Jessa, Ben and Their Brood: Making a (Diaper) Mountain out of a Mold House

[Natalie68]

3 minutes ago, lascuba said:

The thing is, that's something she actually stands a chance of succeeding at it she weren't so cowardly and impatient. Way back when she tried those cooking videos, the food looked awful and everyone mocked her for it. She could have used that and marketed herself as a terrible cook  who's trying to learn. People love that shit. Look at all those food and lifestyle blogs with so-so recipes that are successful because the blogger are so "relatable." But since she has no sense of humor about herself, she chickened out and never tried again. And if she were to try, she'd soon grow frustrated at not having instant success and praise and give up again. 

Exactly!

[Ohiopirate02]

19 minutes ago, lascuba said:

The thing is, that's something she actually stands a chance of succeeding at it she weren't so cowardly and impatient. Way back when she tried those cooking videos, the food looked awful and everyone mocked her for it. She could have used that and marketed herself as a terrible cook  who's trying to learn. People love that shit. Look at all those food and lifestyle blogs with so-so recipes that are successful because the blogger are so "relatable." But since she has no sense of humor about herself, she chickened out and never tried again. And if she were to try, she'd soon grow frustrated at not having instant success and praise and give up again. 

And then she could be on Worst Cooks in America.  That could help gain her followers.  She is probably not too far off on Instagram to be getting paid for her work.  Jessa really could make something of herself if she only had any drive. 

[DangerousMinds]

Any drive or any skills whatsoever.

[GeeGolly]

3 hours ago, bigskygirl said:

I can see the episode now. Jessa will now try to improve her cooking skills. How exciting! Not!

Remember they did that already? I believe it started with her saying she baked the warranty and instruction booklet from her new stove by accident.

[ginger90]

[DragonFaerie]

Where are they?  Looks like some time of apartment complex???

[BitterApple]

Wow, Spurgeon has gotten so big!

[lookeyloo]

They are cute little fellows.

[madpsych78]

Interesting how Jessa has been quiet with the kid posts until now, coincidentally around the same time that Derick started Twittering again.

[Nysha]

10 hours ago, bigskygirl said:

10 hours ago, PradaKitty said:

Just a thought - now that Jessa’s Idol, Joanna Gaines has a cookbook out, will Jessa start upping her cooking skills? 

I can see the episode now. Jessa will now try to improve her cooking skills. How exciting! Not!

I think they'd be more inclined to have an episode where Jessa tries to impress us with her cooking skills as she shills her $2.99 self-published Kindle cookbook, made up of recipes and pictures stolen from Pinterest.

 

Jessa's boys are sooo cute! I love their curls. 

Edited April 28, 2018 by Nysha

[Lunera]

Jessa made a whole post announcing, she's not pregnant. Seriously,....who was asking?

[Nysha]

14 minutes ago, Lunera said:

Jessa made a whole post announcing, she's not pregnant. Seriously,....who was asking?

It's brought up here every time she wears a baggy shirt. 

[Lunera]

1 hour ago, Nysha said:

It's brought up here every time she wears a baggy shirt. 

I guess so but she had her pr people put out a statement just a month ago saying she wasn't. 

[wait.what]

It must have really hurt when people kept asking about her “bump” when she was just carrying some extra weight. It looks like she has been working hard to lose it and wanted to show off her skinnier self. 

No judgment. Been there, done that!

But, if they aren’t actively preventing pregnancy, she will be pregnant again soon. I would be so discouraged. Work hard to lose weight, knowing that you will just be pregnant soon and have the same weight struggle alll over again. Repeat x 19. 

[GeeGolly]

Jessa's passive aggressive sarcasm is unbecoming. She and her family are continuing to make a living off their tagline, "as many blessings as the Lord sees fit", then gets bent out of shape if folks ask if she's pregnant. I just imagine her self-righteously thinking all are assholes for judging a woman's postpartum figure, when really the questions make perfect sense in regard to her and her quiverfull lifestyle. 

[madpsych78]

Hey Jessa, here's a new passive-aggressive topic for you:

Post pictures where it is ambiguous as to whether you are wearing pants or not. That will get tongues wagging.

[Vaysh]

My wishful thinking is that Jessa and Ben took a good hard look at Jinger and her first year of childless newlywed bliss and had a quiet word with pastor Jeremy as to how prevent pregnancy in a way that wouldn't contradict their Christian beliefs. If one Duggar daughter could move away from the Quiverfull lifestyle I don't see why another couldn't be open to it as well, especially since those two were BFF's throughout their childhoods. I don't think Bin is on board with having a gazillion children either. Most Christians don't have issue with preventing pregnancy even if they're against abortion so I could see Jessa being convinced, if only to be able to keep her figure somewhat intact throughout her twenties at least. If that is what she's doing then making a post about her shrinking post partum pooch makes sense; she's not planning on getting pregnant anytime soon and she wants some validation for that choice.

Edited April 28, 2018 by Vaysh

[bigskygirl]

Sad state of affairs when Jeremy and Jinger are considered role models when it comes to marriage and children. I would rather see Ben and Jessa take a long hard look at his one sister and see hard work, less children and facing the real outside world in relation to getting a real job/career to support a family and helping others instead of being grifters and using social media and reality television in order to pay the bills.

Edited April 29, 2018 by bigskygirl

[DragonFaerie]

I think in the episode where Spurgeon was born, Ben said something to the effect that he wanted like 11 kids - all boys - for like his own football team or some sort of nonsense.  I'm hoping that with having 2 toddlers at home, he's taken a hard look at his teenage fantasy ideals for the perfect life.

[GeeGolly]

Jessa hasn't really veered from the Duggar script. Even with pants - she now wears longer leggings with shorter dresses, but not actual pants that I've seen, other than the board shorts while swimming. I'm wondering if she has competing feelings about having endless kids. She has her lifetime of hearing kids are blessings and she has keeping interest in the show, competing against the reality of raising back-to-back kids and what that can do to her sanity and body.

Also a difference I see with Jessa's marriage compared to her sisters' marriages is that her sisters appear to feel safe and taken care of by their husbands in contrast to Jessa heading her household. While this probably suited Jessa's personality and sense of freedom and control in the beginning I'm guessing it also makes it harder to veer from the Duggar script. 

Jill had her headship to lean on while helping her take a stab at her dream of being a missionary and Jinger had her headship to help her explore mainstream 'city' life. Leaning on someone makes it easier to take chances and make changes.

It seems Jessa's only aspiration was to marry a handsome guy, and in her case she married a handsome(?) boy who went from living with his own family to living with hers.

I doubt Jessa realizes any of this and I may be wrong, however I think Jessa's bark is way bigger than her bite.

[BitterApple]

Jessa seems very self-conscious about her weight post-Henry, so if she's that upset about her figure after two kids, she'll be a basketcase after eight. It just seems like these girls are in between a rock and a hard place. Deep down they don't want child armies, yet they're too brainwashed to go on birth control, so they cross their fingers and hope for the best. Unfortunately that approach isn't going to work unless they're absolute wizards at tracking ovulation.

[GeeGolly]

40 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

Jessa seems very self-conscious about her weight post-Henry, so if she's that upset about her figure after two kids, she'll be a basketcase after eight. It just seems like these girls are in between a rock and a hard place. Deep down they don't want child armies, yet they're too brainwashed to go on birth control, so they cross their fingers and hope for the best. Unfortunately that approach isn't going to work unless they're absolute wizards at tracking ovulation.

Well they're more experienced than most young women since they've been tracking their mother's for years, for the opposite reason. I would say they are true Wizards of Menstrual Biorhythms or WOMBS for short. 

[Temperance]

1 hour ago, BitterApple said:

Jessa seems very self-conscious about her weight post-Henry, so if she's that upset about her figure after two kids, she'll be a basketcase after eight. It just seems like these girls are in between a rock and a hard place. Deep down they don't want child armies, yet they're too brainwashed to go on birth control, so they cross their fingers and hope for the best. Unfortunately that approach isn't going to work unless they're absolute wizards at tracking ovulation.

This sounds like Alyssa Bates 100% and maybe Erin to some extent.  I think quite a few fundie moms with little kids or just a big family feel like that.  

In the Duggar world, I'm not sure tracking ovulation works. The point of the rhythm method is to obstain from sex when likely to get pregnant. That goes against being joyfully available 100%  of the time. Of course if their husbands agree they aren't ready for another baby that could work. But not all of these men would care about preventing pregnancy if they wanted physical companionship.(After all it's kid to brag about and they don't have to be pregnant.)

I completely agree with you about the rock and the hard place (pun not intended). 

[lascuba]

12 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

 

It seems Jessa's only aspiration was to marry a handsome guy, and in her case she married a handsome(?) boy who went from living with his own family to living with hers.

I doubt Jessa realizes any of this and I may be wrong, however I think Jessa's bark is way bigger than her bite.

Oh. absolutely. Which is a damn tragedy, if you ask me. 

I think Jessa marrying Ben was an attempt at a tactical move. She lacks the imagination or ambition for anything much beyond the life she was already living, but she knows herself well enough to know that she'd chafe under the rule of a fundie husband. So she jumped on the first guy who was laid back enough to suit her. 

[bigskygirl]

7 minutes ago, lascuba said:

Oh. absolutely. Which is a damn tragedy, if you ask me. 

I think Jessa marrying Ben was an attempt at a tactical move. She lacks the imagination or ambition for anything much beyond the life she was already living, but she knows herself well enough to know that she'd chafe under the rule of a fundie husband. So she jumped on the first guy who was laid back enough to suit her. 

My mind is now in dirty mind mode due to the bolded sentence.

[lascuba]

2 minutes ago, bigskygirl said:

My mind is now in dirty mind mode due to the bolded sentence.

Sorrynotsorry.

[Tress]

OMG, Jessa had another kid?  I haven't been to this board since Josh was busted...........  boy, I have a lot of catching up to do.

[farmgal4]

On 4/27/2018 at 7:42 PM, ginger90 said:

If Spurgie and Henry had their own show, I’d 100% watch that!  Those boys are adorable! ??

[Caracoa1]

Everyone knows that Jessa "wears the pants" in her marriage.... I think "Bin" is the one who needs to be joyfully available.  If Jessa isn't in the mood.. it's not going to happen.

[queenanne]

18 hours ago, farmgal4 said:

If Spurgie and Henry had their own show, I’d 100% watch that!  Those boys are adorable! ??

I dug the mutely descriptive shuffling moccasin noises, and how Henry looks like Porky Pig from behind when he walks around with his little bow legs.

Edited April 30, 2018 by queenanne

[MunichNark]

I don't like Jessa's voice. It always sounds somewhat distanced, a wee bit condescending and amused but not in a nice way.

Her children are cute but come on! It gets boring now. One video and you've seen it all

[MyPeopleAreNordic]

On 4/28/2018 at 6:55 PM, Vaysh said:

My wishful thinking is that Jessa and Ben took a good hard look at Jinger and her first year of childless newlywed bliss and had a quiet word with pastor Jeremy as to how prevent pregnancy in a way that wouldn't contradict their Christian beliefs. If one Duggar daughter could move away from the Quiverfull lifestyle I don't see why another couldn't be open to it as well, especially since those two were BFF's throughout their childhoods. I don't think Bin is on board with having a gazillion children either. Most Christians don't have issue with preventing pregnancy even if they're against abortion so I could see Jessa being convinced, if only to be able to keep her figure somewhat intact throughout her twenties at least. If that is what she's doing then making a post about her shrinking post partum pooch makes sense; she's not planning on getting pregnant anytime soon and she wants some validation for that choice.

 

I think that if Jessa and Ben could get physically and financially away from Jim Bob (move hundreds or more miles away, not rely on JB to employ Ben, not live in a Duggar-owned home, etc...like Jinger & Jeremy), they would immediately be inclined to purpose to have less children. 

On 4/28/2018 at 7:33 PM, DragonFaerie said:

I think in the episode where Spurgeon was born, Ben said something to the effect that he wanted like 11 kids - all boys - for like his own football team or some sort of nonsense.  I'm hoping that with having 2 toddlers at home, he's taken a hard look at his teenage fantasy ideals for the perfect life.

Hahaha. I wanted four kids when I was Ben's age.  Thank goodness I didn't start having kids when I was his age.  I have two and the second one was REALLY a surprise.  After having one (when I was just over 30), all I could do was laugh at 19/20 year old me saying I wanted to have four. Bahahahahaha! I had no idea the amount of work AND MONEY that children require.  If Ben has any sense, he's figured this out by baby #2 (Jessa, too).  They also lived for a very short period without a reality TV paycheck and their speaking engagements dried up after the Joshley scandals, so hypothetically Ben & Jessa know that they could very well end up supporting their brood without TLC money or perks from JimBob's TLC money/Jessa's "celebrity."

Edited May 1, 2018 by MyPeopleAreNordic

[Marshmallow Mollie]

I highly suspect Ben and Jessa have a long term plan: do whatever they have to do to keep the TLC money coming while Ben is in school and getting established. Then, and only then, might we hear a little more from Ben about his religious beliefs. 

The only problem with my theory is that I don’t think Ben and Jessa are actually savvy enough to have  a plan in place ?‍♀️ And kids are super expensive, although I suppose not having a mortgage or car payment helps. Nonetheless, it seems like Ben would have to be very established in order to draw a salary his family could live off of.

[MyPeopleAreNordic]

10 minutes ago, Marshmallow Mollie said:

I highly suspect Ben and Jessa have a long term plan: do whatever they have to do to keep the TLC money coming while Ben is in school and getting established. Then, and only then, might we hear a little more from Ben about his religious beliefs. 

The only problem with my theory is that I don’t think Ben and Jessa are actually savvy enough to have  a plan in place ?‍♀️ And kids are super expensive, although I suppose not having a mortgage or car payment helps. Nonetheless, it seems like Ben would have to be very established in order to draw a salary his family could live off of.

I tend to think that Jessa is actually one of the savviest of the bunch.

(However, I'm not sure that any of the Duggars have enough common sense to plan like this.)

[lascuba]

5 hours ago, MyPeopleAreNordic said:

I tend to think that Jessa is actually one of the savviest of the bunch.

(However, I'm not sure that any of the Duggars have enough common sense to plan like this.)

Plus, Ben's plan is to be a preacher. I know this lot thinks very highly of themselves, but if their plan is to tow the TLC line until his career is established, they're in for a rude awakening. He lacks the personality and charm to make any real money as a preacher. Jeremy is mega-church levels of charismatic in comparison. Ben is wasting time and money on his current studies and it's not like he has a major from a school that could qualify him for anything else. 

ETA: I do think that it's killing them not to be as openly hateful as Derick...they were when they first got married. But I'm not sure how much their fake niceness now is due to them wanting to keep the TLC money rolling in or how much of a chickenshit who can't take criticism Jessa is. 

Edited May 2, 2018 by lascuba

[Gemma Violet]

5 hours ago, MyPeopleAreNordic said:

I tend to think that Jessa is actually one of the savviest of the bunch.

(However, I'm not sure that any of the Duggars have enough common sense to plan like this.)

Jessa could have made a fortune if she had handled it right.  She could have been doing product placement on her Instagram, started her own line of clothing and accessories, make-up, cologne, etc.  Turned herself into a product like the Kardashians.  There are thousands of young female Duggars fans who would gladly hand over their allowances for an authentic Jessa Duggar Seewald handbag.  A totally missed opportunity.

[MargeGunderson]

5 hours ago, MyPeopleAreNordic said:

I tend to think that Jessa is actually one of the savviest of the bunch.

(However, I'm not sure that any of the Duggars have enough common sense to plan like this.)

Is that damning Jessa with faint praise? In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king and all. 

I don’t think Jessa is that savvy, judging by some of them her ridiculous social media posts (dirty diapers on the dresser). If she were savvy she could do a Christian mommy/lifestyle blog, but I don’t think she has the brains or drive to actually do it. 

(ETA: what @Gemma Violet said)

Edited May 2, 2018 by MargeGunderson

[lascuba]

10 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

Is that damning Jessa with faint praise? In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king and all. 

I don’t think Jessa is that savvy, judging by some of them her ridiculous social media posts (dirty diapers on the dresser). If she were savvy she could do a Christian mommy/lifestyle blog, but I don’t think she has the brains or drive to actually do it. 

(ETA: what @Gemma Violet said)

Pretty much. I think her social media attempts come from a savvy mind that has no idea what's normal. Like the pile of dirty diapers...it seemed to me that she was trying to build on relatability. "I'm not perfect, I'm a busy mom just like you!" blah blah blah. The problem was that she went way over that line because she grew up in filth and can't make the distinction between messy/disorganized and just plain fucking nasty. She could have posted pictures of rooms with toys strewn all over the place; of huge dust bunnies, etc., and made her point. But she had no idea that piling up dirty diapers because their diaper pail was broken instead of throwing each one away as soon as they changed it was a weird thing to do. I could imagine that growing up with at least 2 diaper-aged children around at all times, the Duggars simply collected dirty diapers on the spot and did a sweep of them at the end of the day. That's her normal. 

[questionfear]

12 hours ago, lascuba said:

Plus, Ben's plan is to be a preacher. I know this lot thinks very highly of themselves, but if their plan is to tow the TLC line until his career is established, they're in for a rude awakening. He lacks the personality and charm to make any real money as a preacher. Jeremy is mega-church levels of charismatic in comparison. Ben is wasting time and money on his current studies and it's not like he has a major from a school that could qualify him for anything else. 

ETA: I do think that it's killing them not to be as openly hateful as Derick...they were when they first got married. But I'm not sure how much their fake niceness now is due to them wanting to keep the TLC money rolling in or how much of a chickenshit who can't take criticism Jessa is. 

At the same time, the TLC show and the Duggar name would likely give Ben enough credibility to teach at a Clown College or similar establishment. I agree that he's not charismatic enough to be the next Joel Osteen, but if his goal is to enter the pseudo-academia side of their clergy system, he's probably in a good position. He's getting some sort of education, he's got a famous wife, and he knows how to moderate his message to his audience. Some fundie school somewhere would use him as a draw. 

[DragonFaerie]

I wonder if this is part of Jessa's - anything you can do I can do better - as far as a husband playing with his kids.  Or did Derilick do something today that has her posting 2 videos and a photo of Ben playing with the boys as a way to say - don't look at Derilick, look over here!  

That said, Ben looks like he really is a good dad and adores his boys.

 

[xwordfanatik]

Ben seems more of a natural dad than Dillweed, for sure.  Jessa's kids seem much happier than their unfortunate Dullard cousins.

[bigskygirl]

I admit I cannot stand Ben or Jessa, but I hope Jessa posted the video just to piss off Jill Cling Along and Derdick. Now if you will please excuse me, I will take a walk before heading to the Prayer Closet because I ate too much junk food because I hardly got anything to eat this morning due to all the fun of having the water heater getting installed and waiting for the electricity and water to come back on after it went out for 45 minutes and then running errands this afternoon. This is my excuse, and I am sticking to it.

[Madtown]

1 hour ago, xwordfanatik said:

Ben seems more of a natural dad than Dillweed, for sure.  Jessa's kids seem much happier than their unfortunate Dullard cousins.

I don't know what it is, but every time I see Izzy in a picture or video, I just feel his dipshit parents hate him. I never get that feeling from Ben and Jessa and their boys seem so much happier.

[GeeGolly]

I believe Jessa is savvy in that she's willing to play the game to win and not always an honest game. But as @lascuba mentioned she is clueless to the ways of a typical person.

IMO, the biggest thing standing in Jessa's way is that the easy-lazy-way has always worked for her and her family and she hasn't a clue of the effort every day folks put into their successes. A lesson she is unwilling or unable to learn.

[queenanne]

3 hours ago, DragonFaerie said:

I wonder if this is part of Jessa's - anything you can do I can do better - as far as a husband playing with his kids.  Or did Derilick do something today that has her posting 2 videos and a photo of Ben playing with the boys as a way to say - don't look at Derilick, look over here!  

That said, Ben looks like he really is a good dad and adores his boys.

 

Do you think Henry is teething?  The way he was nomming on the Fisher-Price guy gave me the idea, plus at the beginning there he looked like he might be aiming to glom his mouth over Bin's nose.

[madpsych78]

3 hours ago, Madtown said:

I don't know what it is, but every time I see Izzy in a picture or video, I just feel his dipshit parents hate him. I never get that feeling from Ben and Jessa and their boys seem so much happier.

They are happy. Regardless of Jessa's motives for posting pictures and short videos on social media, what we see from the boys (including Israel and Sam) is genuine.

[ginger90]

[GeeGolly]

I saw a picture of Ben holding Spurge and Henry and thought that Henry looks more like Jessa every day and Spurge looks just like Ben. One picture below it Jessa posted side by side pics of her and Spurge. The only resemblance I see is their hair and maybe their chins. 

[graefin]

14 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

I saw a picture of Ben holding Spurge and Henry and thought that Henry looks more like Jessa every day and Spurge looks just like Ben. One picture below it Jessa posted side by side pics of her and Spurge. The only resemblance I see is their hair and maybe their chins. 

Spurge totally looks just like Ben. For some reason Jessa is keen on pushing the story that Spurge is her spitting image when anyone who takes more than a passing glance can see there's not really a resemblance there besides their hair, maybe. Spurgeon has got Ben's eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth. She really ought to put up side-by-side baby images of both her *and* Ben and let her audience decide for themselves ;)

It's funny when you think about it, because before they had kids, Jessa claimed that she wanted them to look like Ben, but now that Spurge is here and undeniably cute, she wants credit for his good looks!

Edit: here you can really see the resemblance between Spurge and Ben: 

Edited May 8, 2018 by graefin

[jumper sage]

Just stopping to say that I saw that Ben is pro Black Lives Matter and it is pissing off Jim Bob.  Good news for once.