mynextmistake

Yes.There was a study recently by Johns Hopkins that said 67% of people will still test negative 4 days after inoculation. That’s why we’re discouraging close contacts from running out and getting tested the day after their possible exposure. Too many people get a negative result and then disregard quarantine instructions only to come up positive several days later, by which time they’ve exposed countless other people.

This makes it look like Cathy is a percentage owner of the property. I wonder if that’s true...

Jill looks puffy with huge boobs in those pictures. I think she’s pregnant.

That mustache makes Derick look like a cross between a sex pervert and my seventh grade math teacher. If he goes to court looking like that the judge is going to get him mixed up with the defendant.

Yes, this. When I was growing up my parents never explained good hygiene to me. They practiced it themselves but for some reason it never occurred to them to tell me to shower daily, wash my face or use deodorant. That was fine in grade school but once I hit puberty and everything got greasy I was probably pretty gross. It took several months of pretty severe bullying to get me to pull my hygiene up to snuff, and even then I had to ask my mom to buy face wash and deodorant for me to use. And my parents were pretty good overall. Jill had cheap, communal products, shitty parents, and a household ethos that seemed to be “Just cover the blemishes up with makeup“ rather than “take care of your skin so the blemishes don’t develop in the first place.” As to the broader point about common sense, I think sometimes we forget that Jill is literally just now learning how to be an adult. It’s been a steep learning curve. I choose to applaud her for the progress she has made (making new friends, going to new places, putting the boys in public school, using birth control) rather than focus on the backwards steps that have come along the way. I really think she is trying to be a good friend, mom, wife, and person. Even her religious posts don’t bother me. She’s not preaching hellfire and brimstone or being pushy, just sharing part of her life that is important to her. I get the sense that out of all the married girls Jill has the most compassion and love for others. Jinger and Jessa preach about it but I think Jill really feels it.

I have no idea why Lauren tagged Jill, but that’s not the same crib. Both are black and similar in style but the crownpiece on the back set of rails is scrolled on Derick/Jill’s and straight on Josiah/Lauren’s.

Nothing says “successful event” like three pictures of a completely empty room. And what is Nurie wearing? Are those gored sleeves?

Sam’s trying to tunnel his way out of there.

Josie could be pregnant again as well. Willow is only 8 months, but Josie wouldn’t be the first Bates to have a second baby less than 2 years after the first one.

Ben just seems to have a really passive, laid-back personality in general. I’ve never thought he was a guy with a lot of drive. If he had been allowed to mature at a normal rate, I suspect he’d currently be working at Starbucks, smoking a lot of weed, and trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Instead he got married at 19 and now has three kids, a demanding wife and a passel of controversial in-laws. I think he’s stuck and kind of bummed about it.

Zoom in on Joy’s midsection. Snug dress, obvious bump. I bet $5 she’s pregnant, and that this whole girls’ day thing is so TLC can film her announcement.

Felicity: Mom, we need to talk. Jinger: What’s up? Felicity: Who are all these backwoods lunatics in denim skirts? Jinger: This is your family. The one at the end of the table is your grandmother. Felicity: Oh my God. I’m related to her? That hair is a crime against humanity. Jinger: Yep. The rest of them are your aunts and cousins. Felicity: Jesus. Why did we come here? Jinger: Because we’re having a girls’ lunch. Felicity: Mom, we’re in a Panera. Jinger: Yeah, I know. We let Joy pick and she refused anything other than American food. Felicity: So you’re saying we flew to Podunk, Arkansas to have sandwiches in a Panera? Jinger: Yep! Felicity: Mom, Panera is boring. If we went to a Panera at home, Daddy wouldn’t even bother to hashtag it. Jinger: I know. Welcome to the family. Felicity: This sucks.

Look at the body language. All the adult women are standing grouped together on either side of the group. Jill is by herself with Jenny (?) to one side and a big space between her and Jana/Jessa on the other side. Also, that is the fakest smile i’ve ever seen on Jill. I’m guessing she was only invited because JB knows there’s talk of a rift and wants to quash it, but nobody really wanted her there and she knew it. She probably only went because that’s the only chance she gets to see her nieces/nephews/little sisters anymore.

Yep. Get the post-its ready! Why is the Lord hanging out in Wal-Mart waiting for Jill to lead people to him? Shouldn’t he be working on Coronavirus or world peace or something?

No, I owe you an apology. My post came off as way more defensive than I meant it to. We lost a close family member last week and my preschooler is having a really hard time coping, so nobody in our house is getting much sleep. I’m sorry I was sharp tongued. I guess I also feel like some people are misinterpreting my original post. I was just trying to explain why I thought Izzy was being allowed to go to public school (because Derick isn’t fundie) and why I thought Izzy going to school was a good thing. I don’t think that I or anyone who posted similar comments were suggesting that being more mainstream made Derick a better person. I guess I thought that was clear, but maybe it wasn’t. Regardless, I still think Derick is an asshole, but I also think being allowed to go to public school will be great for Izzy. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. Derick can be an asshole who occasionally makes good decisions. Like you, I wish Jill could develop her confidence and critical thinking skills. Izzy and Sam will both be in school in a couple of years, and unless they have another child by then Jill would presumably be able to take a part-time job or some kind of volunteer gig where maybe she will meet people who will challenge her views. That would also require her to keep to a schedule. She has been shown reading books about boundaries and has talked about listening to self help podcasts, which are a step in the right direction. I hope she keeps taking those steps and eventually learns to be a competent adult.

Actually I’m one of the people who said that, and I didn’t say it was a defense to anything. His beliefs, as I believe I said before, are abhorrent. The point I was making was that Derick, while still a prick, was not as fundie as the Duggars. Whatever you or I may think of it, the SBC is a mainstream church attended by millions of people, including divorced people and people who use birth control and women who work and people who go on dates. It is far more mainstream than a church in Kendra’s dad’s garage attended by a handful of people which preaches that birth control is a sin, kids can’t hold hands before getting engaged and women have to wear ankle-length skirts and flip flops to atone for the sins of Eve, or whatever. Derick following SBC teaching might still be a bigot, but he’s a bigot with whom Jill has some freedom and his sons have the chance at a decent education. All of them are better off with an SBC Derick than they would be with an IBLP Derick. That’s not an endorsement of the SBC, it’s a recognition that there are degrees of bad and the SBC is, in many ways, less bad than IBLP. Sometimes it seems like people aren’t going to think the Duggar kids have “broken free” unless they completely relinquish their religious beliefs. I don’t think that’s how it works. Change is incremental. I’m sure most of us would love it if Jill woke up tomorrow and became a feminist and a marshal at the Pride parade, but that’s not going to happen. However, broadening the circle of people she and Izzy know can only be a step forward, not backward. And maybe after 13 years of public school and college, Izzy’s beliefs will have been challenged to the point that he changes his mind about some of the things he was taught. Maybe Jill’s will as well.

They must be REALLY old.

I’m sorry, I know this is unkind, but what in God’s name is wrong with his face?

I think we underestimate Jill sometimes. I don’t see any signs that she’s particularly intelligent but she’s not a moron. She got her GED and passed the lay midwifery exam. She knows how to read and write and can presumably add, subtract, multiply and divide. In terms of subject matter knowledge, I think she could get the boys through at least the first few years of grade school, especially if she used a reputable curriculum to aid her teaching. Whether she’s temperamentally suited for homeschooling is an entirely different question, though.

I think it’s telling that both J.D. and Abbie were raised Gothard but decided to attend a normal southern Baptish church. I have the feeling that Abbie tasted a normal life when she was working and was not interested in going back to a dreary life of long denim skirts and yearly home births. That may be why it took a bit longer for her to marry — she had to wait for a guy who was willing to let her live a more modern life.

I’ve actually long suspected that Derick is far more mainstream than many people think. He didn’t grow up IBLP or really fundie at all. He grew up in an ordinary Southern Baptist church, attended public school, and went to college. I honestly don’t think he has a problem with women having jobs or wearing pants, using birth control, vaccinating his kids, or sending them to public school. I also suspect that he is less conservative in his private life than many people would assume. We’ve seen him dancing and listening to mainstream music, and he probably enjoys a beer occasionally and even streams guilty pleasure shows on Netflix. His beliefs about abortion, gay and transgender individuals, and probably any number of other social issues are not my beliefs and I find them abhorrant. However, I don’t think his position on these issues is any different than that of millions and millions of people who attend conservative churches and even many who do not. They aren’t “extremist“ in the sense that they’re in any way unusual. I think Derick was drawn to Jim Bob (and therefore Jill) at a relatively young age because he had lost his father and was searching for some sense of security. Beliefs like the Duggars’ appeal to people like Derick because the world seems too complicated and the hard and fast rules of IBLP make everything easier. But I think, and I will be frank, Derick was just too smart to stay IBLP for the rest of his life. Obviously something happened that put him on the outs with the Duggars, and while there’s been a lot of speculation I don’t think we know exactly what that was. But to a certain extent, I don’t think it matters, because I think Derick would’ve left that fold eventually anyway. I think their beliefs were just far too rigid and insular, and I think there was a point, probably after Izzy’s birth, when Derek woke up and thought “most of these rules don’t even make any sense — is this what I want for my kids?” Obviously it wasn’t, so they got out of there and have gone back to the beliefs that Derek grew up with and on some level probably never lost in the first place. And frankly, I think that that is a huge improvement over being raised in the Duggar compound. The boys might still grow up learning that being gay is a sin, for example, but they will also meet actual gay people and at some point get to make up their own minds. That never would’ve happened at the TTH. The one who I think is having a really hard time here is Jill. But I think humans have a tendency to eventually reject the things that have rejected us. I imagine Jill feels rejected by Jim Bob and Michelle, and maybe that, along with pressure from Derek, made her realize that IBLP and homeschooling were not the only way to go. Or it’s possible that she just realized that she wasn’t cut out to homeschool. Not every parent makes a good homeschool teacher. I personally would totally suck at it, not because I’m stupid but because I tend to be impatient and don’t enjoy teaching. I don’t get the sense Jill really likes it either, but just does it out of the feeling of obligation. It may have been freeing to her when Derek suggested putting the boys in public school. Anyway, it’s a huge step, and one that I’m glad that they took. I think the boys will be better off for it.

I totally agree about Joy and Jill growing apart. Jill has gone full-on fundie light and Joy is still stuck in a denim skirt and flip flops.

No one knows my kid like I do either, which is exactly why she’s starting public school kindergarten in September. My best friend: have you considered homeschooling Mini Mistake? Me: Would *you* want to have to teach her? (Pause.) My friend: Anyway, I hear the grade school in this neighborhood is great. Me: Exactly.

Not a surprise. Jana doesn’t have kids, and it wouldn’t surprise me if neither Jinger nor Alyssa plan to homeschool (although I think they might choose Christian schools, not public schools). Jessa, Joy, and Anna? Jessa’s probably too busy seething with fury because Jill and Derick upstaged the show again, and Joy and Anna are both so conservative that they probably think Jill just bought Izzy a ticket on the bus to hell.

The Clinton Foundation? As in Bill and Hillary? Wow. I was assuming he meant public policy as in working to ban abortion and gay marriage. I assume the Clinton Foundation doesn’t have either of those things as policy goals.