laurakaye

Came here to say this. So each kid probably gets to share a couple of scoops of Superman ice cream with their siblings, followed by a ride on Sandy, regardless of how old they are - while the customers give a wide berth to the crazy blonde lady screeching at her kids to smile while she films them each taking a turn on the horsey and the employees are like, oh no - they're back.

Personally I would love a downstairs cellar basement attic to store the things that don't fit in my pantry closet, like my collection of sweat blouses and baseball bonnets.

I don't know why I feel the need to look so closely at these pictures that Jill posts but they are oddly fascinating. In addition to the highly inappropriate "memorial wall" in a child's bedroom, I notice what looks like a doll's detached head in a bucket, a flat yellowed pillow on a shelf that Jill is keeping for reasons? And why does a 6 year old need an industrial-type clock in her room - something you would see at a bank? Outside her room in the hallway, what am I looking at - a lighted set of shelves containing Willow Tree figurines? What is this woman's obsession with lamps and cabinet/shelf lighting in multiple spaces of every single room? How is their electric bill not $15,000 a month? I always did like those "hidden pictures" pages in my Highlights magazines as a kid...this is the twisted and scary version of that, I guess?

If Kody and Robyn had even a modicum of sense between them, they would simply disappear from this show because like @Meow Mix said, whatever they do is going to be lose-lose. And I don't think that I would ever want to hear from them again, knowing how deeply they have hurt and manipulated Kody's non-Robyn kids over the years. I have to think that whatever is in the can already for this season will be it for the show. I don't even necessarily need to see "Christine and Janelle: Sister Wives No More!" or whatever we were potentially going to get. Everyone can just move on, shill more MLM stuff and see how it goes. Of course, I also think that Kody and Robyn heavily depend on the show's income, which could sway their decision to keep filming. But the very last thing any of us need to see ever again is Robyn crying, whether or not those tears are real or pretend. She simply cannot. No one believed her then, we sure aren't going to believe her now.

It amazes me that Jill happily posts pictures of the interior of her house with nary a care that bedrooms don't have windows (against fire code, I believe all rooms need two exits, either via door or window), not to mention every single outlet in that place has about 14 plugs and extension cords snaking out of them. I would absolutely love to see them get inspected, but I don't know how that happens unless they potentially get reported? In my mind, this is Jill's twisted way of keeping Janessa dependent on her. By putting her alone in a big house, she could be fostering a fear in Janessa of being by herself, thus needing Mahmo even more. And I am sad that this thought even occurred to me but Jill has her reasons for doing what she does.

Kody may have not had had an inkling, but I guess the question I have is, how hard and how far can you push your child and still sleep at night? Obviously now that question takes a very dark turn. I just cannot fathom speaking so terribly about my children on national television. Say it in private, or to your wife, or in a text, etc. But no matter how angry Kody was at the time, he went way too far with the things he said - knowing that he was saying them for a camera and could not take them back. I would not wish Kody's pain on anyone. He never imagined the outcome of his words, but at the same time, how could he not? They are your children, and words matter, and he seemed to want to really hurt them with his words. I wonder if we will ever hear from Kody going forward on the show.

I assume they feel absolutely gutted, as I believe many of them have probably been with the family for years, but to quote the great Heather B from Real World New York (season one, yes I am old): "they used what we gave them." In other words, Kody could not have been made to be a villain if he hadn't said the terrible things he's said about several members of his family. I doubt very much that the producers told him to disparage his sons on national tv for "wanting to get their pencils wet," among other equally awful things he's said for the cameras. That was all Kody, IMO. I read the article linked above as well as @General Days 's excellent response. If GD is not currently employed as a professional writer/journalist, then I don't even know what to say.....you should be. This show has never been "boring" to me, a watcher since Day One. Initially I was fascinated by the large family, how the wives interacted, how Kody split his time, how the kids got along with each other, and even what the wives wore for their then-purposes of modesty (I am not even going to lie, I sometimes found the way they layered their clothes interesting and - don't laugh - cute). I am trying to think if there was ever a time during this show that I found boring, because I was always watching for the family interactions and dynamics. When things got dark with Meri's catfish, I started to get uncomfortable because her pain and loneliness radiated off the screen in waves of misery. I thought, should I be "entertained" by this over my popcorn and glass of wine? I guess I justified it by thinking that if she didn't want to be filmed so vulnerable, she wouldn't do it. I have no idea if she was roped into a contract, or was getting pressure from the rest of the family...and that was just the beginning. Who knew we were in for a pandemic and Kody's reign of control and all the horrible things that followed. So I don't quite know where I fall on feeding the SW beast by watching and commenting. I know I will never do a re-watch, but if they keep filming and airing, I will likely keep watching. And if they stop filming, I will respect that too and come to terms with this forum slowing way down and maybe stopping altogether. And even though the show used what Kody gave them, I do sometimes wonder about his mental health and how he is handling what happened to his son.

That is some seriously messed up six degrees of separation...or in this case, like 1 1/2 - 2 degrees. Just trying to think of cute nicknames for Edelweiss...Ed? Eddie (that's kind of cute). Edey? Weissy? But I imagine if you're going to give a child that kind of name, it's going to be used loud and proud by her parents at every opportunity.

Because Jill will never admit to being menopausal, even when she's 87 years old. You never know when she's going to pop out one last blessing.

I will miss this forum if it goes away, only because I wanted to see what type of white dress Jill is going to wear to Tim's wedding, and if she's going to severely injure something the day before. 😥 EDIT: I will miss it for many reasons. Please, add me to the DM list of alternate forums. ❤️

I have found yet another podcast that focuses on SW - The Sister Wives Professor. He just did an episode about this very thing - asking how it is that we can become deeply saddened by something that happens to someone we only know from television. He had a colleague on the episode with him who specializes in death and dying, and I found it rather interesting. We have watched these Brown babies grow up over the years, and we've been privy to their struggles too. We've watched Garrison and Gabe, especially, practically beg their father to have a relationship with them, to no avail. While we were on these threads dumbfounded at Kody's behavior, I think it's almost too easy to forget that these are also very real people who are being affected in ways we can never know. My biggest hope right now is that Gabe is okay.

That was a profoundly weird scene to me, especially if Bhanu is indeed a superfan. He shouldn't have needed coaching in what to say or not say from Q, but even as Q was explaining things, it was pretty clear to me from the unhinged look in his eyes that Bhanu wasn't taking any of it in. Personally I was disappointed that he didn't tear his "Be Kind" shirt in half. I haven't cringed in second-hand embarrassment so hard while watching Survivor since Philip Shepard walked around in his sagging pink undies. I appreciate the opening segment has gone back to giving us the names of the players. However, episode 4 has come and gone and there are still two or three people that pop up on my screen and I'm like, who the heck is that?? Sigh.....whatever, Survivor. I'll still watch. I just don't want to start hate watching.

Pretty soon, on a highway somewhere between Ohio and Florida, you might just witness the Rodriguez family caravan with a rust-bucket RV in the lead (1), followed by a van sputtering smoke out of its exhaust pipe (2), followed by a muffler-less car (3), followed by another random car circa 1998 (4), and then finally at caboose, someone riding Jill's electric bike (sans helmet) just in case vehicles 1 - 4 break down at the side of the road.

Can anyone explain to me how one should "Bee Humble" when sitting on the potty? I am not sure how those two things intersect.....

She was probably calculating how many women she could feed from two heads of lettuce, a tomato, and a bottle of off-brand ranch dressing.

I saw that video too, along with a comment from Jill that she was trying to get her entire brood to take their first bite all at the same time for her filming purposes. Sure, set some pizza in front of your brood of hungry waifs and delay them eating it until they understand your stage direction and choreography. Just let them EAT. I also saw a picture of the back of Jill's head with the explanation that Sadie did Jill's hair while Jill was busy entering in all the information from the dozen(s) of women attending her retreat and I have to say, Jill's hair has literally never looked so good.

Wait, so that's not how it works? Gosh, I guess I owe Delta an apology. 🙄 To the staff of all the Frontier desks at every major airport...be on the lookout for a bleach-blonde woman wearing a pink bonnet cap that reads "BEST MEME," a sweatblouse with the word "PLEXUS" on it, and a tight denim skirt down to her shins, waddling your way to demand to speak to your manager about why there's not a Frontier airplane parked in her backyard by now with a pilot on standby, what with all the dozens of miles she's accrued.

Leon's tribute was lovely. Audrey's picture was beautiful. I keep coming back to the fact that Garrison was a cat dad, and had just adopted an older cat from a shelter. A young man who is adopting pets to care for is a person with a huge and tender heart. It's so sad that the world was too painful for him.

Maddie posted an IG story, a picture of Janelle holding hands with Axel and Evie, wading into the ocean - I am assuming they are in NC. Maddie mentioned that they were getting some healing via fresh air and water. I am glad Janelle has so many people to lean on and I hope she gets lots of grandkid snuggles.

This just breaks my heart. As a parent, you should WANT your kids to grow up and develop their own interests and personalities and live lives independent of you. That means you've done a great job as a parent. Kody's kids did just that! That's why that beautifully worded bolded sentence above makes me so sad. It would not have taken Kody that much time out of his precious schedule to do exactly that - show some interest! So what if it's not Kody's interest? It doesn't matter. You're a dad. This is your kid. He thinks it's cool, so you participate. At this point, the worst tragic outcome has come to pass. Kody ignored all of his kids and then they had to watch him take Aurora to get her ears pierced at 20 years old and hold her hand and tell the viewing audience what a wonderful father/daughter bonding moment this was. Even if the kids have closed their hearts to Kody to self-protect, that had to have hurt, among all the other smack-talking Kody did on TV about his kids, namely Garrison and Gabe. And it begs the question - Kody did this. But was Robyn pushing him to do it? Was she manipulating him to write off 13 of his children? I know I have called Robyn a sociopath in the past and I still think this is mostly true, but between Kody and Robyn, what they have done to those 13 kids is truly, truly awful. Did Kody ever want to be a dad? Or just an unquestioned leader? I wonder. 1,000%. Each wife coped in the only way they knew how in order to keep their kids from suffering the absence of their dad. I used to roll my eyes at Christine's unicorn glitter persona and Janelle sitting like a bump on a log during interviews, but now it's clear that they were just trying to exist within a family structure where their own precious children were getting the short end every single time. They wanted from Kody what he decided he was no longer going to give them, but they kept trying, for YEARS. I am so glad that the OG 3 are out, but man, it took a heartbreaking amount of time and the longer it took, the more damage was done to those kids. I wish those kids peace, especially Gabe. With or without Kody, however they need to proceed to get through this.

I see that many in the Brown family are posting the same pictures of Garrison at the same time, either on their IG page or on IG stories. They are clearly talking to each other and coordinating that, which I think is nice. Madison's tribute was especially beautiful and many of her siblings re-posted it as well.

Kody has two choices - he can double-down, at which point he likely loses whatever tenuous relationships he may have had with most of his kids. Or he can take full accountability for what he's done but the kids get to rightfully decide if he's done enough damage to the entire family and cut him out of their lives. It's not up to Kody, it's up to his kids. Those kids are a tribe, they had to raise each other, and this will be a profound loss for them forever. And I will always remain stunned about why Kody felt like he HAD to bail on his OG kids in favor of Robyn and her kids. I will never understand why Kody felt he had to shun everyone not living under his roof - unless it was Robyn-driven - but even still, the Brown kids/adults are amazing, intelligent, self-motivated and interesting people. It doesn't seem like it would've been that difficult to meet up with them, a Facetime call, have lunch, etc. But he would not do it. Why?? I cannot imagine having kids and not wanting to touch base with them as often as I could, even if they are out of state, just to say hello, how's everything going? What was happening in that Mansion that caused him to turn his back on 75% of his family? It defies logic, especially when some of those same kids were clearly hurting and longing for his attention and time. I am still so sad about this.........

When she initially posted that picture, I immediately thought of Kody and how he was missing this gathering by his own choice, and what an amazing group of young adults Janelle and Christine raised that he is willingly missing out on. I hope for eventual peace for every single person in that photo - they are all affected in different ways.

That is 100% my mistake - what I saw was a clip from her Patreon, posted to someone's TikTok. I jumped to a wrong conclusion about her.

While Mykelti vague-posts about how she is going to be away from social media for awhile, but will be back to explain. To each their own, but it doesn't surprise me. Well, this is the sentence that broke the dam that I have been holding back since I heard the news, but that's a good thing. ❤️ Sometimes you just have to let it out. (too bad I am at work....) 😌 I would love to think that Janelle and Janelle alone has the power to decide what happens next. If she eventually decides to use this platform to bring awareness to what happened, more power to her. I want to think that she calls the shots, period. I doubt that's the case, though. Kody was his father and I am certain that he is hurting but he is also the catalyst for keeping this show going and using the profits for homes, vacations, and so Robyn can live her llifestyle...at least that's what it looks like from my meaningless vantage point. Who knows, maybe every single Brown adult always wanted this show to continue. Given the raw pain we have seen these last few seasons, though, I wonder who gets the final say on whether or not SW stays on the air. It's almost been too much to watch at times, but then again - we keep watching. 1,000%. 19 Kids and Counting. Honey Boo Boo. Little People, Big World, Jon and Kate, etc., etc. It's a pattern. Now the Browns. It's true - train wrecks make for more viewership, translating into more $$$, keeping the shows on the air despite what it's doing to the families involved and especially the kids who have no say and have to follow their parents. Sadly, if SW continues, I think viewership will increase (and I think it had already increased when Christine left). It's a really bleak look at what we consume and why. At what expense? It's making me think personally about what I do with my time in the guise of "entertainment." This particular event just hit closer to home than I thought it would. P.S. Love this forum and the conversations we've had surrounding this singularly painful event.