Literata

I'm on board with any and all of these. My other hypothesis: In a nod to the Krazy Kristian Kult views (and please understand I'm not calling all Christians "cultists" here, but I don't care for extreme, discriminatory manifestations of religious beliefs), I wonder if they've been offered another show on another network -- one in which they can be "out" in their views to a greater degree, and tie in all their "Always More" and "Beating Fifty Percent" dreck.

The word "all" has no place here. I have an advanced degree and have held director-and-higher corporate positions for a couple of decades now. I also took a break and stayed home for five years when my kids were small. Being a stay-at-home parent is extremely gratifying, but extremely labor-intensive -- more so than most paid positions. In my view, Amy is to be commended.

He was found guilty in 2003. Thanks to those who explained their reasons for being in Matt's corner. It's interesting, isn't it, how people can view things so very differently. It's clear that views about marriage, gender roles, and perhaps religion play into the conversation to a rather large degree. I can't begin to imagine a marriage in which partners aren't equally responsible for parenting, or ones in which one partner's contributions are somehow viewed as less important than the other's. Amy wasn't always pleasant -- understandable, in my view -- but she worked hard to perform the lion's share of parenting while Matt "strategized" or slept in. She was a full partner, and then some, in that union. Matt got passes, somehow, on providing AND parenting. The one thing I'll take issue with factually, @Jeanne222, is that "Amy's tales" about Matt's alleged infidelity don't exist. To my recollection, Amy has made no assertions for the camera about Matt and Caryn's having been involved while each was still married. Some of us on this board -- I am certainly one of them -- have voiced opinions (based on scenes from earlier seasons) that that was indeed the case.

I could do without the orange-red lipstick. No unkindness intended, but Audrey has a really large mouth. Painting her lips in that shade begs a comparison:

I'm with @Rap541 -- the bread was tasty but a little dry, and I think it's insane to charge $14 for a loaf that's comparable in taste to a Pillsbury mix from any chain grocer. That said, this comment leaves me scratching my head. Amy's fails? I would think Amy would be relieved to no longer be associated with Matt's. Off the top of my head: Nasty little addiction to recreational drugs. Two OWIs. Difficulty hanging onto a job before TLC came calling. Trebuchet accident. Fucking the help. At the risk of being labeled an Amy apologist: I see plenty of flaws in Amy. But they pale in comparison to Matt's, and Amy put up with far more than I ever would have. No two ways about it: Matt's a narcissistic antagonist who's a skilled player in the court of public opinion. If Amy were charming, Matt would be screwed. I'm really hoping someone will receive this question in the manner with which it's offered and respond in a substantive fashion. If you're someone who consistently defends Matt and thinks Amy is responsible for all the family's travails AND the demise of the marriage ... why do you feel that way? And how do you reason away Matt's accountability? Not trying to be argumentative; trying to learn and understand.

Agree entirely. And the fact that Zach and Tori have bought a new house indicates that they're not going to be part of the "Let's push Mom out of the big house so we can have it" collective effort, so it will likely be Audrey and Jeremy striving to live on the premises. There's no way to know what's really happening with that whole house/farm mess. And clearly, Zach and Jeremy both have hitched their wagons to the gravy train. But I have to respect the fact that Zach and Tori seem far less dependent, emotionally and otherwise, on how that all turns out (and obviously, it's already turned out -- we just don't know how). Matt has snarked about the fact that Zach is frugal -- "like your mom" (derisive laugh) -- and I suspect that will serve him well. His and Tori's new house is expensive, but maybe not so much for Portland (I live in the Midwest). My guess is plans are being made for the end of the show, and that the franchise will continue with the next generation.

I wonder if, with her flair for the dramatic, Audrey might have extrapolated the doctor's diagnosis. Perhaps her labs showed antibodies to mono, indicating she had contracted it at some point. She's awfully active for someone in the throes of it.

It occurred to me that they actually could -- and probably will -- name all their kids around a fire theme. ? With the intent, of course, that the children will grow up to keep the flame ignited for covenant marriage, or some such.

Agreed. The new season starts in September, so I presume they'll hold off and announce then. The showrunners and the family have to know that by and large, viewers prefer Zach's family to Jeremy's. You've gotta wonder about the discord that results. That can't make Audrey happy.

I've revised my opinion. I just looked at Tori's Instagram story, and I call pregnancy.

Just did some digging, and marriedbiography.com seems to be a bot site. Most of what I found there is poorly written and makes little sense, and is probably not being created by humans. Such vocabulary choices as "vivid" in place of "avid" would support that. But it's definitely good for a laugh...

My rerun-watching continues. I'm on the episodes leading up to Jeremy and Audrey's wedding. And boy, are those episodes revealing in light of the way the two have evolved, or devolved, as a couple. It's a cliche to blame a rift between a son and a mother on a bitchy new daughter-in-law, but before Jeremy and Audrey were married, Jeremy and Amy still seemed pretty close. The first televised hint of things to come, when Audrey and Jeremy were about to move to L.A., was this: Jeremy: "Now we'll just have to persuade my parents to come visit." Audrey: "Uhhhhh ... no. Maybe we'll visit them. Eventually." Another interesting scene: Jeremy explaining that his parents' divorce is the family's "new normal," and that the silver lining is that Amy is finding herself again. Audrey: "No. It's a failed relationship. It's not normal." I blame Jeremy for allowing Audrey to drive a wedge between him and his mom, whom the couple seems to hold primarily responsible for the divorce. These episodes make it clear that Jeremy was, if not altogether loving and accepting, at least more inclined to empathize before Audrey informed him that he shouldn't.

From the publisher's description of "A Love Letter Life." Someone remind me, please, what qualifies them to be relationship experts. Seriously. This is embarrassing. It's also a "thou doth protest too much" thing. Sure, relationships take work. But theirs seems to be about nothing but.

My grandson is about Elbert's age, and he'd absolutely eat the watch.

Yes! The bedroom he wanted to make into a baby room ... with sharp-edged cast-iron toys all over the floor. The room he was referring to when, after Caryn asked, "Who's going to clean this out?" he smiled slyly and raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Surely not me." His attempts at manipulation always work, sadly enough.

Raising four kids with no help from another spouse or partner is difficult. No one would hold Amy up as Housekeeper of the Year -- but I don't think that's the title she was going for. I've been sidelined for a couple of days following some minor surgery, and I took the opportunity to browse some old episodes on the TLC Go app. Two scenes that struck me, both from the "Zach and Tori's Wedding" episode: Jeremy said all his mom had ever wanted to be was a stay-at-home mother -- and she "could not have possibly done a better job making us all feel loved and cared for." And Zach's TH about his dance with his mom at his wedding reception: "My mom is the best mom I could ever ask for. Always has been. Things are changing -- but that won't change." (As an aside: I wish both boys would have been a bit more cognizant of those sentiments this past season. ) Amy was a de facto single parent; not financially (although I'd argue that Matt pissed away a LOT of money -- including, no doubt, on legal fees for his two OWIs, solo travel, etc.), but emotionally, he admittedly chose not to be present. So I'm curious as to why anyone would blame the state of the house entirely on Amy; in my view, that's sexist, and it's also revisionist history.

I had a boss long ago who used to consistently take private vacations, leaving his wife and three daughters at home. Turned out -- surprise! -- he had a girlfriend in a different state who would meet up with him on his solo travels. Speculation only, obviously, but I doubt Caryn was Matt's first rodeo.

No. In fact, her family was her life -- to the point at which, as she's said in recent episodes, she cultivated nothing of her own. In terms of raising children, attitudes toward it, and the amount of time willingly devoted to it, she and Matt are as polar opposite as polar opposite can be. ... which reminds me of something I've wondered about from time to time. Leading up to Ember's arrival, the secondary drama is whether Amy will be back from her trip with Chris in time for the baby's birth. In my opinion, without a reason of which we're not aware, there's absolutely no way Amy would have chanced missing the birth -- no matter how gaga she is over Chris, no matter that she's now committed to cultivating her own life. Further, Chris seems to respect Amy's kids and her relationship with them. I think he likely would have rescheduled the trip or, if that wasn't possible, encouraged Amy to sit it out. Plus -- Amy wouldn't have slighted Jeremy by missing his child's birth after having been as involved as she was with Jackson's arrival. My guess is Jeremy and Audrey pulled some condescending and heavy-handed "know your place" bullshit in advance of the delivery. So it would have made sense for Amy to say, essentially, "You know what? If my presence in your life is such a burden, I'm not going to change my plans to be here for you." Or maybe she did just decide to put herself first.

^^^ This. Because Amy and Zach have achondroplasia, as we know, rather than diastrophic dwarfism, their only limitations are their short arms and legs. Period. Zach has a shunt, but it seems to be functioning well. We've seen Amy walk for exercise. We've seen her strength-train. Zach seems to be an active, hands-on dad ... plus, he plays competitive soccer. They're both healthy. Matt has increasingly severe limitations; it's reasonable to wonder how he's going to continue to live independently, let alone in a large, multi-level house. With any luck, Zach and Tori won't need to worry for decades about any sort of adaptive living.

Let's talk for a moment about Amy's compassion toward Matt. For starters, she had enough compassion not to fuck the help. Guess cheating on one's spouse is not disloyal enough; it's extra-compassionate to carry on under said spouse's nose with a partner who is paid by one of the businesses that said spouse co-owns. She had enough compassion to stay with Matt through several job changes, including at least one termination; two OWIs; illnesses/surgeries and recoveries; one trebuchet accident (Matt's fault) that nearly killed one of their kids; and several years of doing all the heavy lifting with the kids because spending time with his family wasn't a good use of Matt's time. But, hey. Matt gave her a kitchen. What a guy. ^^^ All this. And the rest of the post as well. Spot-on, @HighlandWarriorGrl.

Perhaps I don't recall. Did Matt step in at these junctures and guide the boys to behave appropriately? I've never understood the apparent perception that the onus was on Amy and Amy alone to shape the kids' character. She was home more than Matt was, certainly -- but she also worked, at least part-time, outside the home, and the time she spent at home was largely devoted to taking care of the kids' needs -- feeding, clothing, chauffeuring. Not sure why Matt gets a pass.

That's it, in a nutshell. It's not up to anyone but Amy to determine what Amy needs. It's offensive that Matt and Jeremy feel they have the right to make that call, or even to express an opinion about it.

If she is, I like the fact that she's not trying to hide it with a purse or with Jackson. My guess is she's not, though, because she no doubt would have wanted to announce it officially before looking pregnant on social media. My guess is odd angle as well.

Yes. And Caryn commented in one of the most recent episodes that the flipped house was "a hop, skip, and a jump from Zach and Tori." Not that that means anything. I see there's a Zach and Tori "look back" special on tonight? So much better an idea than a Jeremy and Audrey retrospective...

https://radaronline.com/photos/little-people-zach-tori-roloff-selling-oregon-starter-home-expecting/ Wonder if they bought the home Matt flipped.