unsettling.

Wow, so Jill and Derick are gonna spill the tea in a book. At least let’s hope so. I had a feeling the documentary was sort of a prelude to Jill being more forthcoming.

And if you really think about it, if you have 10+ kids of varying age groups, are continually pregnant and breastfeeding, maintaining a home and cooking, when would you have the time to provide a decent homeschool education (including religious instruction)? How many women do you know with huge families who have a job outside the home? Homeschooling a gaggle is like having a job outside the home. And we all know what task was ignored when Michelle was tired, nauseous or needed a moment.

I worked with a woman who had 4 kids ( 2 sets of twins, spontaneously occurring). She had a lot of help between her very energetic husband and their families, and you could see how hard it was (although she never complained or abused time off). This was ONE woman in my 35 year career.

[JermajestyDuggar]

31 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

And if you really think about it, if you have 10+ kids of varying age groups, are continually pregnant and breastfeeding, maintaining a home and cooking, when would you have the time to provide a decent homeschool education (including religious instruction)? How many women do you know with huge families who have a job outside the home? Homeschooling a gaggle is like having a job outside the home. And we all know what task was ignored when Michelle was tired, nauseous or needed a moment.

I worked with a woman who had 4 kids ( 2 sets of twins, spontaneously occurring). She had a lot of help between her very energetic husband and their families, and you could see how hard it was (although she never complained or abused time off). This was ONE woman in my 35 year career.

We’ve been saying it’s completely impossible for years. That’s why most of these women park their children in front of a computer for hours a day. What a great way to learn! 

[Columbia]

6 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

That’s why most of these women park their children in front of a computer for hours a day. What a great way to learn! 

Or have their kids (especially the girls) doing household chores all day and calling it “school.”

[SassyPants]

4 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

We’ve been saying it’s completely impossible for years. That’s why most of these women park their children in front of a computer for hours a day. What a great way to learn! 

Pre-Covid, my daughter was a Middle/ HS principal (small, US, international school in SA). She lost a MS science teacher, and since she was a former middle and HS science teacher, my daughter jumped in and taught that class for the balance of the school year. The district decided that in the next school year, which was going to be virtual, my daughter would cover both the principal duties and teach MS science. My daughter would also have to virtually school her own daughter who was in first grade at the time. My daughter resigned, stayed at home and homeschooled for that year. The next year the district offered her the Dean’s position, which my daughter did take.

My daughter said there was zero way she could be the MS/HS principal, teach 6th grade science online and home/virtually teach her own 1st grader.

It’s the difference between honoring education and not- Logic also factors in.

[Cam]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

And if you really think about it, if you have 10+ kids of varying age groups, are continually pregnant and breastfeeding, maintaining a home and cooking, when would you have the time to provide a decent homeschool education (including religious instruction)? How many women do you know with huge families who have a job outside the home? 

Great point. This is also how you prevent women from “leaving the fold”. 

[CanadianMamam]

There is a clip on tik-tok where they talk about the Megyn Kelly interview and it is really, really intense. I also see why Jill and Derek were interviewed together, because she really seems to rely on him to get through the hard topics.

 

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

And if you really think about it, if you have 10+ kids of varying age groups, are continually pregnant and breastfeeding, maintaining a home and cooking, when would you have the time to provide a decent homeschool education (including religious instruction)? How many women do you know with huge families who have a job outside the home? Homeschooling a gaggle is like having a job outside the home. And we all know what task was ignored when Michelle was tired, nauseous or needed a moment.

I worked with a woman who had 4 kids ( 2 sets of twins, spontaneously occurring). She had a lot of help between her very energetic husband and their families, and you could see how hard it was (although she never complained or abused time off). This was ONE woman in my 35 year career.

I know one woman with 9 kids ranging from age 22 down to a 3 year old. She runs a hedge fund and in her spare(?! ) time runs Marathons. Oh and she also went back to school part time and eventually got a masters in a field unrelated to the whole hedge fund/finance thing because one of her kids is autistic and she wanted to understand the latest thinking on that. She has a stay at home husband (2nd marriage, father of the last 5 kids, much younger than she is-they met when he was interning at the company she worked for) has household help, has all the kids in public school(oldest ones are in uni) and it's still kind of a shit show. Her life is just constant go go go. 

She clearly wants to project the image that they are just a big fun family because she posts about it that way on FB. Those posts always get her the desired comments about what at superwoman she is, but the cracks do show if you talk to the older kids. They talk about how they felt abandoned because she just didn't have time to spend with them. They talk about how their mother literally never had time to listen to them and how scary it felt when they were often asked to do things on their own that they felt they were too young for. I do wonder what will happen over the next decade or so as the older kids are already talking about how disfunctional their upbringing actually was.

Having a lot of kids is just a lot of work. It can be done without screwing everybody up, but it ain't easy! Trying to home school a large number of kids would definitely be a full time job, and that's without any of the cleaning and household stuff.

The difference with the family I'm talking about is that she DID send them all to public school, so she was able to hold down a job. She still couldn't do it without a stay at home husband and the money to pay for help and even then the kids are not all right!

At least those kids won't be stuck with a 6th grade education I guess. 😔

[JermajestyDuggar]

23 minutes ago, PreciousPantsofDoom said:

I know one woman with 9 kids ranging from age 22 down to a 3 year old. She runs a hedge fund and in her spare(?! ) time runs Marathons. Oh and she also went back to school part time and eventually got a masters in a field unrelated to the whole hedge fund/finance thing because one of her kids is autistic and she wanted to understand the latest thinking on that. She has a stay at home husband (2nd marriage, father of the last 5 kids, much younger than she is-they met when he was interning at the company she worked for) has household help, has all the kids in public school(oldest ones are in uni) and it's still kind of a shit show. Her life is just constant go go go. 

She clearly wants to project the image that they are just a big fun family because she posts about it that way on FB. Those posts always get her the desired comments about what at superwoman she is, but the cracks do show if you talk to the older kids. They talk about how they felt abandoned because she just didn't have time to spend with them. They talk about how their mother literally never had time to listen to them and how scary it felt when they were often asked to do things on their own that they felt they were too young for. I do wonder what will happen over the next decade or so as the older kids are already talking about how disfunctional their upbringing actually was.

Having a lot of kids is just a lot of work. It can be done without screwing everybody up, but it ain't easy! Trying to home school a large number of kids would definitely be a full time job, and that's without any of the cleaning and household stuff.

The difference with the family I'm talking about is that she DID send them all to public school, so she was able to hold down a job. She still couldn't do it without a stay at home husband and the money to pay for help and even then the kids are not all right!

At least those kids won't be stuck with a 6th grade education I guess. 😔

I’ve probably said this somewhere before on FJ, but I’m against the idea that being constantly busy=good type mentality the US tends to exude. People put workaholic behavior on a pedestal. People think that if you aren’t constantly on the go, you are lazy. This is nothing new though. The phrase “Protestant work ethic” has been around forever. But I guess hustle culture is now the common term. I personally don’t think being constantly busy is a virtue. I think it can be extremely stressful for the entire family. I’ve seen this play out in the families of people I’m close to and there always ends up being a big problem. Like someone gets very sick from the stress and is forced to slow down. It’s not sustainable. Having down time is a good thing. It’s ok if kids are bored sometimes. 

Edited May 31, 2023 by JermajestyDuggar