Amanda M.

Oh boy, I just posted up on the couch to write report card comments ... the 2-hour tell-all episode will be perfect background entertainment. Can't wait to come read the snark here afterward. :-)

@Bridget, can I join the teaching sister party?! LOL I teach 2nd grade ... I loved your description of calling military parents! It always entertains me (and makes me cringe) to think of the teens on this show in school & what their teachers have had to deal with.

You win the Internet with this description! So accurate! YES! She looks like she's attempting to appear much more grown up & sophisticated ... the difference was really noticeable when they did the flashbacks to last season. I think she looks better without whatever her new hair/make-up routine is. In the clips for the upcoming season, when she's across a table from Caelan & telling him to look at her, she just looks like she's trying WAY too hard to appear older than she is.

I'm not even 10 minutes into this show & I just CANNOT. I had to come snark here to be able to continue the episode. Have only seen Chloe & Max's first segment. They are both mind-blowingly stupid. Also, superficial alert, but her Mom just has such an odd look to me, it's hard to get over it. I also found it strange when he was talking about sleeping over at her house ... she seemed to put up this front of, "Ugh, you can't sleep here, it's a weeknight, my Mom will never let you!" At the same time, it was clear she was enjoying how much he was angling to sleep over & wanted to encourage that. Annoying. Some of my favorites: Chloe: "We weren't safe at all having sex, we didn't use any protection. I can't believe I got pregnant. I mean, well, it was bound to happen. We were young and obviously dumb." I can't even begin to formulate a response to this. Props for being honest about your stupidity. Max: "We're going to be millionaires in a few years because we learned to save our pennies having an infant. Other kids our age are getting drunk and getting their schoolwork done." Can't stop laughing about this. Too bad I didn't know the key to becoming a millionaire was having a baby in my teens, I really missed the boat on that one.

Except ... we do know all of this already, maybe with the exception of numbers 2 & 3.

This reminds me of back when Jessa was in the early stages of her relationship with Ben. Jessa would often state that the mushy, lovey-dovey, PDA romance stuff didn't come naturally to her at all. In response to that, Michelle and/or some of the older girls would often tell Jessa that she should work on becoming more like, as @Canadian Girl said above, a "kiss me, kiss me!" simpet, because that's what Ben must certainly want. I wonder if clingy, needy Joy 2.0 is partly a result of her assuming that Austin wants her to be this way because that's what she has heard from Michelle, her sisters, etc. for so long. Austin might be thinking, "Who IS this person? This isn't the Joy I fell in love with!" Maybe this explains some of his "I'm not that into you" vibe. I kind of hope this is the case & that as Joy is able to be more of her authentic self around him, their relationship will become easier & more natural for both of them.

You are so right!!! She's usually in just a diaper & if she is wearing any actual clothing, it's almost always some type of sleeveless onesie kind of thing with nothing underneath! Since we all know how obsessed Auj is with Ember's "rolls" and "chunk", my guess is that the lack of clothing is designed to highlight those features that, don't you know, are all thanks to Auj's endless suffering & willpower to continue breastfeeding.

I was familiar with the fundie "never say no" philosophy thanks to the Duggar clan ... I couldn't agree with you more that it's damaging to women! Among the many problems with it, it sends the message that you've got to be "available" in a physical/sexual sense whenever your man wants you to be, and if you're not, well ... then maybe it'll be your fault if he goes to get his needs met elsewhere. :-/

Oh my. I didn't finish watching the Beating 50 Q&A earlier, but just did now. One of the questions was, "How do you handle rejection from a spouse? Like if you want to be intimate and your spouse doesn't ... a lot?" Audrey's answer was, "I know this might sound kind of radical, but I had a mentor in college that encouraged me to just not say no. If your husband wants to have sex, don't say no. Why would you want to say no?" She also went on to talk about how women tend to withhold sex as a way to have power over their husbands, so just don't say no to your hubby in case you start falling into the "withholding for power" pattern. First of all. FIRST. OF. ALL. What kind of mentor to college-aged students is going around telling them to never refuse your husband when he wants to have sex because it might turn you into the evil manipulator that all women truly are deep down?! And just ... I can't even formulate the rest of my thoughts on this whole thing.

Heaven only knows why, but I do follow Jer & Auj on Instagram and one of their recent stories mentioned a Q&A they'd be doing over on their Beating 50% account. In one of their answers about whether the marriage journal would work for non-religious folks, Jer mentioned that the journal is "based on a couple that's been doing it for 18 years already." So you ... basically just plagiarized someone else's idea, MAYBE added one or two new touches, & now make a profit off of it, guys? Interesting. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but his remark just caught my attention.

Agreed!! That line cracked me up! :D

Such a good point! I was thinking throughout this episode (and the first two as well) that Roseanne's voice seems a little too loud. I never would have thought that it might be because she's used to doing stand-up and making her voice loud/enunciated enough for even the cheap/far-away seats to hear.

Sorry if this has been addressed already, I haven't read through all these posts yet! I don't think Roseanne mentioned Mark by name when she was talking to Becky. She said, "I know life's been more difficult after your husband died." That caught my attention & I'm still wondering how Mark (the original, not Darlene's son) & David will fit into the reboot. I know the actor that played Mark (Glenn Quinn, I think?) passed away years ago, so my guess would be that we're going with Becky was still married to Mark & the character passed away as well.

YES!! When I first saw her on screen, I paused the show to look closer at her face and double check that it wasn't Josie Bates!

Yes x1,000 to this! I’m a long time lurker here but what’s gotten me posting is Audrey’s huge focus in the past few weeks on Ember’s “chunkiness” & “rolls.” Totally comes across as “Aren’t I awesome for being so brave and tough so my baby could be fed?!” I don’t have kids right now, but I can easily see how her comments along these lines can be hurtful to moms who simply cannot breastfeed for whatever reason. She’s also been super focused on Ember rolling over in her Insta stories ... stuff like “Come on, do it, roll over!” And if not that then, “Are you trying to roll over? Are you?!” Seems like Audrey is eager for E. to learn new skills simply so she can brag about them. It just doesn’t sound like a truly proud Mom, def more braggy & competitive.