LilyD

It’s interesting to note who followed this particular path: They seem to be the kids who have received most criticism over the years for things they have said and done on the show. I’m thinking about Mykelti, Maddie and Paedon in particular. Typically, we never saw Logan, Hunter, Garrison, Gabe or Aspyn trying to cash in through social media. They seem happy to live a normal life in a normal job, away from the spotlight. I had high hopes for Ysabel too, but I seem to recall that Christine managed to drag her down the MLM path too, last year?

These are all confirmed? Do you have a complete list? Thx!

I’m trying to see how this show could possibly continue without Zach and Tori. Not that they were Oscar-worthy material, but they definitely managed to draw people in. Yep, often for the wrong reasons but hey, negative attention is still attention! Imagine a show with just Matt, Amy and their partners… is there even a story to be told from just that perspective? You’d need the bigger family for interesting interaction and content, but they’ve now all stepped away.

From experience in our own family, I can tell it is not as simple as people think . Yes, Jackson has serious issues with his legs and he will need more, preferably today. However, Jackson is a child and he hasn't reached his full height yet. It means that the effect of such excruciatingly painful and invasive surgeries is often only temporary, or very limited over time because the bones are still growing and the body is changing (Not to mention the time it takes to fully recover.) And that means a second surgery, which is going to be a nightmare to those kids as they know exactly what is coming this time... So yes, I fully understand why Tori dismissed this option at the time. You could wonder however, if more/other things could be done than they're currently doing... If only to limit his discomfort and possibly prevent it from getting worse.

Nope... There are a few people within that family who know next to nothing about respect or dignity for that matter.

Trainingsoutfits yes: It only makes sense to wash those yourself. Not too sure about the uniforms though. Even our local football club has set rules for this: All game uniforms are collected after the match and then washed in one batch. It keeps all the colors from fading, shirts from shrinking (some parents would use boiling water or even bleach to get the shirts cleaned) and we never end up with a kid missing a sock or shirt on game day as we have it all. As for the DCC: There really aren’t that many performances or jobs at all, and they don’t all require the white and blue uniform. Dry cleaning or professional washing should therefore not be an issue. And on the odd occasion it does, I’m sure they could figure a way around that.

Their treatment of the DCC has always been appalling. The Cowboys demanded a fulltime commitment and set a harsh set of rules they had to follow to stay on the team for hardly any pay. Only a few years back, they received a pretty big raise with a decent compensation for over time, but as far as I’m concerned, the pay is still mediocre. With that in mind, it doesn’t come as a surprise that they have to clean their own uniforms. Also, per Kelli’s own words: a DCC gets only one custom made uniform. If it tears, or no longer fits, they have to find a replacement from old uniforms they have in stock… That’s even more ridiculous than having to wash your own uniform!

Actually, that doesn’t surprise me. We’ve often talked about the DCC not really moving forward over the years. The old and worn choreographies for instance, the show group routines and uniforms that haven’t changed over the past 10 years or so, and a rather poor, not very professional website to name a few. You need to evolve if you want to stay on top of the game. I also firmly believe that the last couple of seasons of MTT discouraged professional girls from auditioning. All the drama… it sometimes looked like very cheap reality tv. Not to mention all those professional dancers with a great resume being butchered by Kelli & friends during the audition process….

Wasn’t it Garrison who converted to the LDS church? I seem to remember that one of the boys joined the LDS and that there were several pictures of him in a white shirt for his baptism? I found it rather interesting at the time as both Maddie and Mykelti explored that path years back, but neither were accepted for being part of the (in)famous Brown family…. I don’t know much about LDS other than that they believe that your soul/spirit lives on after death, and how depends on how you lived. The whole “planet-thing” seems a Brown (or maybe an AUB) thing.

I think this places TLC in a very difficult position: It’s either going to be gold with all the extra attention, or it’s going to create an immense backlash. My bet is on the latter. TLC wants drama, people want to see drama but that only goes that far… The Willis family and Duggars were cancelled because of sexual abuse. And now we have a family dealing with suicide and there are indications that the filming and possibly Kody and Robyn’s behaviour* played a part. TLC cannot be associated with that so I’m expecting a rather abrupt cancellation. *whether or not they did play a role in this: they’re guilty by default through their appalling behaviour toward the other kids over the years. The general public is just not going to accept their innocence, even if proven. People want a scape goat. I absolutely despise Kody but feel for him in this respect. He’s lost a son and will have to deal with this on top of it.

And even if you do manage to get away from it: SM posts will never ever truly disappear once it’s been put in the open. It will always come back to haunt you, especially when you’re least expecting it… and then it starts all over again!

I think we’ve seen enough to know that these are “adults” under the influence of a dominant mom. I mean, a 20-year-old that had to be held and comforted to have her ears pierced?? I won’t mention any more examples… Assuming they were not there: Sol seems a very sweet and sensitive boy but shielding him from such situations will potentially do more harm than good. And the same goes for 8-year-old Ari. Garrison was their (half) sibling. Sol is 13… he is not a little child anymore. In my book (and where I’m from)there is literally no excuse for excluding kids that age from memorial services of close relatives. (Unless, of course there is a serious medical or mental issue that has to be taken into consideration)

We have no way of knowing what Garrison was thinking. His dad’s behaviour may have played a big role, but I doubt it was the only reason. He seemed to have indicated that the tv show also took its toll on him, and that too was not just on Kody but on all the adults and TLC who loved the drama that was so easily given to them. And who knows what other troubling thoughts occurred to him and for how long? A suicide is complex and contrary to popular belief, very hard to prevent. Kody is a despicable human being who made some horrible and unforgivable mistakes. Yet, I don’t think it is fair to put the blame (solely)on him, or assume that Janelle feels like that.

Wait... were Robyn's kids absent? Are you serious? For once I'm speechless....

The past five years of SW have been absolutely distasteful: The way Kody treated the others was sickening and the entire world was witnessing a family fighting and falling apart. Such things should not be filmed and broadcast when kids are involved. If anything, I hope TLC will never sink as low with a reality show again as they did here. As a viewer, I hated it and stopped watching it because it was too awful to watch. To the kids, who likely had no say in it at all, it must have been too personal, too painful and traumatic and it was all brought out in the open by their parents, for the entire world to see. I'm not against reality shows, but it is time we set some boundaries, particularly when kids are involved. As for SW, they should have stopped this show years ago. Please do it now, for Garrison and his siblings....