Zach Bates question

[Guest LilaFowler]

Has he set a wedding date yet?

[tabitha2]

No,he wants to finish his schooling and she is booked full of music gigs all year.They aren't even engaged yet but still in the courting process.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Not that's been announced. The Duggars are supposedly filming there so we may learn the date on the show. It's not been on his family's blog yet though.

[Deleted03]

I'm confused... they are courting but not engaged yet, right?

[IReallyAmHopewell]

'm confused... they are courting but not engaged yet, right?

Yes courting is the time to get to know each other like in prison camp--guards always watching. Then if the Dad's decide it will really work you get ENGAGED.

Since this is a Duggar buddy family we can probably bank on there being a wedding in the next 2 years or so. I don't think they'd announce it otherwise.

[tabitha2]

Right.long courtship,short engagements is the way they roll.

[Guest LilaFowler]

Thanks. I'm confused. I thought courting automatically meant you were engaged. lol

[Guest LilaFowler]

I think it's really weird to cry when you ask someone to court you. Maybe it's just me though.

[moreorlessnu]

Thanks. I'm confused. I thought courting automatically meant you were engaged. lol

I think Courting is an interim step to becoming engaged, but the two young people are expected to become engaged. It's kind of like when you start college. It's expected you'll graduate but you haven't graduated until you have your degree in hand. Joking aside, I think there is tremendous pressure on the couple to be successful in their courting, and to become engaged. This means, you have to say yay or nay to someone you truly barely know.

[marmalade]

Yeah, they're basically "engaged to become engaged." They claim courtship is when they basically do bible study with the family watching. Oh, and text, but they have to show those to the entire family!

Even my fundie-lite parents knew they could never do that with me. Actually, even after my parents were born again at 50 and there were only two of us left at home (I have 3 half sisters, the youngest of whom is 10 years older than I), like our sisters, my brother and I both got a set of luggage when we turned 18. Pretty much the polar opposite of the SAHD/S movement.

My brother wasn't ready and never finished high school because my parents kept moving him from school to school (I suspect he had ADHD that was never Dx'ed, and was dyslexic - not Dx'ed until he was 16). He was a semester short of graduation when they basically threw him out on his bum. He struggles with mental issues to this day and has never really supported himself; even now, he and his boyfriend live off the largesse of the BF's aunt in an in-law apt. on her property. Neither have steadily-paying jobs.

I was only slightlier lucky: I got a full time job the day after I graduated high school and moved out a month later, never looking back, but I had a lot of anger issues about the parents virtually ignoring the work I did to position myself for college; they refused to pay for my SAT testing (you could test much later in those days). It was the last testing date and while I had just gotten a job at KFC, I didn't have a check yet. By the time I got paid, it was too late. That's why I went back to school at such an advanced age; I refuse to do sales (not made that way), but as we see with our fundies, that 's about the only avenue (other than being a computer whiz...I'm not) non-college educated people can support themselves reasonably comfortably these days. Around here, you need an undergrad degree to be a secretary, unless you know someone, of course.

I suppose Zach will support his bride by cutting down trees; I don't think his political position pays. Speaking of which, he's deluded if he thinks he (or any other average, under-educated fundie family) can get into the higher rungs of politics without at least an undergrad degree from a REAL college. Even their Tea Party heroes are a)billionaires (Paul) b)highly educated (Bachmann) or c)both (Brownback). They don't seem to get that mainstream Republicans aren't going to vote for some homeschooled jungle freak who cuts down trees to represent them in Washington. 1860? Possibly...the country was still growing and Lincoln was a genius. Zach Bates or Smuggar Duggar? No fucking how, no fucking way.

[bananacat]

I suppose Zach will support his bride by cutting down trees; I don't think his political position pays. Speaking of which, he's deluded if he thinks he (or any other average, under-educated fundie family) can get into the higher rungs of politics without at least an undergrad degree from a REAL college. Even their Tea Party heroes are a)billionaires (Paul) b)highly educated (Bachmann) or c)both (Brownback). They don't seem to get that mainstream Republicans aren't going to vote for some homeschooled jungle freak who cuts down trees to represent them in Washington. 1860? Possibly...the country was still growing and Lincoln was a genius. Zach Bates or Smuggar Duggar? No fucking how, no fucking way.

But that's exactly why they pop out so many future voters. They think all their kids follow in their footsteps and even though I doubt they actually will, they are banking on having 200 hundred nieces and nephews to vote for them. It could sway the election in a small town and if their scheme follows a few generations, it could be enough to sway bigger elections. I don't think the vast majority of kids raised in QF will stay in QF, but that is their intention. It will be a simple popularity contest and they'll stack the vote by making a bunch of relatives. Of course, there could be some conflict when two brothers or cousins view for the same position, but they haven't thought it through that far.