Tikichick

Isn't Janie the grandma who stressed over their visits? If so, yikes, poor woman.

If only they'd start waking up to the idea that there are other, productive, healthy, enjoyable ways to expand their lives -- ways that embrace faith meaningfully without all of the pointless, meaningless, manmade, cult nonsense.

OMG, horrendous if anywhere near the truth. These kids have a miserable enough lot in life. I surely hope at the very least they can make the best out of their situation and band together with their siblings as true allies, friends and support -- true companions for some happy childhood memories and maybe an unbreakable network they can rely upon in the future when they attempt to make their way as adults.

I agree Anna will follow the rules. I'm torn about whether she will be able to handle visiting him much. I think visiting him will pound home the reality of where they are for the next many years and I wonder how many visits and how much time it will take for that reality to seep into her consciousness in a way she cannot escape. IMO initial visits will be a gut check, but the misery will be compounded as time goes on and they both inevitably begin to adapt and change to new circumstances and the passage of time. The changes will stand out starkly to both of them in the absence of daily contact. Couples with a spouse in the military experience these kinds of stressors and it destabilizes many relationships, ending some if they are unable to bridge those gaps. The delusions of this cult may make ending the marriage out of the question, but IMO this incarceration will choke and stamp out altogether any molecule of a marital relationship that has survived this far -- even if what's left is only in Anna's fantasies.

To be fair, she is a single mom of seven children and doesn't have time for something so frivolous as social media. Obviously she can only make time to respond when it's necessary to clap back.

All of these thoughts give me heartburn. The # of outfits isn't really the point. Plenty of adults will tell you they realize later in life they grew up relatively poor but had no idea and look back on their childhoods as wonderful times. The fact the Duggar grandchildren have such tiny windows on the world and such restrictions that limit their potential is profoundly tragic. It makes me both sad and angry on their behalf.

Maybe if she checked out a few books herself she might be able to develop an interesting persona and/or some compelling ideas for her videos? Maybe she might even meet some other moms, develop some interests.

I want to know how he can be Julliard trained and not have any jazz experience? He was dreadful, simply dreadful. He's beginning to strike me as a bit of a diva, unwilling to deviate from his own vision -- similar to the way Legacy gave attitude years ago about how he wanted to approach any choreo he was given and perform it as he chose. Wanted to love Essence and fully expected her to shine this time, but honestly I was very underwhelmed with her performance. I know she can bring it based on her audition, but I just never felt she got down into it this week. Maybe the audience and judges were mesmerized by her face, because she once again was jaw droppingly gorgeous.

As would any mother of two very young children with an unexplained health issue serious enough that her spouse has to take FMLA leave to ensure someone is at her side at all times. Continuity of care with the medical team that's most familiar with your medical history and case is overrated.

"Uh, that doesn't work for me, I'm on Duggar time." ~ Inmate #4271569 6/24/22 @ 0400

Wonder if any of their followers follow up the clicks with love offerings?

I know it's not possible for someone like him, but if her post is about visiting him and if she truly feels blessed in any way at all to see him, especially on her birthday, some part of his heart and soul should feel burning pain knowing she loves him and believes in him.

Last I knew they were expecting #2, which feels like it was just a few months back. 4?!$!!!!

They like rules very much, lots of them. They just like to be the ones making them, most especially governing women however possible.

Maybe he is looking to call a halt to future visits?

Of course you can't see their eyes, but Jessa and Ben's smiles seem relaxed enough to be genuine.

I love that someone remembers Donyelle!!!!! She was incredible IMO. I asked my daughters if they've ever had another very full figured female since and they said yes but couldn't remember who. I don't think they have. Sadly Essence was truly dreadful in this contemporary routine. I truly hope it was a fluke, but judging by the absolute, total and complete absence of technique she showed I am quite doubtful. She was great in her audition and I was truly looking forward to her, but you've got to be able to rise to all genres for this show. I know there have been a lot of comments about Tessandra's choreo lacking but I truly didn't see it that way at all. I genuinely could have outperformed Essence despite my having zero dance training, zero dance ability and more than double her age. The quick cut to Tessandra after the performance showed her extreme disappointment and displeasure. IMO the only way Essence survives another week is if they put her in a hip hop routine and she can shine again. Please let them use the extra minutes eaten in this episode by revealing the top 12 and celebrity videos about the 300th episode to go back to showing us working with the choreographers and quick snippets to allow us to see the contestants as individuals. Never in a million years would I have guessed Leah Rimini. Only thing that made sense to me was J. Lo's BFF and therefore possibly a Tabitha and Napoleon connection. The Tavia choreo was some of the best I've seen on the show in years and a promising return to the glory days -- especially that entrance. Some of the staging, lighting and costuming harkened back to the good stuff as well. A relief to not see WOD touches. I have my fingers crossed, but I am prepared to get my heartbroken because it's obvious the show is mostly a shell of its former self.

All they had to do was disregard anything that didn't agree with their opinion. Conflict resolved.

Just realized that Jessa must think that Ben's unsufferable droning on about the scriptures to the children instead of engaging them at their level is a positive because it's probably about the only thing that he does that measures in any way against the Legend of JB.

The bolded absolutely sounds like a genuine Jessa feeling to me.

It's not about the cake (or even the unwrapped gifts). Gifts are ordered and given to each child during filming for social media over the course of several days and that's the sum total of personal touches. If they had a fairly common tradition of the birthday person picking the dinner and we saw kids happily digging into spaghetti, hot dogs or even cereal that would be great because it truly is the thought that counts. There's the issue in a nutshell -- aside from the fact that Ben is equally culpable. Both parents share the responsibility. This would have started to happen only one time with our children for my husband to have immediately be firing questions at me and promptly hustling everyone into the car on the way to the kid's favorite restaurant, probably followed by the ice cream parlor. Guarantee next birthday would have been preceded with questions about the plans or my being informed what he had planned.

That's the thing, celebrating a kid's birthday should be focused on what will make the child feel happy/special. If they're all about animals and a trip to a zoo, aquarium, petting farm isn't a regular family outing it can be a great way to celebrate. A kid that's crazy about fishing or has never been but always asks about it might be over the moon for that birthday surprise. When my cousin's middle child was very young he went through a phase where he constantly wanted fudgicles and treats were very occasional in their house. One of his birthday "gifts" one year was his own small box of fudgicles with his name on it in the freezer. His grin seemed like it would break his face when he was told about it. What a kid might want is probably intuitive to parents and other adults who know them well and sometimes might seem kind of strange to others and that's okay too. I'd have never dreamed a box of fudgicles would float someone's boat, but there you go. With really young ones mom and dad just make the plan and that's okay too. Nothing wrong with cake, balloons, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. But to repeatedly give the bare minimum while constantly taking the time to record it for public consumption on social media? At some point the kids are going to be old enough to look back and recognize things are lacking -- not really in the sense of tangible things, but what some of those trappings (and their absence) represent.

Sound like sure fire formulas for success. It's really tragic to think how many ways their system just squanders potential. No real educations. No realistic possibilities of fulfilling careers. Stilted social interaction in shallow pools. Quickfire marriages. Far too many children. Rinse and repeat. Without a TV show I wonder how far off of TTH property the 19 would have ever traveled? Probably not much more than the homeschool gathering every year.

Boob actually may have been onto something based on his own knowledge of teenage boys. If only Pa Keller had decided to be diligent about vetting Anna's suitor her life may have turned out differently.

I felt a bit guilty?, unsuccessful?, IDK, for the first couple weeks after my first was born via an unplanned C-section when it was discovered she was breach when I was checked at the hospital after going into labor. I had managed to hype myself into the idea of attempting an all natural birth if possible during the last weeks of pregnancy. I had to wait for the doc to be available because I was number 3 for unexpected sections that morning and I wound up telling my husband I changed my mind and just wanted to go home -- in a very whiny voice. It's kind of funny looking back on it, because none of it is particularly like me at all -- not the no epidural plan, not the attempt to get my husband to take me back home, not being upset about the delivery, none of it. My husband looked at me like I'd grown another head when I was insisting I changed my mind and wanted to go home that morning. My hormones must have been seriously surging. I ended up telling my doc I did not want to consider attempting a VBAC and was quite happy to schedule my second daughter's delivery.