S02.E03: You Can't Stop the Girl

[Guest]

Airs November 24, 2020

Quote

Ethan is left speechless after Olivia gets a body piercing. Ethan and Olivia host Micah and Moriah for their first ever Independence Day. Kim, Barry and the kids head back to the farm to welcome visitors from down under.

 

[retired watcher]

A home schooling parent shouldn't be able to decide that history isn't important. The Plath's really want their children to be ignorant. Home schooled children need to be tested by a school district not with the parent's tests. How could someone receive 95% and be ignorant of the Declaration of Independence. 

[Madding crowd]

I don’t like it how the producers keep trying to embarrass the adult Plaths by asking them about things they never learned. I know they signed up for this but it’s still off putting. Kim’s insistence that other families stay together makes me think she expects even married couples to remain in her house and under her control.

I think they are using Olivia as a device to show the Plaths new things like piercings and Fourth of July. It comes across weird because she and Ethan have been married awhile and he likely already knew that stuff and she grew up in the same culture so also had to learn things.

My son came across some YouTube video ‘movies’ the Plaths made including one called “Murder, she wished” with younger Isaac playing a sheriff. Making movies about a murder is Okay, but celebrating a holiday is wrong? I don’t get them or their philosophy.

Edited November 25, 2020 by Madding crowd

[Twopper]

1 hour ago, retired watcher said:

A home schooling parent shouldn't be able to decide that history isn't important. The Plath's really want their children to be ignorant. Home schooled children need to be tested by a school district not with the parent's tests. How could someone receive 95% and be ignorant of the Declaration of Independence. 

I think these parents--and I am guessing especially the mom--are flying under the radar, and they aren't following the Ga home school rules at all.  They seem to have abdicated and quit schooling the kids who didn't want to do their work.   I would almost think they were more like unschoolers, but unschoolers who had a gifted daughter like Hosanna would be much more likely to let her study music at the college level.

I would like to hear from these parents why they celebrated no holidays at all.  This just seems rather odd and rather like the practices of Jehovah's witnesses, but there is no indication that they belong to that church.

So are they going to let the children at home make friends with the family from Australia?   or will the chocolate biscuits be a bridge too far for Kim who really doesn't look like she avoids any foods including sugar.  I wonder if she has a secret stash of cookies or candy.

The accident was in 2008.  If I had accidentally killed a child,  I think I would never recover enough to be of much use to anyone else.  That was 12 years ago so Ethan would have been maybe 10 years old at the time.  I wonder if the parents wanted the children to repress their feelings about it so Kim could get on with life or if they were repressing feeling before the accident.  

Looks like the four escapees had a nice celebration.  You have to do fireworks at night, but in the south the picnic is best in the early afternoon before those afternoon thunderboomers roll in.

I worry about those kids still under Kim's control. 

 

[the-grey-lady]

Kim: [The estrangement from Ethan and Olivia] has me even more determined to make sure this doesn't happen with any of my younger children.

Me: You should definitely cling to them more. That'll help.

[Shelbie]

Kim appears to believe that she is still correct in how she raises her children. I’m sure she thinks it is only because of evil Olivia that any of her children have rejected her. She is a rigid woman unable to see her children as individuals and I’m sure will lose more of them to the world. 

[Spazamanaz]

The more the children tell stories of their upbringing,  the more my heart breaks for them. Kim was raised by an alcoholic mother and didn't want that kind of upbringing for her kids. I can understand that, as I was also raised by an alcoholic (and abusive) mother. I vowed to raise my children with love and respect, which I have done. I let my children experience life, all of it, the ups and downs. The good and bad, and I am there right beside them cheering them on and giving support when needed. Yes, it's hard because you don't want to see your child hurting.  But those experiences help your child grow and form them into productive, mature well rounded adults with their own identies. Who hopefully can navigate the world around them. 

[TwirlyGirly]

21 hours ago, retired watcher said:

A home schooling parent shouldn't be able to decide that history isn't important. The Plath's really want their children to be ignorant. Home schooled children need to be tested by a school district not with the parent's tests. How could someone receive 95% and be ignorant of the Declaration of Independence. 

I suspect the Plaths use the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) program. I'm basing this on something one of them said this season in either the first or second episode; something to the effect that all they did was fill out worksheets.

ACE is exactly that; it's a series of workbooks for each grade and each subject area. It's a Bible-based curriculum. There is no "teaching" involved whatsoever. As a matter of fact, there are private Christian schools that use ACE. In those schools, the classrooms are set up with cubicles for each student; each cubicle has a desk and a chair. The students sit in their cubicles and work through their workbooks. The teacher is there only to keep the students on task; they do not TEACH.

As for how the Plaths (who are Christian fundamentalist, BTW) are able to get away with giving their children such a sub-par education, the answer is two words:

"Religious Freedumb!"

The HLDSA (Home School Legal Defense Association) exists solely to assist homeschooling parents (primarily Christian fundamentalist) in using religious freedom laws as an exemption from state homeschooling regulations and advises parents in how to evade charges of child abuse for using corporal punishment (and worse) on their children.

More about ACE:

This Homeschool Program Replicates The Office

What is Accelerated Christian Education?

Examples of Multiple-Choice Questions from ACE Workbooks

Edited November 26, 2020 by TwirlyGirly
Added links; corrected punctuation

[Kiss my mutt]

I wonder if you can sue your parents for not providing you an adequate education. That’s just criminal how little they know

[jacksgirl]

I'm liking this show. Micah, especially is becoming a lot more insightful into his upbringing. Ethan is a goofball, but, he too, is learning and growing. His parents are absolute dolts. Lydia is the only one who will stick around. So glad Micah didn't stay in his serious relationship. They are all way too young to be serious. Time will come for those relationships.

[geej]

First off, i will admit to really looking forward to watching the show and snarking with you guys. I would never admit this to anyone else, but since the internet can keep a secret, I feel safe.

There is something so very odd to me that THAT mother and her pet-husband would allow their completely sheltered family to be on Da Teevee. In a series no less, and a second season even. Listening to her nothing good came of doing season one(except the big bucks for a fancy house with nothing to play with) The fact that crazy-mom allowed her "rebellious" daughter to live on her own at 17 is shocking. and rebellious? please, more like curious. Has mom never heard of a compromise. Keep that child home and let her wear her silly outfits. Maybe even let her see a (whispered voice) magazine on style or something . But her all or nothing attitude is shameful. I get scared thinking how naive what's-her-name is. But it is ok she live on her own(with her equally naive brother. If ANYTHING happened to her, her brother would not know how to handle it. How could he?

Back to the cray-cray mom, I too believe she has a secret stack of sugary treats just for her. She probably made up the part of the bible that told her not to let children have sweets. She'd have to share. Does she seem the kind of person that likes to chare anything but her woes?. If it is not a secret compartment of wonder-treats  then she is a lard-o. Maybe even a butter wrapper-licker! Broiled chicken did not give her that figure.     ( this is the place to snark, right? ooohhh, i feel so mean, but it makes the rest of my world safer from our shared  shut-in psychosis, it is a good thing).

3, i counted 3 times Wacky-mom said she would not let "that" happen to her younger kids. "That" being the world and how to navigate it. She's keeping them under her wings. Who is she trying to convince? SHE put them on a TV show!!! You know  a burner phone from an older big brother is next.

I just keep thinking we are being punked that someone so psyco about keeping the world away from her children would be happily signing up for reality tv.

Instead of trying so hard to shelter and deprive these kids, let them blossom! Let them breath. She can't even trust in herself that so far they are turning out great! She can't give herself credit even, she is so wound-up on rules, and imposed  isolationism. 

okay, i feel better, but Lord-Mom might be the type to let my secret crush on this show out. She seems that type.

On a lighter note, I hope we get to see more of the middle brother, who is now the oldest boy at home(is he the only boy left?) he was darling in the second episode.

 

Oh 1 more thing, I laughed SO hard at the giant insect (is her name Miria??) wore on her eye lids.  It could have been me, but i think her eye lashes/slash/ insect, grew as the notes she was singing got higher.

and higher.

[ReadMeLattice]

Yeah @geej, I'm usually not one to comment on people's bodies much, but given how severely she restricts her kids' diets, it's worth pointing out that I really doubt you would be THAT severely overweight while following the same diet. She's older and has had many kids, so yes, of course she's not necessarily going to look like a movie star, but barring some unknown major health issue, I don't believe she got that obese eating *zero* sugar. 

It's one thing to have standards and expectations for your kids -- like "don't drink in high school" -- that you might not have followed when you were a teen, because you want them to learn from your mistakes. It's another thing to CONTINUE doing the things you expect them not to do, even when they're older teens or adults. 

Edited November 29, 2020 by ReadMeLattice

[geej]

RealMe, can i call you realme? adding to your point, allowing for things like sugar, or freedom of decorating your bedroom, etc can be given baced on age, development. A benefit i think Mom has not allowed for herself is getting to watch HOW her kids handle the new choices.(then she could use her bossiness better, ha.. You can hear her saying in her low slow cracking creepy voice "YoU hAD TOo MUcH!!").

Editted to add:

And as for the on-the-edge fat-shaming end of my post, i thot long and hard talking about  posting about her weight. I, like you stay away from talking about someone's body weight. 

I am looking at it for purely the hypocriticalness of her own actions, and you got that.

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by geej

[Madding crowd]

8 hours ago, ReadMeLattice said:

Yeah @geej, I'm usually not one to comment on people's bodies much, but given how severely she restricts her kids' diets, it's worth pointing out that I really doubt you would be THAT severely overweight while following the same diet. She's older and has had many kids, so yes, of course she's not necessarily going to look like a movie star, but barring some unknown major health issue, I don't believe she got that obese eating *zero* sugar. 

It's one thing to have standards and expectations for your kids -- like "don't drink in high school" -- that you might not have followed when you were a teen, because you want them to learn from your mistakes. It's another thing to CONTINUE doing the things you expect them not to do, even when they're older teens or adults. 

I can’t stand the mom but she is not super obese. She is likely a size 12-14 which is kind of average size. I don’t know what she eats but not everyone can be stick thin regardless of diet.

[Quof]

6 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

She is likely a size 12-14

No way is she a size 14.  18 at least.

[ReadMeLattice]

8 hours ago, Quof said:

No way is she a size 14.  18 at least.

Yeah, I would say 18-20 at minimum. Again, nothing wrong with or shameful about that, unless you're claiming to never eat a single bite of sugar or processed food and not allowing your kids to do so either! Olivia claimed she has a stash of candy and only she is allowed to touch it. I know they hate each other, but I believe it.

And the kids, even the adults, are all rail-thin, so I don't think it's genetics. 

[emmawoodhouse]

They could take after skelator Barry. 

[PicnicLife77]

On the weight note,  maybe Kim doesn't realize that carbs are sugar. She might just be restricting obvious sugars,like candy. 

I hate to be petty, but since she obviously wears lip makeup, why can't she find a simple foundation or concealer to tone down the redness on her face. It's quite distracting. 

[jaybird2]

where do these kids get the money for these houses?

 

[Xena]

Micah mentioned last night selling 'half his cows' (I think?), and Moriah has two part time jobs I believe.  Together they can probably just barely afford the rent on a small house in a very small town (Micah also spent some of his cow money on the car he crashed).  Wondering if they also picked up some cash from TLC, I would hope that they swung their own deals  for this season since they are no longer under the family roof.

Ethan and Olivia - I have no idea unless Olivia's family is loaded and are providing a subsidy- I did not watch Season 1, Ethan would have been legally an adult at that time, and possibly swung his own deal with TLC that is also providing cash. Otherwise, I cannot imagine his job and her photography gig is enough... but again, it is a very small town, prices are dramatically different sometimes there.  When I visit my father in rural VA, I am amazed at how cheap it is to live... but wages are also low...

[Fostersmom]

On 12/1/2020 at 5:03 AM, abracadabra said:

On the weight note,  maybe Kim doesn't realize that carbs are sugar. She might just be restricting obvious sugars,like candy. 

That was my first thought, what does she eat? Is she eating a lot of rice, bread, potatoes? It's possible she's not eating candy, but eating a lot of carbs, not realizing they are the same thing by her body's accounting. 

I'm glad Moriah is comfortable enough to dress the way she does, but good lord, she's got tacky taste. And count me as another who's not understanding what Micah and the girl are modeling for. Their Instagram pages? And yes, the session that was in this episode or the last, I've just binged this season and they've all melted together, was slipping towards feeling porny. 

[jaybird2]

On 12/3/2020 at 9:21 AM, Xena said:

Micah mentioned last night selling 'half his cows' (I think?), and Moriah has two part time jobs I believe.  Together they can probably just barely afford the rent on a small house in a very small town (Micah also spent some of his cow money on the car he crashed).  Wondering if they also picked up some cash from TLC, I would hope that they swung their own deals  for this season since they are no longer under the family roof.

Ethan and Olivia - I have no idea unless Olivia's family is loaded and are providing a subsidy- I did not watch Season 1, Ethan would have been legally an adult at that time, and possibly swung his own deal with TLC that is also providing cash. Otherwise, I cannot imagine his job and her photography gig is enough... but again, it is a very small town, prices are dramatically different sometimes there.  When I visit my father in rural VA, I am amazed at how cheap it is to live... but wages are also low...

where did he get cows to sell?  one would think the cows belonged  to the 'farm'.

[Xena]

1 hour ago, jaybird2 said:

where did he get cows to sell? 

lol I DID put a question mark after that, as I wasn't sure I heard that right.