Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)

[Notabug]

8 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Not the best screenshot, from a video while bowling, but what is going on with her hair? 

Too much peroxide, not enough deep conditioning and really cheap extensions?

[Absolom]

It's her new cheap extensions I believe.

[libgirl2]

29 minutes ago, Absolom said:

It's her new cheap extensions I believe.

It look ridiculous. 

[EmeraldGirl]

Straight extensions underneath her naturally wavy hair. Or that hair that she always scrunches together with hairspray. She should blow out her real hair so it is at least the same texture as the other hair.

She’s trying to be a blonde Nurie. She’s so jealous of her hair, and fertility, and husband that she can’t stand it. 

[oliviabenson]

some boy named Elijah was bowling with them. I wonder who he is courting? 

Renee had on such dark/unflattering lipstick on.

[oliviabenson]

Jill's hair is no good. I guess everyone is scared even Dave to tell her to fix it.

I guess bowling was boys vs. girls.

[crazy8s]

3 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

some boy named Elijah was bowling with them. I wonder who he is courting? 

Renee had on such dark/unflattering lipstick on.

Elijah started commenting on Jill's fb post around the time Phillip listed Baltimore Ohio on his linkedin. Elijah lives in Baltimore and I believe works at or attends the church where the dear friend took Phillip under his wing after he was retrieved from oklahoma.

Elijah was shown at the rod house for thanksgiving.

Jill has proudly boasted that "thus far all of the older children waited to get social media until they entered a courtship". Renee hopped on her own fb page early Feb.

I suspect a courtship.

Edited April 1 by crazy8s

[oliviabenson]

I managed to take a good look at Elijah. he's very young and resembles a rod boy.

and goodness gracious David is a unit. he has not lost 1 pound while plexus was in his house. 

and no plexus ads lol.

[libgirl2]

17 minutes ago, oliviabenson said:

I managed to take a good look at Elijah. he's very young and resembles a rod boy.

and goodness gracious David is a unit. he has not lost 1 pound while plexus was in his house. 

and no plexus ads lol.

I hope he isn't courting Renee. I can see her with someone older. This guy is a kid. 

 

Edited April 1 by libgirl2

[BradandJanet]

7 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

I hope he isn't courting Renee. I can see her with someone older. This guy is a kid. 

David is quite there, isn't he? 

Elijah reminds me of Jonathan before he married Kaylee. However, marrying into the Rodrigues family of Wooster will age anybody. Heidi might be an exception if she keeps some distance from the barndo of bad living. 

[satrunrose]

My dream for all of the Rodlets is that they hook up with a very mainstream person who can fake fundy/brainwashed Jill sycophant for the courtship and then support their spouse when they show up to tell Mahmo off and go take a great job with the ACLU (on the other side of the country without giving Jill their forwarding address). 

Edited April 2 by satrunrose

[lookeyloo]

33 minutes ago, satrunrose said:

My dream for all of the Rodlets is that they hook up with a very mainstream person who can fake fundy/brainwashed Jill sycophant for the courtship and then support their spouse when they show up to tell Mahmo off and go take a great job with the ACLU (on the other side of the country with out giving Jill their forwarding address). 

Sound great. Look how long it is taking certain Duggars. These kids seem doomed 

[mythoughtis]

3 hours ago, satrunrose said:

My dream for all of the Rodlets is that they hook up with a very mainstream person who can fake fundy/brainwashed Jill sycophant for the courtship and then support their spouse when they show up to tell Mahmo off and go take a great job with the ACLU (on the other side of the country with out giving Jill their forwarding address). 

Yes, and right after that tell Dave and Jill that the agreement they were required to sign has no legal standing.  You know, the one that requires them to live close to the Rods, and travel with them, etc, etc.  Because Jill has stated that they ‘allow’ Nathan and Nurie to live in Florida because of his being Pastor of a church.   

[oliviabenson]

Renee is what 23? By Jill’s standards she’s old and time to marry her off asap. Isn’t Tessie close to 18? Elijah is probably there to pick a rod sister.

 

[Salacious Kitty]

I think Renee is 22, and Tessie is 18. I don't think she's scheduled to "graduate" from "school" this year though. I think this is Gabe's year. 

[crazy8s]

19 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

I think Renee is 22, and Tessie is 18. I don't think she's scheduled to "graduate" from "school" this year though. I think this is Gabe's year. 

yes Tessie 18 in July.

Gabe should graduate in may/june at 19yrs old, Tessie next year and Hannah the next.

Renee will be less needed once Tessie gets her driver's license in July. Jill and Dave make them wait so they don't have to pay for driver's training or interact with the worldly driver's training teachers.

Jill has claimed Renee is always willing to run any errands. She also claimed Renee drove the other girls to VBS last summer.

 

[Tdoc72]

5 hours ago, satrunrose said:

My dream for all of the Rodlets is that they hook up with a very mainstream person who can fake fundy/brainwashed Jill sycophant for the courtship and then support their spouse when they show up to tell Mahmo off and go take a great job with the ACLU (on the other side of the country with out giving Jill their forwarding address). 

It would be nice but I don’t think they’ll ever escape Jill’s iron control of them. I’m hoping one will decide to wear pants. 

[oliviabenson]

Philip might be working in Wendy’s.

If he is he probably gets a free meal and maybe leftovers to take home.

[EmeraldGirl]

Why are they graduating at 19? My son was born in July and graduated at 17. I was old for my class, but I didn’t turn 19 until November and in college. The Duggers would let more than one graduate in a year, Jill seems to want to keep it to one a year for some reason.

I hope Philip keeps eating, but I don’t want him to get fat and pasty like his father. And where does he possibly go from here? Fast food restaurants are a dead end unless you’re in school or something. Sad for such a young man who actually had some dreams (not great ones, but dreams nonetheless). 

[ALittleShelfish]

46 minutes ago, EmeraldGirl said:

I hope Philip keeps eating, but I don’t want him to get fat and pasty like his father. And where does he possibly go from here? Fast food restaurants are a dead end unless you’re in school or something. Sad for such a young man who actually had some dreams (not great ones, but dreams nonetheless). 

Honestly, if he *TRIED* to develop people skills, he could move into management and make decent money.  Some fast food place managers make bank.  I know I couldn't work with food (ED) and was in retail instead.  I just stayed in the wrong part of retail and only made half a bank lol

[crazy8s]

From this 2017 pic you can see Phillip, Samuel and Gabriel should have all graduated in a row. Jill posted at some point that they had found some of the children had cheated on the end of year test or something and would have to repeat.

It seems that was at least Samuel. who's delayed year then pushed Gabriel back a year as well, or Gabriel was also a cheater.

I think Jill will push the next four though because she got embarrassed at church during the rod grift intro when a pastor jumped up after samuel and said "Samuel is 19 and looking for a godly wife" - what could mama say "oh but he has not graduated homeschool yet"?

 

 

Edited April 2 by crazy8s
edit

[CalicoKitty]

It may not be Jill's choice.  I remember the cheating incident a few years ago.  I guess the kids were held back which is resulting in the late "graduations".

[Salacious Kitty]

But only 3 were caught cheating. It shouldn't affect the rest of the kids. Hell, even Janessa is just in kindergarten this year, and she wasn't even school aged when the cheating occured. 

Edited April 2 by Salacious Kitty

[crazy8s]

6 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

But only 3 were caught cheating. It shouldn't affect the rest of the kids. He, even Janessa is just in kindergarten this year, and she wasn't even school aged when th cheating occured. 

Since the oldest 5 seemed to have graduated in the right years and then a gap between Phillip and Samuel, it would seem at least Samuel was one of the cheaters. This was years ago so how would Olivia on down be cheaters on a test? That leaves Sam, Gabe, Tessie and Hannah.

 

[Salacious Kitty]

I agree that Samuel was one of the cheaters. He seems to be an empty suit. Jill has mentioned that he struggled in school, such as it is in their home. 

[oliviabenson]

I think she is holding them back because she needs sons in the band and to help her to set everything up. once Gabe leaves it's all Jill and her sisters and frankly the youngest 3-4 aren't performing.

[Albanyguy]

9 hours ago, CalicoKitty said:

It may not be Jill's choice.  I remember the cheating incident a few years ago.  I guess the kids were held back which is resulting in the late "graduations".

I missed the cheating incident (I guess I was late to the party). What happened there?

[crazy8s]

41 minutes ago, Albanyguy said:

I missed the cheating incident (I guess I was late to the party). What happened there?

Jill posted something several years ago saying they caught some of the children cheating on the end of year home school tests. They used the answer key or something like that. She said the cheaters would have to repeat the grade.

Though she was also posting about the joy of having so many god fearing and obedient teenagers in their home. The teens who made God honoring choices and honor their parents in all things.

Edited April 2 by crazy8s

[Notabug]

1 hour ago, Albanyguy said:

I missed the cheating incident (I guess I was late to the party). What happened there?

The state required that homeschooled kids take some sort of standardized test consistent with their alleged grade level, as I recall.  As @crazy8s said, several of them were caught cheating during the test by the person who was proctoring and they were automatically flunked and had to repeat the grade.  

I am sure it was not Jill who found them cheating and turned them in.  Had she been involved, it never would've been reported.

[Chaos Theory]

Also late to the party and didn’t know about the cheating scandal. 
 

On one hand good for the kids for taking the initiative and doing something interesting (not that I condone cheating even a little) and showing some signs of life.

On the other hand needing to cheat on what is likely a basic math and reading test that my ten year old nephew could pass is kinda sad.
 

Although giving any of these kids an actual high school equivalency test would be kinda fascinating.  

 

Edited April 2 by Chaos Theory

[ozziemom]

Was the homeschooling testing in another state? IIRC they moved to Ohio after this and coincidentally, the rules about homeschooling were more lax.

[Notabug]

9 minutes ago, ozziemom said:

Was the homeschooling testing in another state? IIRC they moved to Ohio after this and coincidentally, the rules about homeschooling were more lax.

I think this happened when they were living in West Virginia; around the same time that CPS was sent to investigate them.  Despite her insatiable need to broadcast every detail of her life, Jill posted out of the blue that they'd bought a house in Ohio, were selling in W. VA and moving immediately.  Consensus was that she wanted CPS out of her ratty hair and perhaps wanted to avoid further scrutiny of her children's subpar schooling.

[Natalie68]

On 3/17/2025 at 1:33 PM, mythoughtis said:

@ginger90  will hopefully copy the FB post here ( I don’t know how).  Jill is crying ( again) because she moved Janessa out of the nursery. I thought she did that last year?  In addition, she got a second coffee bar.   Not sure why she needed two?   I will grant her the need for an office since that means she will stop doing radio broadcasts in the bathroom. 

There was an empty nook

[Tasya]

Late reply. 

Edited April 2 by Tasya

[Salacious Kitty]

4 minutes ago, Tasya said:

The entire bottom part is not her hair. Those are some truly awful extensions. 

Yeah, we picked apart her hair in previous posts. 😀

[laurakaye]

18 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

Renee is what 23? By Jill’s standards she’s old and time to marry her off asap. Isn’t Tessie close to 18? Elijah is probably there to pick a rod sister.

Eww....just invite some guy to peruse your available daughters and choose the one he likes best, no need to ask the daughters if they have any attraction to the guy.  Will he pay for Mahmo's dinners and bring her little prezzies from time to time?  Then that's the guy for her girl!

17 hours ago, crazy8s said:

Jill has claimed Renee is always willing to run any errands. She also claimed Renee drove the other girls to VBS last summer.

Good heavens, I would be waking up in the middle of the night to hide Jill's hair dye just to have an excuse to drive to Dollar General to get another box for her, if only to taste freedom for a few minutes.

[merylinkid]

4 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

On one hand good for the kids for taking the initiative and doing something interesting (not that I condone cheating even a little) and showing some signs of life.

I highly doubt the kids just happen to have the answer key to the test.   These kids don't cough without permission from Mahmo.   My money is on Jill giving them the answers so 1) it wouldn't show how little she actually homeschools and 2) she can brag about how smart her kids are.   But Satan was out to get her as usual and tipped off the proctor to what was going on.  

I don't think we have even seen the pile of alleged schoolbooks this year.

And I am sorry, almost 7 year old Janessa is JUST starting kindegarten?   That child is going to be so delayed because Jill can't accept her baby having days are over.  Even Michelle wasn't this bad after it was finally clear the baby factory was shut down for good.

[MamaMax]

6 minutes ago, merylinkid said:

I highly doubt the kids just happen to have the answer key to the test.   These kids don't cough without permission from Mahmo.   My money is on Jill giving them the answers so 1) it wouldn't show how little she actually homeschools and 2) she can brag about how smart her kids are.   But Satan was out to get her as usual and tipped off the proctor to what was going on.  

I don't think we have even seen the pile of alleged schoolbooks this year.

And I am sorry, almost 7 year old Janessa is JUST starting kindegarten?   That child is going to be so delayed because Jill can't accept her baby having days are over.  Even Michelle wasn't this bad after it was finally clear the baby factory was shut down for good.

HOLD ON WHAT???

WTF has the child been doing all day every day for the past few years?? Jesus Christ on a cracker, how hard is it to teach a kid the letters, numbers and colors? I could not homeschool my kids in the later stages because I wouldn't know how to teach them more complex stuff, but Kindy?   Sheesh.

[Salacious Kitty]

17 minutes ago, MamaMax said:

HOLD ON WHAT???

WTF has the child been doing all day every day for the past few years?? Jesus Christ on a cracker, how hard is it to teach a kid the letters, numbers and colors? I could not homeschool my kids in the later stages because I wouldn't know how to teach them more complex stuff, but Kindy?   Sheesh.

Did you see the raggedy book that she "read" a few weeks ago? She has the thing memorized and was flustered when she skipped a word and Jill corrected her (not by sounding out the word but just saying it). Very sad.

[crazy8s]

4 hours ago, Notabug said:

I think this happened when they were living in West Virginia; around the same time that CPS was sent to investigate them.  Despite her insatiable need to broadcast every detail of her life, Jill posted out of the blue that they'd bought a house in Ohio, were selling in W. VA and moving immediately.  Consensus was that she wanted CPS out of her ratty hair and perhaps wanted to avoid further scrutiny of her children's subpar schooling.

This was just two years after her parents finally got their "forever home" just 4 houses down from Dave and Jill. Jill's prayers had been answered mama and daddy were just down the road. Amy and Kevin moved from NY to live near them around that time as well.

Ma and Pa Noyes house saga was something else. They bought a house at auction that ended up being uninhabitable. They alternated between the Rod's house and RV for a year, The auction house got demolished and they finally brought in a double wide manufactured home. Two years later Jill and Dave bailed for ohio.

[Tasya]

3 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Yeah, we picked apart her hair in previous posts. 😀

👍🏾

[AstridM]

20 hours ago, EmeraldGirl said:

Why are they graduating at 19? My son was born in July and graduated at 17. I was old for my class, but I didn’t turn 19 until November and in college. The Duggers would let more than one graduate in a year, Jill seems to want to keep it to one a year for some reason.

I hope Philip keeps eating, but I don’t want him to get fat and pasty like his father. And where does he possibly go from here? Fast food restaurants are a dead end unless you’re in school or something. Sad for such a young man who actually had some dreams (not great ones, but dreams nonetheless). 

The average age of a retail/fast food employee in the US is late 20s/early 30s. Many have families/kids. This country is a service economy. 

18 hours ago, crazy8s said:

Since the oldest 5 seemed to have graduated in the right years and then a gap between Phillip and Samuel, it would seem at least Samuel was one of the cheaters. This was years ago so how would Olivia on down be cheaters on a test? That leaves Sam, Gabe, Tessie and Hannah.

 

Clearly. I mean, if you’ve heard Samuel speak, he can barely string 2 sentences together. Sad😢.

[CalicoKitty]

20 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

But only 3 were caught cheating. It shouldn't affect the rest of the kids. Hell, even Janessa is just in kindergarten this year, and she wasn't even school aged when the cheating occured. 

But by delaying everyone else it looks to the uninformed viewer that Jill planned it that way.  I think if the cheating had not happened (or been caught), all the kids would "graduate" at a more appropriate time.  She thinks people would notice if three of the older kids were "held back", so she just delayes everyone so there is the "correct" spacing.

[Salacious Kitty]

There's a big age gap between Hannah and Olivia. There's absolutely no reason for her to delay the girls from Olivia on down. Janessa is 7 this month, yet is in kindergarten, so the proof is there that Jill has delayed all her kids after the cheating. 

[emma675]

4 hours ago, merylinkid said:

I highly doubt the kids just happen to have the answer key to the test.   These kids don't cough without permission from Mahmo.   My money is on Jill giving them the answers so 1) it wouldn't show how little she actually homeschools and 2) she can brag about how smart her kids are.   But Satan was out to get her as usual and tipped off the proctor to what was going on.  

Totally agree, this was the first thought that popped in my head. There's no way the kids came up with trying to cheat, it was completely Jill's doing. Those kids are so stifled and broken down that I could never imagine them having an original thought let alone coming up with a covert plan to cheat on a test. 

[CalicoKitty]

37 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

There's a big age gap between Hannah and Olivia. There's absolutely no reason for her to delay the girls from Olivia on down. Janessa is 7 this month, yet is in kindergarten, so the proof is there that Jill has delayed all her kids after the cheating. 

Appearance is all-important to Jill.  She honestly thinks that people care.  I wonder how she would answer the question if someone asked her why her kids are not in appropriate-aged grades?  I think she would blame the cheating on the test proctor for actually noticing.  Those poor kids.

[sixlets]

 

On 4/1/2025 at 9:48 PM, EmeraldGirl said:

Why are they graduating at 19? My son was born in July and graduated at 17. I was old for my class, but I didn’t turn 19 until November and in college. The Duggers would let more than one graduate in a year, Jill seems to want to keep it to one a year for some reason.

I hope Philip keeps eating, but I don’t want him to get fat and pasty like his father. And where does he possibly go from here? Fast food restaurants are a dead end unless you’re in school or something. Sad for such a young man who actually had some dreams (not great ones, but dreams nonetheless). 

On a personal note, I began my senior year of high school at 16.  It would take 6-8 weeks until I turned 17 based on the first day of school.  I had a very solid 2-month wait until I turned 18.  It stunk 😊

Now, Jill- she's holding onto the kids any chance she's got.  It's another way of her controlling nature.  She's single-handily sabotaging each child, but she's going it in different ways.  Jill is not book-smart or common sense-smart, but she is cunning and ruthless and will do whatever it takes to keep control over each kid.  Her children will never be truly productive members of society since Jill decided "those kinds of people" are not safe to be around, and they don't understand how the real world works.  I always thought parents wanted better for their kids, but not our Jill.  She wants them attached to her and afraid of everyone.  In today's world, Jill needs to be charged with child abuse.  She's a disgusting human and a poor excuse for a "mother". 

 

[ozziemom]

Jill is all about appearances and her kids exist simply to show how godly she is. She probably realizes it doesn’t make any difference when a Rodlet graduates since their time spent on school is minimal at best. Plus she can get a new outfit every year for each individual “graduation”. 

[laurakaye]

18 hours ago, merylinkid said:

I don't think we have even seen the pile of alleged schoolbooks this year.

Good point - doesn't Jill usually throw us a post once or twice a year showing us those garage-sale textbooks that were probably published in 1978 all neatly set into piles based on each kid's supposed grade?  How else are we supposed to understand the sacrifices Jill makes for the sake of her children's education? 🙄

 

12 hours ago, sixlets said:

Now, Jill- she's holding onto the kids any chance she's got.  It's another way of her controlling nature.  She's single-handily sabotaging each child, but she's going it in different ways.  Jill is not book-smart or common sense-smart, but she is cunning and ruthless and will do whatever it takes to keep control over each kid.  Her children will never be truly productive members of society since Jill decided "those kinds of people" are not safe to be around, and they don't understand how the real world works.  I always thought parents wanted better for their kids, but not our Jill.  She wants them attached to her and afraid of everyone.

 

I will never understand how parents like Jill, or Jim Bob, or whoever, can do this to their kids when they KNOW their kids will outlive them.  Then what are those kids supposed to do?  They have never been taught how to make an independent decision, let alone how to handle basic math and reading nor develop any innate skills they might have.  So what then, they just wander around the world bumping into things like a pinball in a machine wondering how to pay those pesky bills that keep coming?  It's enraging to think about.

[merylinkid]

1 hour ago, ozziemom said:

Plus she can get a new outfit every year for each individual “graduation”. 

Bingo.   I have been trying to figure out the advantage to Jill (because that's the only reason she would do it).  Of course, if a couple kids graduate together she only gets one outfit.   Then might have to skip a year or two of new clothes.  

24 minutes ago, laurakaye said:

I will never understand how parents like Jill, or Jim Bob, or whoever, can do this to their kids when they KNOW their kids will outlive them.

Narcissism.   They literally don't think about their kids outlivng them.   Because their kids do not exist independent of them.   They cannot conceive that their kids might be around when they aren't (yes logically that is most likely to happen but you can't reason with unreasonable people).   So it does not enter their thinking to have their kids prepared to live without them because that just won't happen in their minds.