ChristmasJones

Someone may have mentioned it, but what type of plastic surgery did Brittany have around her lower jaw area - to my eyes, it looks like the corners of her mouth turn downward to a much more severe degree than before she was on this show.

During the scene with Lisa at TomTom, looking at her face, it looked like either she had had a mini facelift, was wearing 10 layers of makeup, or they used a customized filter that just blurred out her face and no one else's. IDK, for some reason, something looked different about her face during that scene. I didn't notice it as much at Lala's party

What does this mean?

This case exemplifies the concept of ACES - Adverse Childhood Experiences. This woman is deeply troubled and sadly may never be able to get herself onto a better trajectory from here. While there are resources available to her, her ability to engage with them is impaired, which is a core factor in people with the types of problems she has. She probably would benefit from being in a group home at this point. source: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/fastfact.html

One nit picky detail that bothered me was that during the show Clare referred to herself as a therapist (and her friends did as well), but in the reunion she said she was almost finished with graduate school and her clinical internship. I think it would have been more honest to just say that, but people love to portray themselves as more than they are, so she's not unique. I do wonder how much of her actions on the show were based on trying to maintain a certain profile, given her chosen career path.

Thanks! It was fun to read that.

So five divorces this season... made me wonder how many MAFS couples are still together at this point?

I'm watching this season. I basically just like the premise of this show, and some seasons engage me more than others. So far no singers have really made a strong impact, but sometimes that doesn't happen until further in. Chance has slowly grown on me. Initially I couldn't understand why he was a coach, but the more I listen to his feedback I see that he has a lot of thoughts and insights into music and I now enjoy him. I also appreciate that he doesn't have a huge ego and is more laid back.

This is the episode where we watch Chloe making the mistake that could be the death-blow to her relationship - she gets really intense and direct about how she is not going to tolerate not living together after d-day. This is so foolish on her part. If she really thinks Michael is the guy for her, this is the time to back off with the pressure. She's had sex with him, she's all in emotionally, and its causing her to panic and cling even harder. If they are the loves of each other's lives, a few months with two apartments, getting to know each other better, will only improve their relationship. Forcing him to move in with her immediately is the exact opposite strategy of what she should be doing. If you have to force someone to do something like that, then that's a major problem. But she appears to be oblivious of all this. Also she is not listening when he talks about the budget. She seems like she is living in la-la land. The other thing, her idea that she will have five foster kids, particularly teens with challenging behavior. Does she have any training working with teenagers with those issues? She'll be working a full-time job while also doing everything needed for foster kids, or does she plan to live off the money you get paid for having them and that's why she wants five. Having five at once sounds more like a group home than a foster placement anyway (unless they were siblings). It makes her look very foolish, IMO. It would be very different if she said she would like to explore being a foster parent, do the training, and then have a child in their home and see how that process goes. That is a rational, grounded approach to something like this. I bet Michael would react very differently if she had presented it like that.

I'm surprised there aren't more comments here as this is a great show in terms of the level of delusion these women have. I really wonder about the two women who are with guys who have like a few more decades on their sentences. They say this is my soul mate, he loves me so much... but its like a total fantasy relationship. I mean they get calls and letters all the time but they don't have to deal with any of the real life stuff at all. Also a big fantasy about how well-functioning these guys will be when they get out.

Its hard to watch Danielle and Ick. I wish she would grow some self-esteem and leave this damn loser. Find a man who only wants her. He is sooooooo gross. And those sunglasses make him look like a low paid porn star from the 70's. No offense to them, but maybe like a background character in Boogie Nights. I love the interactions with his in-laws, with Danielle's brother just giving it to him straight. Please show more of that. Did anyone catch that the pregnant woman said she is a psychiatrist? Her husband said she had 12 years of schooling so that tracks. But she is on a reality tv show about bringing in a sister wife while she is pregnant????? Silly me... we are in the era of reality tv and social media where the ticket to fame and fortune is shamelessness. I do wonder what sort of setting she works in though. And to invest that much time and money into her career and then appear on this show seems odd.

Not very snarky, but in the segment with Jessica and Craig, when they were arguing about how much money she was spending, I was thinking, go to a therapist! I was frustrated watching them because it seems like such a resolvable issue. The tension/anger between them hasn't gotten too bad yet, so this is the perfect time for them to do some preventative work before things spiral out of control. Its a big hurdle to go from being incarcerated to being out, with a partner you met while in prison. People go to therapy for much smaller issues. And its not that therapy is some magical panacea, but it just struck me how the cracks are starting to form, but they could do something proactive to change that trajectory.

You know what the butt wiggle reminded me of? Do you remember Shallow Hal's bet friend, played by Jason Alexander? He had a little tail that wiggled. And his hairdo is very similar to Clayton

This was hard to watch, but I think it helped to bring some unpleasant issues into the public sphere, hopefully will generate helpful conversations in families. Not exactly the same thing, but on the theme of families with elders who have a lot of money, some of you may enjoy this podcast by the BBC - the podcast is called Intrigue, and the most recent season is Million Dollar Lover. Its about a wealthy older widow who gets romantically involved with a handyman, and then documents what unfolds from there - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sj2pt/episodes/player

I'm going to go in a different direction on this. Not calling anyone out specifically but the references to TLC's role and how TLC should handle this are misplaced, IMO. The only reason TLC is involved in this situation is because the Browns decided that they wanted to use a reality tv show to depend on for income. If the Browns feel strongly enough about what footage should be shown or not shown going forward, they can hire attorneys to renegotiate any contracts that are currently in place. We need to remember that they made the choice to put their family baggage out for the world to see. They decided it was worth the money. They've had years and years to decide that they don't like how they're being portrayed and cancel the show. But they never did. They've never seemed to care all that much about how it would affect their kids. Maybe this tragedy will make them think differently, but maybe it won't. I say this not to put direct blame on them, but rather to shift the focus from TLC to where it belongs. Needless to say, we will likely never know, nor should we, what led Garrison to do what he did. And we won't know how much of "the show" and all that came with it factored into his pain.

Extremely devastating news. He had a whole lifetime ahead of him. I wish he could have known that there was a way through the pain. Just absolutely heartbreaking.

I love the Cup-A-Bug device! I am probably going to order one. I absolutely detest bugs and spiders, so this would be awesome. There is a particular type of bug that comes inside in the spring/summer, and this would be perfect to catch it as they usually land on the walls.

Nick's way of speaking about "fat" Americans, using the term piggy, etc., did not completely surprise me based on some personal experiences I've had with people who have moved to the US from Asia, in both cases China, who were very open and blunt in how they spoke about people's weight. It made me wonder if it is more culturally acceptable to make comments about appearance. Out of curiosity, I just googled "call people fat in China" and found this article which seems to support that there are deeper cultural elements behind comments like that - https://www.vice.com/en/article/neq3ak/people-called-me-fat-in-china This is not to say that Nick should keep doing this, of course.

full article: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rachel-leviss-vanderpump-rules-sues-tom-sandoval-ariana-madix-alleges-rcna141217