Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears

[neh]

Did you notic how many followers Meri has?  Over 140k!   I am sure most of them love, love, love Meri.

[Sandy W]

21 minutes ago, neh said:

Did you notic how many followers Meri has?  Over 140k!   I am sure most of them love, love, love Meri.

I think a good portion of Meri's merry mob may be other LLR reps hoping to pick up marketing strategies from her, as she has enjoyed a modicum of success in the field.  Others may be devoted fans of the show, hoping for a brush with greatness and feel that by following her on an Instagram page, qualifies them as a personal friend.

Heck, even Janelle has 122K followers.

[neh]

15 minutes ago, Sandy W said:

I think a good portion of Meri's merry mob may be other LLR reps hoping to pick up marketing strategies from her, as she has enjoyed a modicum of success in the field.  Others may be devoted fans of the show, hoping for a brush with greatness and feel that by following her on an Instagram page, qualifies them as a personal friend.

Heck, even Janelle has 122K followers.

Gosh, Sandy, isn't that crazy!  

[Nysha]

On 8/31/2018 at 5:42 PM, Meowwww said:

I am embarrassed for Meri.  She is clowning around, acting like she is 24.  There’s nothing cute about us 40 something ladies (I am 47) acting and dressing like we are in our 20s.  Have some class.  

I hate to defend Meri, but there is no age limit on being silly and having fun. I get that she is a dour, bitter, and vindictive person within the Brown family unit, but she seems to be an entirely different person in the LuLaRue sisterhood. One that is happy and has friends.

It's too bad she's not willing to admit polygamy didn't work for her and walk away. She could take a couple of psych classes and then write a tell-all filled with psycho-babble about how having to accept sister-wives in order to please the only man she ever loved destroyed her psyche and turned her into the narcissistic witch portrayed on TV. 

[TurtlePower]

12 hours ago, Nysha said:

I hate to defend Meri, but there is no age limit on being silly and having fun. I get that she is a dour, bitter, and vindictive person within the Brown family unit, but she seems to be an entirely different person in the LuLaRue sisterhood. One that is happy and has friends.

It's too bad she's not willing to admit polygamy didn't work for her and walk away. She could take a couple of psych classes and then write a tell-all filled with psycho-babble about how having to accept sister-wives in order to please the only man she ever loved destroyed her psyche and turned her into the narcissistic witch portrayed on TV. 

I, too, wish she'd just walk away from it. She could. But instead, season after season, we get to see how unhappy and miserable Meri is and how everyone is against her. 

On the other hand, she does travel a lot--a lot more than the others seem to. They all could be like, "Whew--she's leaving on a trip, thank goodness, we can relax a little and take off our eggshell shoes". Then she just comes back every now and then to remind them all (and us) "she's still here". 

Where'd we leave our eggshells shoes again?

[Natalie68]

On 8/31/2018 at 6:49 AM, Sandy W said:

For modesty sake, she appears to have knotted the LLR shirt between her legs and Behold! a new way to wear a LLR as a romper

You need to trademark that design or LLR is gonna steal that idea!

[Natalie68]

On 8/31/2018 at 5:42 PM, Meowwww said:

I am embarrassed for Meri.  She is clowning around, acting like she is 24.  There’s nothing cute about us 40 something ladies (I am 47) acting and dressing like we are in our 20s.  Have some class.  

I went out with my sister and a friend on Saturday and it was a nice rooftop bar.  There was a fun band and a group of gals my age (almost 50) and up were there for a bday.  It was sort of sad.  A couple of them were wearing clothes out of the JR's dept.  One lady was about 60ish and had on a pair of jeans that had the cut outs down the legs and another gal (who was super cute with a fun haircut) had on a really short crop top with super tight jeans.  Both women had great figures but dressing too young aged them.  One can look hip, stylish, edgy no matter the age yet there are certain trendy styles that are best left to really young gals.  Had they changed their dress a smidge it would have made them look younger than they are. 

There are a couple of older women who are great examples of this.  Lyn Slater, Melanie Kobayashi, Wendy Packer, Patti Gibbons, Dorrie Jacobson, Cathy Williamson (all taken from this site:  https://www.whowhatwear.com/best-style-older-women/slide23) look great and they range from 50's to 80's.  As someone who turns 50 next week I was looking up style examples of edgy/stylish women of a certain age for inspiration.  I work around really young women and want to make sure I don't look frumpy yet I don't want to look like the women I saw out last weekend.  Now I don't like EVERY look these women show on their blogs, they do have some cute looks. 

[ginger90]

I took a look at that page, being over 50 and all ?. “Not dead yet style” made me ?, oh my!

[BucFan]

Dear Meri,

Please get that tooth fixed.

[ginger90]

[Kohola3]

Yep, that's our joyful, fun lovin' Meri.  All sunshine, all of the time.

That is all.

[LilWharveyGal]

10 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Uh oh, what "thing" is the big mean fambly refusing to purchase for her now? Wet bar 2.0?

[Galloway Cave]

That's really kind of sad, actually.  She can't be spontaneous or enjoy something just for feeling the enjoyment. No wonder she is such a bitter, nasty person. Every moment of her life has to be planned and defined. I could never live that kind of life.

[Celia Rubenstein]

1 hour ago, Galloway Cave said:

That's really kind of sad, actually.  She can't be spontaneous or enjoy something just for feeling the enjoyment. No wonder she is such a bitter, nasty person. 

God forbid Meri does something just because it brings her pleasure, nooo. Can't have that. She needs to be DRIVEN in order to participate in anything. She can't squander her precious life force feeling something as petty and frivolous as happiness.  Any pleasure she might experience is an accident.  And just for good measure she does her best to piss on the happiness of everyone around her, too. 

What a miserable, self importing hag she is. 

[Pachengala]

That tweet is, the Internet suspects, because she and Maddie are beefin’! Maddie’s now-deleted tweet: 

 

[MsTree]

Wonder what the feud was about?

[ginger90]

5 hours ago, Pachengala said:

That tweet is, the Internet suspects, because she and Maddie are beefin’! Maddie’s now-deleted tweet: 

 

Meri deleted her tweet too.

[Mindthinkr]

It might be time for Maddie’s tell all book about this family. 

[bamaview]

22 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

It might be time for Maddie’s tell all book about this family. 

I don't think she would do that to her Mother, unless Jenelle were to leave the family. 

[Kohola3]

6 hours ago, Pachengala said:

That tweet is, the Internet suspects, because she and Maddie are beefin’! Maddie’s now-deleted tweet: 

 

Oh, dear, trouble in LuLaNoLand?  Some sort of competitive smack down?

[Mindthinkr]

41 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

Oh, dear, trouble in LuLaNoLand?  Some sort of competitive smack down?

Oh forgive me. I read that as snack down lol. 

[TurtlePower]

8 hours ago, Celia Rubenstein said:

God forbid Meri does something just because it brings her pleasure, nooo. Can't have that. She needs to be DRIVEN in order to participate in anything. She can't squander her precious life force feeling something as petty and frivolous as happiness.  Any pleasure she might experience is an accident.  And just for good measure she does her best to piss on the happiness of everyone around her, too. 

What a miserable, self importing hag she is. 

Well put. 

And, drama! Yes!!!! I hope it makes its way into the show:

"Hey Meri, NO ONE LIKES YOU!"

"Waaaaah Waaaaah blubber blubber cry cry why doesn't anyone looooove me waaaaaaaah"

"Well, you're a narcissistic asshole"

Yeah. That's what I wanna see.

[ginger90]

Maddie’s choice of words, “abusive human” , if directed at Meri, certainly is something.

[Sandy W]

10 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

Oh, dear, trouble in LuLaNoLand?  Some sort of competitive smack down?

I'm pretty sure there is rivalry between them in the LLR  avenue.  There are only so many people to draw upon for their downline and within the pool of candidates they both know in common, there is bound to be some overlap. 

They are both control freaks and Maddie knew what she was doing when she put Meri in charge of coordinating her wedding day.  Of all the people in the Brown crew, no one but Meri could have ensured that the procedure went as smoothly as it did (Kody's clowning at the altar aside).

It now appears that it was not simply a matter of miscommunication when Meri, Mariah and Audge were left out of the birthing event, Maddie didn't need her that day, so it served no purpose to have her there.  Meri with her experience of a single birth, would somehow have taken over and directed the show and Maddie wasn't having any of that.

There is also some residual resentments from Meri's treatment of Janelle, Maddie would have been old enough to be aware of what was going on when Janelle left the family Brown.  Another factor that Maddie probably considers abuse would have come to play when the allotment of college/university funds came up.  Meri was adamant that Mariah was entitled to the expensive tuition and boarding fees at Westminster College, despite the fact that there were several other kids at or near this milestone.

I'm not a bit surprised that Maddie resents Meri and in typical Meri attitude that she is defensive about her actions, the only surprise is that they made public statements.  Thank you to those that took screen shots before they were deleted.

[neh]

3 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Maddie’s choice of words, “abusive human” , if directed at Meri, certainly is something.

Wow, a hurricane is coming and it is storming in the Brown family.  "abusive human" could be Kody or a siblling, although Meri is my favorite choice for abusive human.

[AZChristian]

That's a more straightforward version of what Christine said to Meri on one episode this last season.  "We don't feel safe with you."

[AZChristian]

28 minutes ago, neh said:

Wow, a hurricane is coming and it is storming in the Brown family.  "abusive human" could be Kody or a siblling, although Meri is my favorite choice for abusive human.

But Maddie referred to the abusive human as "her."  

[Celia Rubenstein]

Was Meri responding to something someone said to her with her tweet? Or did she just post that out of the blue? 

[ginger90]

1 minute ago, Celia Rubenstein said:

Was Meri responding to something someone said to her with her tweet? Or did she just post that out of the blue? 

It was a stand alone tweet. It didn’t show as being a response.

[Celia Rubenstein]

Ok, so I'm envisioning what happened as being something like .... Meri was being her usual nasty, controlling self and she was criticizing Maddie for how she was doing her lulaNo thing.  Maddie responded she wanted to have fun doing what she was doing and she didn't want to do things Meri's joyless, lifesucking way and Meri could go paint a corn can and STFU.

Drama ensues and Maddie hits the road, leaving a pissed off Meri behind who takes to Twitter to announce she doesn't do things just for fun, she is driven blah blah, and Maddie comes back with the comment about an abusive female she has freed herself from finally.

Janelle is deflated when she reads the tweets, cancels her workout, and climbs under the covers with a bag of Fritos. Christine tries to conceal her amusement, and Robyn frantically texts everyone to get that mess deleted ASAP.  Kody just rolls his eyes and goes back to blow drying his hair.

Just a guess.

Edited September 10, 2018 by Celia Rubenstein

[xwordfanatik]

Not a Maddie fan, but I can certainly believe that there is great resentment that she 'fills' about Meri.  Just from what we've watched Meri do over, what?  9 or so years now?

Meri's a defensive, mean bitch, and no mistake.  To have had to grow up with Meri's constant selfishness when it comes to, well, everything, had to have been hell on earth, for many of the 'bonus' (haha) kids.

Nasty old cow, Meri.

[Punkadoo]

The adult relationships Meri is developing with the kids is going to be interesting. Large family dynamics can be challenging at best.  The kids probably love Meri and are wary of her all at the same time. I could see someone such as Maddie thinking that the transition into an adult relationship with Meri is a bit of fresh air. A way to be at ease, build a more comfortable friend relationship with shared interests.  It is not so much a parental, uneasy authoritative relationship. The issue is that Meri probably reverts to treating the adult kids much in the way that she treats their mother.

  Meri is self absorbed enough to not recognize she cannot pull the same things with the adult children. They don't have the same kind of beaten down dynamics of their mothers. There is no "we have to make this work " mentality for the adult kids. Some are going to respond in such a way that Meri cannot dill with because it's way beyond her skill set of manipulation.  Perhaps that is what we saw briefly from Maddie. Meri crossed her and Maddie isn't having any of it. Maddie is an adult but still youthful enough to be public about her distaste for a certain human. 

It is possible that one by one Meri will alienate herself from everyone and THEN be able to leave the family because she will clearly be the victim and the courageous survivor.  Nothing short of total victim and courageous survivor, worthy of a billion bad memes will suffice. 

[TurtlePower]

19 hours ago, Punkadoo said:

The adult relationships Meri is developing with the kids is going to be interesting. Large family dynamics can be challenging at best.  The kids probably love Meri and are wary of her all at the same time. I could see someone such as Maddie thinking that the transition into an adult relationship with Meri is a bit of fresh air. A way to be at ease, build a more comfortable friend relationship with shared interests.  It is not so much a parental, uneasy authoritative relationship. The issue is that Meri probably reverts to treating the adult kids much in the way that she treats their mother.

  Meri is self absorbed enough to not recognize she cannot pull the same things with the adult children. They don't have the same kind of beaten down dynamics of their mothers. There is no "we have to make this work " mentality for the adult kids. Some are going to respond in such a way that Meri cannot dill with because it's way beyond her skill set of manipulation.  Perhaps that is what we saw briefly from Maddie. Meri crossed her and Maddie isn't having any of it. Maddie is an adult but still youthful enough to be public about her distaste for a certain human. 

It is possible that one by one Meri will alienate herself from everyone and THEN be able to leave the family because she will clearly be the victim and the courageous survivor.  Nothing short of total victim and courageous survivor, worthy of a billion bad memes will suffice. 

I hope they finally stand up to Meri. She constantly blames the others for her problems and 'fillings', says she needs a 'safe space' but then gets mad when she's left out. They need to take off their eggshell shoes and have it out with her. She indicates on SM all the time that she's 'still there'--meaning she hasn't left the family--but, she has. She's always separating herself from them, then gets mad about it. It's the never ending Meri-Go-Round nightmare. 

The next time she implies she doesn't feel welcomed by the clan and should do her own thing they should be like, "Great. We accept your resignation. Good luck and goodbye."

[smarty]

Maddie just posted about how great LuLaRoe was because it made it possible for her to stay home with Caleb.  Meri was complaining that "someone" made fun of how serious she takes LuLaRoe.  If Maddie was the someone Meri was referring to - why would Maddie be making comments about Meri and LuLaRoe when she is in just as deep and is just as serious about it.  I'm thinking Meri was talking about someone else, maybe Kody, and Maddie was defending that person with her "Abusive human" comment.  

[Sandy W]

10 minutes ago, smarty2020 said:

Maddie just posted about how great LuLaRoe was because it made it possible for her to stay home with Caleb.  Meri was complaining that "someone" made fun of how serious she takes LuLaRoe.  If Maddie was the someone Meri was referring to - why would Maddie be making comments about Meri and LuLaRoe when she is in just as deep and is just as serious about it.  I'm thinking Meri was talking about someone else, maybe Kody, and Maddie was defending that person with her "Abusive human" comment.  

It could have been Kody that made the remark that Meri became so defensive about.  He may have said something along the lines that Meri works the LLR program for her own fun/pleasure/benefit and does not share the money that she earns with the communal family pool.  

Pretty sure that we will be left to speculate about the motivation for the exchange of tweets between Maddie and Meri as it doesn't jibe with the image they try to convey of "all for one and one for all".  For example, the whole catfish scenario would have been quietly covered up, had it not become exposed by others to the point that they had to deal with it and even then, Meri's role was minimized.  What they seem to forget, is that we all read the texts and knew she wasn't a passive victim and that we can witness the seething resentment still exhibited toward Meri for damn near destroying the illusion they hope to portray.

[Celia Rubenstein]

2 hours ago, smarty2020 said:

Maddie just posted about how great LuLaRoe was because it made it possible for her to stay home with Caleb.  Meri was complaining that "someone" made fun of how serious she takes LuLaRoe.  If Maddie was the someone Meri was referring to - why would Maddie be making comments about Meri and LuLaRoe when she is in just as deep and is just as serious about it.  I'm thinking Meri was talking about someone else, maybe Kody, and Maddie was defending that person with her "Abusive human" comment.  

I can't imagine who else in Maddie"s world fits the description of "abusive" woman. I realize we don't know everyone in her life, but Meri sure comes instantly to mind.  Meri is someone Maddie has dealt with her whole life, someone Maddie has seen be abusive (to her own mother, in particular), and who (now that she is an adult) Maddie has the ability to choose to no longer has to deal with. It just screams Meri to me.

Something to keep in mind - Maddie's post about appreciating LulaRo may actually have been her initial response to whatever happened with Meri. Posting her Lula Love may have been an attempt to counter something Meri said to her about her attitude or . business practices.  Meri's tweet about being "driven" may have been a response to that. And Maddie may have followed up with her abusive human blast because she was not gonna take any more crap from Meri,  especially after she just mentioned how Lularo allowed her to stay home with her child. That is a pretty big tip of the hat to Lularo and for Meri to still be grousing after that might have really pissed Maddie off.

 

ETA: I can't cut and paste on my kindle but our friend @Roslyn just posted some stuff Maddie tweeted over in Maddie's thread that is a must-read. Wow. Thanks Roslyn!

Edited September 10, 2018 by Celia Rubenstein
new information

[Gothish520]

On 8/31/2018 at 8:42 PM, Meowwww said:

I am embarrassed for Meri.  She is clowning around, acting like she is 24.  There’s nothing cute about us 40 something ladies (I am 47) acting and dressing like we are in our 20s.  Have some class.  

Wow I have to say, I couldn't disagree more with this. Whatever one's feelings about Meri as a whole are, life is too short, and there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with acting silly and having fun with your friends.

[Kohola3]

7 minutes ago, Gothish520 said:

there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with acting silly and having fun with your friends.

As long as you are willing to be looked upon like an idiot.  Up to you.

[Gothish520]

Just now, Kohola3 said:

As long as you are willing to be looked upon like an idiot.  Up to you.

If I'm having fun and someone thinks I'm an idiot for it, that's their problem. I'm not living my life worrying about what someone else thinks.

[laurakaye]

On 9/9/2018 at 9:27 AM, Kohola3 said:

Oh, dear, trouble in LuLaNoLand?  Some sort of competitive smack down?

I am picturing Meri and Maddie running around Meri's wetbar trying to slap each other with hideously-printed leggings and LOL-ing at the visual.

 

On 9/9/2018 at 12:08 PM, Celia Rubenstein said:

Ok, so I'm envisioning what happened as being something like .... Meri was being her usual nasty, controlling self and she was criticizing Maddie for how she was doing her lulaNo thing.  Maddie responded she wanted to have fun doing what she was doing and she didn't want to do things Meri's joyless, lifesucking way and Meri could go paint a corn can and STFU.

Drama ensues and Maddie hits the road, leaving a pissed off Meri behind who takes to Twitter to announce she doesn't do things just for fun, she is driven blah blah, and Maddie comes back with the comment about an abusive female she has freed herself from finally.

Janelle is deflated when she reads the tweets, cancels her workout, and climbs under the covers with a bag of Fritos. Christine tries to conceal her amusement, and Robyn frantically texts everyone to get that mess deleted ASAP.  Kody just rolls his eyes and goes back to blow drying his hair.

Just a guess.

 

*standing ovation*

Also, from now on when someone ticks me off, I am going to tell them to go paint a corn can.  

 

On 9/9/2018 at 12:11 PM, xwordfanatik said:

Not a Maddie fan, but I can certainly believe that there is great resentment that she 'fills' about Meri.  Just from what we've watched Meri do over, what?  9 or so years now?

Ooh - so can we expect Maddie to come along to Therapist Nancy's place (in her own car, of course) and talk about how she is dilling with her fillings?  Because I can never get enough of Nancy's good old fashioned "ignore the elephant/Meri in the room" style of family therapy!

 

1 hour ago, Gothish520 said:

If I'm having fun and someone thinks I'm an idiot for it, that's their problem. I'm not living my life worrying about what someone else thinks.

Let me tell you - if anyone tells my 52-year old self to stop going to my fave boy band concerts and acting a fool, then clearly you have not seen Donnie Wahlberg shirtless in quite some time.

Edited September 10, 2018 by laurakaye

[Galloway Cave]

3 hours ago, Gothish520 said:

I'm not living my life worrying about what someone else thinks.

58 years old, lost count of the tattoos, several piercings, graying hair down to my butt, hippie/boho style (or river chic, depending on mood), loud and snarky, scrawny but strong. I am loyal and kind and even tempered. My family and friends can depend on that no matter what. If Meri wants to act goofy and look goofy, good for her. If she wants to have a ton of friends outside of the family, great!! Where I draw the line and crawl up her butt is when she is a sneaky manipulator and liar, spouts stupid lines like "I don't feel safe" when she is the cause of that situation, and has been a monster (tm Maddie) to family members their whole lives. Then she plays boo-hoo to the cameras and social media. Her family has no idea what they are dealing with at any given point with her or how to give her what she needs. Her friends are only there for the good times; her family is supposed to be there forever. I think she has pushed enough family members away that she will end up living a very solitary life in her B&B.

[Gothish520]

Oh I totally agree @Galloway Cave! Goodness knows, Meri is a hot mess in many ways, and I'm sure the Browns have some stories to tell. I just object to the idea that 40-somethings should (or worse, shouldn't) be acting a certain way. 

[TurtlePower]

54 minutes ago, Galloway Cave said:

58 years old, lost count of the tattoos, several piercings, graying hair down to my butt, hippie/boho style (or river chic, depending on mood), loud and snarky, scrawny but strong. I am loyal and kind and even tempered. My family and friends can depend on that no matter what. If Meri wants to act goofy and look goofy, good for her. If she wants to have a ton of friends outside of the family, great!! Where I draw the line and crawl up her butt is when she is a sneaky manipulator and liar, spouts stupid lines like "I don't feel safe" when she is the cause of that situation, and has been a monster (tm Maddie) to family members their whole lives. Then she plays boo-hoo to the cameras and social media. Her family has no idea what they are dealing with at any given point with her or how to give her what she needs. Her friends are only there for the good times; her family is supposed to be there forever. I think she has pushed enough family members away that she will end up living a very solitary life in her B&B.

Meanwhile, she can continue to imply how "strong" and "independent" she is. Generally, people who actually are strong and independent don't need to keep reminding everyone of it. They just are. 

If they pull back from Meri--and mean it--she's going to quick realize her wolf-in-sheeps-clothing act is no longer working for her. That needs to happen. If she's so strong and independent, she can stop with the game playing and be her own person already. 

My own take is that she's can't. She keeps coming "back" to the family (and they let her), stirs shit up and blames them. That woman needs an intervention of the soul. If she is unwilling to change, they need to turn their backs on her until she does. 

[ginger90]

In the tweet linking to this, people are calling her, sweet, wonderful, beautiful..........

 

[suomi]

So, now she's a painter?

[ginger90]

A memory refresher:

[smarty]

Maybe Meri's "I don't do things for fun, it's my lifeline" rant was about her painting and not LuLaRoe.  Perhaps someone was making fun of her new passion for painting.

[TurtlePower]

12 minutes ago, smarty2020 said:

Maybe Meri's "I don't do things for fun, it's my lifeline" rant was about her painting and not LuLaRoe.  Perhaps someone was making fun of her new passion for painting.

What a bullshit response for her to give. #paintingismyhappyplace: She just contradicted herself! She discovered painting a while ago but it's hard to take her "passions" seriously because she becomes overly defensive about them. 

And that painting Kody's holding--while appearing very hard not to give expressions of 'yikes'--looks like a path leading into a forest of hell. 

[laurakaye]

26 minutes ago, smarty2020 said:

Maybe Meri's "I don't do things for fun, it's my lifeline" rant was about her painting and not LuLaRoe.  Perhaps someone was making fun of her new passion for painting.

I have to think it was about LulaNo, though...but I am still trying to wrap my mind around how Maddie could go from being Meri's protege and helping her shill freakishly printed leggings to calling her a monster (assuming she's referring to Meri, which I have to believe she is).  It's so odd - why go into business with the person who has made your mother's life a living hell for the past 25 years?  This family is so messed up on so many levels.  I would pay to watch them each get an hour of individual therapy (and NOT the Nancy-brand) to see them talk about how living this lifestyle has made each of them better.

[Kohola3]

49 minutes ago, TurtlePower said:

And that painting Kody's holding--while appearing very hard not to give expressions of 'yikes'--looks like a path leading into a forest of hell. 

It looks like Kootie is trying to avoid laughing while simultaneously avoiding looking at it.