Eat your hearts out Duggars

[Guest Anonymous]

I can't wait for the Duggars to be guests on the new show, after theirs ends. Gil giving JB old clothes, a used bus, and additions to the TTH.

The circle of life...

Nah, that's the "Lion King". For these folks, it's "SEASON of life".

[NJMom]

Well, I think that article has at least 2 incorrect statements. First of all, neither the Duggars or the Bates are the largest family in America. There are at least 2 or 3 I've recalled seeing on television who have adopted children who are larger than that. Whether or not 19 is the most children born to one family in the US, I don't have any idea. Second, the idea that hormones will "strengthen the uterine wall" sounds ridiculous to me. I had to have progesterone both times I was pregnant with my kids (ages 18 and 14 now), and I was 30 and 34 when they were born. My sister did as well, for both of us the dr. found out during our first blood test.

My mother likely had similar issues, as she had 4 miscarriages before the 3 of us were born, but they didn't do routine blood tests in the 50's and 60's. I was told if I didn't take the progesterone, I would very likely have a miscarriage. Low progesterone also can keep some women from conceiving in the first place, but it doesn't make you any more fertile than you already are. Some people seem to think that taking progesterone is similar to taking fertility drugs, but in many cases, it's necessary to keep a pregnancy. I'm assuming Kelly Bates was told the same thing as I was, and I guess in her case she needs to keep taking it in order to conceive. I also think she'll have no trouble having baby # 20 and beyond.And yes, I do find it just a bit ironic that they chose J names for their last 2 children.

[bananacat]

Neither the Duggars nor the Bateses have ever left their pregnancies up to God or chance. They actively tried for each and every one of them, using the reverse of the rhythm method. If they just had sex whenever they felt like it and let whatever happen, Michelle wouldn't need to obsessively chart her cycles in full view of the entire family.

In their world, children mean that God favors them, and that they have pleased them. So there's a lot of pressure to have as many as possible, to prove how much God loves them. They have as many as they possibly can, not how many God gives them.

[Whydoyouask]

I was able to get 10 items for 'free' after rebate at safeway this week. Yes I needed to go to Safeway (a store I don't usually shop at), but there was a rebate form in last week's coupons. ALL kid friendly foods (cupcake mix, yogart, cereal, fruit snacks, soup, granola bars, frozen pizza, frozen breakfast). I even had coupons for some things so I will probably make $$ on the deals. In a house of 20 kids how can you afford to miss free food?

I'm a single mommy to a tween boy. My kiddo is on swim team and eats like a horse. With out coupons I couldn't afford to feed us. We eat healthy and I am PROUD of my coupon binder. If I had 10-15 extra kids to help with coupons, I could just imagine the savings. Ebil computers or not.

I guess I'm too dumb to understand the logic of these families. Literally throwing away a full ride scholarship. Throwing away coupons. Making mulitple shopping trips instead of one large trip.

Let's say its 'costs' the Bates $100/day to feed that family. That's $5/person approx. I don't spend that much for my family of 2 most months total. I try to keep my total grocery and household budget under $250.00 Must be nice to have money to burn.

[doggie]

coupons are usualy for name brand products that myself never buy. They are expensive for the most part and tend to be not such high quality food. I doubt they buy thigns that would be on coupons.

[Elle]

The article said that Jeb was premature. I thought he was only two weeks early? Are they trying to compete with the Duggars here too and drum up some preemie drama episodes?

Some people think that a day before or after 40 weeks means early or late. Fact is babies can be born as early as 37 weeks or at late as 43 and be at perfect full term for the individual baby. Sometimes babies are born even earlier or even later and are just fine.

[Elle]

Hmm..Speaknow, that's a good point...don't see the reason on her applying there if she knew that there was no way she would be allowed to go.

Speaking of school, since the Duggars have been on this Santorium tour since forever now...Who in the world is homeschool these kids while all of this is going on? Are they homeschooling on the bus or something? I highly doubt that

I'm going to guess it was a form of taunting her to see what she can't have.

And education? Kids don't need any of that stuff!

[silverspoons]

coupons are usualy for name brand products that myself never buy. They are expensive for the most part and tend to be not such high quality food. I doubt they buy thigns that would be on coupons.

But they do. We have seen the Duggars and Bates but those grands and cinnamon rolls in the can. They were name brand. Coupons and sales run in predictable cycles. Every 8 weeks I can get those grands/rolls for free(well my state charges sales tax on all food). In on episode the Bates bought 15 cans at $2.29. Even my husband who was half watching was yelling at the tv. We have also seen so many small cans of campbells soups. Nevr have understood the small cans?? The smalll cans can be had for .10-.15 during sales/coupons. Watching the episode the Duggars/Bates go shopping, almost everything had a coupon.

Again it takes planning but even my 9 year old can tell you when the sales are coming. It seems like the Bates use the same old recipes and probably buy the same items. Once they got the sales cycle down, it is easy.

It is not all about free. I like tide. I could get all or wisk for free but 2 weeks ago I was able to get tide for .99. I bought 15 which is enough for a year for us. I didnt have to get an off brand or something I didnt like.

[marmalade]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Gil & Kelly both college educated? Seems like I heard that somewhere.

Yes, they met at a Christian college in South Carolina (Kelly's mom still lives there, IIRC) and transferred to another Christian college in TN. They used to have the schools listed in their "About Us" section of the blog, but I can't help think they took that out since none of their kids will have degrees from brick and mortar schools, even ones that were likely not accredited at the time (back then, only a few were considered respectable...I remember ORU from the time they would have attended college...that's about it).

I think Princess Erin still takes ONE class per semester at Crown College and I bet you she has it comped. She's just taking music courses; after Gil nixed her full ride at UT (Knoxville is right down the road and her piano teacher was a prof there), I really felt for her when I saw her face crumble as Gil explained why Erin couldn't attend school with heathens. THEN Erin started with the "green hair" shit and it was obvious that she was being brainwashed into realizing that a full ride to a decent university (ranked 101 in the US News and World Report's latest ranking...on par with Florida State, Kansas and Dayton and Nebraska, okay, not top flight) was tantamount to Eve eating from the tree of knowledge. I bet they threw Genesis 2 at her fast and furious after that offer, an offer I don't think ANY one would turn down.

Here's Tennessee's listing in the rankings. This is better than what she will get, which is...nothing, really.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandrevie ... es/page+11

By contrast, my school is the top public university in the country. Go Bears! :D

eta: looking thru the rankings with a fine-toothed comb, TN State is a traditional "black" university. Regardless of how one feels about them - they've had to admit more whites to survive in the last decade - Gil would NEVER allow Erin to go to Nashville and sit next to a black kid with green hair. HORRORS!!!!!111

[sippin0nsunshine]

By contrast, my school is the top public university in the country. Go Bears! :D

I had to look up what school you meant, and was disappointed that you didn't mean Baylor :cry: I didn't know Berkeley were bears too. :snooty:

[Guest Anonymous]

Now see, I don't get this. Obviously going to college worked for Gil and Kelly. That right there should prove to them that their guru Gothard is blowing smoke up their asses. Something must have happened to draw them into Gothard/ATI. I'm practically convinced that that the Duggars went off the deep end after Michelle's miscarriage after Josh. I wonder if the same thing happened with Gil and Kelly. :eusa-think:

[Chasingthedog]

a little ot but sort of related: I looked up Lawson Bates to see why he was buying his family stuff and um, I feel defrauded. He's a good looking 18 y/o.

[Boogalou]

Where did they ever say Erin was offered a full ride? They said she was offered a scholarship in this clip: http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/18-kids ... ncert.html but never said it was a full ride.

[Visionoyahweh]

a little ot but sort of related: I looked up Lawson Bates to see why he was buying his family stuff and um, I feel defrauded. He's a good looking 18 y/o.

He's 18, but he can afford to spend $60k/year at Walmart?

[Seven Severn]

Where did they ever say Erin was offered a full ride? They said she was offered a scholarship in this clip: http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/18-kids ... ncert.html but never said it was a full ride.

Well, after watching that I had to watch this:

zGBXA1tBiLw

I feel better now.

[Jessica]

Well, after watching that I had to watch this:

zGBXA1tBiLw

I feel better now.

:clap:

Erin seriously needs to expand her piano tricks. All she does is... Well I don't play piano so I don't know what it's called, but she just goes really quickly up the keys and back. Every. Single. Song. See here at 0:31

[No Fun My Babe]

Well, after watching that I had to watch this:

[Awesome tags here]

I feel better now.

Wow, that was beautiful! It was so full of passion that the Duggars and the Bates would probably consider it defrauding. :shock:

Erin looks so stiff when she's playing music, like thinking every note rather than letting it flow through her. Robotic works if one is playing electro or minimal wave or something, but you'd think with religious or gospel music, it should be all about the soul.

Edited because I forgot some stuff.

[fakepigtails73]

I feel so bad for Erin that her Dad nixed her scholarship at university....If I was her I'd be mad at him forever. Yes, she might have had to sit near a green-haired violin player in the orchestra, but who knows, maybe green-haired girl could have become a good pal and Erin could have given her "the Good Word".

Such a wasted opportunity, professionnaly and socially...Now it's doing laundry and playing piano at a church in a village.

Granted, Erin's playing IS robotic, but one goes to school in music to correct such things in the long run.

ETA: woa, the woman playing Listz in that youtube clip :o Amazing.

Oh, and music is one thing that some Bates kids have over the Diggars. None of the Duggars are as talented on the piano as Erin is I'll tell you that. And when the Duggars play the violin? Oh my ears. It should be criminal. 9 times out of 10 their violins are out of tune.

[Seven Severn]

:clap:

Erin seriously needs to expand her piano tricks. All she does is... Well I don't play piano so I don't know what it's called, but she just goes really quickly up the keys and back. Every. Single. Song. See here at 0:31

I was a horrid pianist myself, but I can say with some confidence that those runs up the keyboard* are compensating for the fact that she doesn't really understand how to really play. I'd like to see her play some Bach with a metronome going. She might get the DTs.

*There are, of course, good pianists who do this, Liberace for one. But he was a showman who understood what he was doing and why he was doing it.

[debrand]

I did some figuring. When our eldest lived at home, we spent three hundred every two weeks ar the grocery store. This included items like paper towels, laundry soap etc.

If my figures are correct, I spent a little over 21 dollars/day to feed my family. The Bates have roughly three times the number of people that I do. That would be about 63 dollars a day or 126 dollars every two days.Considering that the Bates could buy a lot of items in bulk, I can't help but wonder what the heck Lawson is buying for that much money. They should actually be able to get by with a lower per person average than I did. By the way, I wasn't skimping on food either(or toilet paper)

[No Fun My Babe]

I feel so bad for Erin that her Dad nixed her scholarship at university....If I was her I'd be mad at him forever. Yes, she might have had to sit near a green-haired violin player in the orchestra, but who knows, maybe green-haired girl could have become a good pal and Erin could have given her "the Good Word".

Such a wasted opportunity, professionnaly and socially...Now it's doing laundry and playing piano at a church in a village.

Granted, Erin's playing IS robotic, but one goes to school in music to correct such things in the long run.

ETA: woa, the woman playing Listz in that youtube clip :o Amazing.

Oh, and music is one thing that some Bates kids have over the Diggars. None of the Duggars are as talented on the piano as Erin is I'll tell you that. And when the Duggars play the violin? Oh my ears. It should be criminal. 9 times out of 10 their violins are out of tune.

Yeah, I really don't like Erin much, but I do feel kind of bad for her. To be so brainwashed to have your dreams crushed before you and then parrot her fathers beliefs and reasons with a smile. She's not a great pianist by any means, but I've definitely heard worse and she could have been better with the proper training, for sure.

So, kind of torn. On one hand, don't like her, on the other, as a musician and just a human being really, that whole scenario horrifies me.

OH.MY.GOD. Their :violin: playing. To use one of my grandma's favorite sayings, "sounds like a hog scratchin' his ass on a washboard".

[Boogalou]

Oh, I forgot to add this in my previous post. Erin never applied for university, got offered a scholarship, then turned it down. The show said that someone at the university had heard her on a previous episode of 29759 Kids and Counting and offered her a scholarship based on that. Since that is all I know about it I can't fault the Bates parents too much for turning it down because I don't know how much it was for or what the conditions of it were.

[Buzzard]

They can't use coupons because it would mean supporting the evil liberal newspapers that they come in!

[Peas n carrots]

I missed the green hair business with Erin Bates. Did Gil say only kids with green hair and tattoos attend a traditional 4 year state university?

[Jessica]

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/18-kids ... llege.html About halfway through the video.