S03.E03: Dental Dilemma

[OnceSane]

Mary brings her youngest daughter to New York City and Rebecca reacts negatively; Abe decides if the cost of his impending dental work is worth compromising his Amish beliefs.

[TonyasBlueEyeshado]

I was just here for Esther's makeover... TLC, why must you lead me on? 

Oh, Jeremiah's donut storyline reemerges. Reeeebekah is going to hawk bagel for 3 weeks, that should help with the dental fiasco.

The dentist said Abe gets to keep all his teeth, after listing off no less than half a dozen extractions... TLC, you've really outdone yourself in the continuity department.

[sigmaforce86]

Let's be generous and say Rebecca is getting $15/hour at the bakery "job", for three weeks full time.  That's $1800 before taxes; then they go home so Abe is nowhere near that dentist anyway.  I guess before they go she could pull one tooth with that money.  Why is the choice the expensive NYC dentist or an Amish butcher dentist?  Are there no real dentists in Lancaster (you know, where they're "living" now)?  Where do they take the invisible kids for checkups?

[RealityCowgirl]

Just watching this this morning, coming to post about Rebecca's job plans. Sigmaforce86 raises an obvious issue, both for this "scenario" and more generally. With her skills, it's probably a wash whether or not her salary goes toward Abe's teeth, wherever he has them worked on. She probably would make, at best, enough to pay for childcare. I was thinking about this during the great "quit/stay" debate over Abe's trucking job. My gut response was, "well, if you want him to stay, then help make up for the salary he'll probably lose." Then I realized that, without local child care support (which she may very well have), it may not be worth the effort financially.

Still watching, but there's one other thing that I "need" to get out of my head. That's Jeremiah's obsession with Kate and his assumption that, because she chooses to not to spill her guts to this pack of losers, she's obviously lying and/or hiding something. No, doofus. She's just rightfully wary of you and wisely keeping her private business to herself.

Free Kate!!!

[ClareWalks]

This show is getting almost painful to watch. I know the Amish are generally fairly under-educated but I've always figured most of them are somewhat intelligent. These particular (former) Amish people are so flamingly dumb. I mean dumb as bricks. Mary constantly saying she doesn't want to lose her kids to the English...has she forgotten that she is BANISHED? She is effectively no longer Amish, and she has been out of that world for a long time. Abe and Rebecca have no education nor marketable skills, and they want to pay for $21,000 of dental work? Wouldn't their TLC salaries more than cover that? I just don't understand how they can be struggling financially as much as they are when every year they do a reality show that pays very well, plus Abe works full-time. Sabrina and Jeremiah are just kind of gross. Esther talks like she should literally be saying "duhhhhhhhh" at the end of every sentence. Painful to watch.

[Snarklepuss]

I love how "reality" shows always attempt to hide a huge expenditure that would obviously come out of the show money with dumb things like menial jobs that would no way even scratch the surface of the cost.  Puhleeze, TLC, we are smarter than to buy that. 

I also noticed the continuity issue regarding Abe's teeth.  First the dentist says they all have to be pulled and then after the second visit says he can keep all his own teeth with root canals and crowns.  From none to all of them?   Seriously?

This show is not even attempting to retain a loose continuity anymore.  I mean, a lot of Mary's kids have "gone English".  Even she's banished, so what's to lose Esther to at this point?  If Esther stayed Amish she'd lose her, not the other way around!  And when she was discouraging Esther from dressing English, it's like she completely forgot about Katie Ann who was also young at the time.  It's like they've completely erased her from the family and show history.

Rebecca's flames at Esther look a lot like her usual MO - jealousy.  Just because she envies someone they have to be selfish and bad somehow.  The way she acted you'd think Esther grew up with a spoon in her mouth and privilege.  Meanwhile she did hard chores like anyone else and lived an austere life.  Man, Rebecca is a piece of work.  I just LOVED Jeremiah's clarity and guts to put it out there on the table.  I always skeeved at him but he does talk a certain wisdom in his moments.  I LOVED it when he called out Abe on Rebecca having his balls!!!  Oh so true, LOL.

I froze the frame when Cynthia Rowley was talking with Kate and asked Mr. Snarkle how old he thought she was.  He said, "Oh about 67 or 68" (and he remembers her from her old "Design Star" days).  I said, "WRONG, she's my age (57 going on 58).  His jaw dropped and he immediately picked up his laptop to google it. But I'm right.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Snarklepuss

[ghoulina]

I feel gross saying this, but I agree with Jeremiah. I have no problem with traditional roles. My husband works, and I stay home with the kids. But we're also doing okay financially. If Reeeebecca wants to get a job for a few months and help with his insane dentist bill, just let her! But you might want to encourage her to dance on a table top or two, 'cause bakery wages aren't going to cut it.

 

I loved the fight between Rebecca and Esther, because they sound exactly alike. I could look down and not even know which one was talking. 

 

Mary annoys me, because I think she just wants to have her cake and eat it too. She wants to be "special", to have people notice she's different. She clings her to frumpy clothes and jarred meat like a baby to her binky. English ways are not for her! No, no. Well, unless it's getting makeovers and taking shots with random people in a bar. She wants to be uber-Amish, but get to play. Pick a lane, Mary. 

[Evil Queen]

The first talking head that Esther did in this, she came off like a spoiled rotten brat. You can see the attitude right off the bat. Sorry but this girl is as Amish as Mama Mary is at this point. Runs around with English friends and had a dvd player that Papa smashed. I can bet she has been English for years now just like the others were before this show. Sorry but OMG Esther creeps me the heck out. The way she stares and talks. UGH Mary saying how she can't dress different until she is shown the outside world. Um we just heard she does this already and has seen the so called outside world. SMH Wouldn't ignoring your supposed problems be better than starting up crap? To me starting up crap is what would be the thing to ruin your time in NY. That fight was so pathetic btw too. LOL The girl was smoking as Abe was walking her at one point. I caught the smoke coming up and rewound it to double check. Thought that was funny. Really I think every single one of them on this show is selfish and has an ego issue. Which having a show with them makes it worse than they probably were before. LOL 

Mary loves that attention with her Amish garb on doesn't she? Wondering what is up with Katie Ann. Maybe she got smart and moved far away from them all or she is back home watching her nieces. LOL Oh boy more of Mary doing shots in the big city. UGH! I wonder at this point how well she knows some of her kids and how many more there really are. I know I read way back that there was a few that wanted nothing to do with this show and had families but that was it. It just seems another daughter keeps getting pulled out of the blue. LOL

Abe and the dental...I can imagine he has insurance through his job. Sure they only pay out so much a year but he could get the max done each year and pay whatever of his share off since most dentists will work with you in that manner. There is no reason she can't help with costs of things really. Cost of what needs to be done obviously wouldn't be much different if he was going to the dentist in NY or back home if at all with all he needs done. I just am not getting why there is no mention of insurance but I can assume it has to do with adding drama to things. Otherwise there wouldn't be a huge fight about her going to work. 

Not buying at this point that Kate is so lost with computers. She has been going to school now for awhile for fashion so she honestly wouldn't be so lost at all at this point. Another stupid thing that.

Now trying to figure out why I am still watching this show. LOL

[ShaNaeNae]

Many truckers don't always have insurance. I'm not familiar with Abe's position, but some own their own truck and contract.  Some are just paid by the load or just mileage. So him not having insurance may not be that far fetched. 

But yeah, I'm not buying Kate being computer illiterate still. It's been 5 years since the original Amish. And we know she was English before that. I'm sure she has social media, right? If Reeeebecca can unfollow Sabrina, I'm sure Kate can do a few things for Cynthia ROW!-ley (who is just as much of a bitch as when she was on ANTM). 

[CarolMK]

I read somewhere that Katie Ann is helping Jeremiah and Mary with their Amish Donuts business. They have been going around to various fairs in Pennsylvania and Ohio since late spring and I guess it's doing relatively well so far. From what I can piece together, this series was filmed last fall. Also, it's true that Jeremiah did get married- his wife is from the Seattle area and she's 34 with four children. She does look much younger but they're around the same age. I also read that Abe was working part time as a truck driver, he must have taken time off work to film this series.

[Primetimer]

Once the sweetheart of TLC, Rebecca's attitude problem, and unwillingness to get along with her sister-in-law, makes her as rotten as her husband's teeth.

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[Allison Rains]

OK. When I was 23 I started very strong medications which destroyed my teeth. Ive lost about half and have partials. No one lives this way because they want to or because they are lazy. Rebecca made a decision I face myself; pulling my remaining teeth to be fiscally responsible. I guarantee you she would give anything to have her own teeth. If she benefited in any way then thank God something good came from such a tragedy.