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

[lascuba]

7 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

I think Jessa and Ben are fine. Jessa's SM shows hardly anything about their relationship, which I think gives the impression there is none. I do think reality has set in, as it has for all the married siblings, but I think Jessa and Ben still think they both got a catch. Jessa is the hot girl who doesn't need a lot of support and Ben is the hip, handsome preacher. They're good.

I'm not sure they still think they got a catch, but I agree that they're probably fine. I remember thinking during the marriage retreat episode, when they each did their own thing on a project they were supposed to do together, that they'd figured out how to get along despite being fundamentally incompatible.

[Ijustwantsomechips]

My family took a vacation to Gatlinburg several years ago.  At the time, my nephew was about 7 and one niece was 6 years old. I remember my nephew telling my niece that when he grew up, he was going to buy the cabin next door for him and his wife,  and my niece would buy the other one. He told us he had to get a new bike to bring her to the cabin though.

I said all that to say I don’t doubt Spurge made the comments about his wife, but he’s just not entertaining like Jessa thinks. My nephew didn’t mention a wife because that’s all he’s taught; he just said what he thought adults did.   His was cute; Spurge is obnoxious.

[smallfry]

22 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Yeah, it bothers me that Spurge was to!d that Daddy met Mommy when he was 17, but Spurge worries he won't live to see that day. These kids are terrified of death. I want to know what Jessa is teaching those kids????

I wonder if they get all these thoughts from Bible time and all that Ben "teaches" them from the Bible. There is a lot of inappropriate stuff in the Bible that kids should not be exposed to. Ben strikes me more of a fire and brimstone person rather than love and kindness.

[Churchhoney]

18 hours ago, Cinnabon said:

Well, as long as they see themselves that way, lol. 

Sometimes self-delusion can be a great! 

Not great for the kids, though, if they're to have any hope of smoothly locating themselves in a bigger world than the bubble-world their parents live in. And they'll probably have to, since JB's money isn't going to be adequate for the next generation. And it seems unlikely Bin and Jessa will produce much moola to spread around among their brood, either. 

 

[Churchhoney]

17 hours ago, Madtown said:

I was going to say something similar to this. I was going to question if Ben is reading the scary Bible stories because I don't know what other reason that Spurg would have these thoughts(provided he is actually saying them). They don't watch TV besides Andy Griffith and religious things. They don't go to school, have no friends that could poison their religious thoughts. It's all rather disturbing to me. I don't want Sprugeon to end up on the Tim Rod road to life.

The problem is that their particular belief system absolutely puts them on that road. Hellfire and damnation and fighting to the death against heathens (in the past, the present and the final days) are what they stress over and over. Jessa and Bin are quite well indoctrinated into seeing that as the main point of their religion. 

And it definitely scares kids. I've been listening to a Great Courses lecture series taught by a prof who's the son of an old-time conservative evangelical pastor. And he mentioned the other day that when he was about four or five he spent a long time with chronically troubled sleep because of bible stories. 

Cause they don't just hear those stories. They hear them read or told with great intensity, I suppose. 

And I'm sure Bin and Jessa think that's great.... What they've been told is that you're supposed to spend years of your life worried sick about not being properly saved and committing "sins" left and right through perfectly normal feelings and activities.....

Edited April 20, 2022 by Churchhoney

[Churchhoney]

11 hours ago, smallfry said:

I wonder if they get all these thoughts from Bible time and all that Ben "teaches" them from the Bible. There is a lot of inappropriate stuff in the Bible that kids should not be exposed to. Ben strikes me more of a fire and brimstone person rather than love and kindness.

II think this is generally true. But having listened to some of Bin's sermons from the past couple years, I think he definitely has absorbed SOME new ideas on a more positive way, probably from his Moody education since that seems to be the only non-Duggar-like influence he's had. He does now preach about love and kindness and charity and mercy and so on.

He doesn't do that all the time, of course. The other is definitely ingrained in him. But it's something you never hear from the rest of the Duggar gang (or from Jer).

Bin, by contrast, has preached sermons on stuff like that fairly often, as far as I can tell.....I wonder if maybe Moody was getting crap from a lot of people about their "sinners-in-the-hand-of-an-angry-god" fixation and how it's likely part of what's driving younger people away from thechurch.... and they started to emphasize some of the more positive messages of the bible as well....   

Edited April 20, 2022 by Churchhoney

[ginger90]

9 minutes ago, Churchhoney said:

He does now preach about love and kindness and charity and mercy and so on.

Does he practice what he preaches, though?

[Churchhoney]

23 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Does he practice what he preaches, though?

That's what's hard to tell!  

I have no idea how Jessa or Bin treats other people. (or how Bin and Jessa treat each other, really -- Is it some kind of mutual non-agression pact, maybe?)

Do the Seewalds ever mix with anybody but their immediate families any more, now that the show doesn't arrange dates for them with Italian chefs and Christian rappers and so on?

They do go to some Calvinist conferences every now and then. But they go with other Duggars, so do they interact with anybody else? The church Bin preaches for doesn't seem to have any non-virtual contact going on....so I don't think he's visible interacting badly with other people there......I wonder if the kids ever see their parents interact with anybody except relatives.....

ETA: I do remember that incident in a restaurant a while ago when Spurge said something really awkward to the waitress about how she was only being polite because they gave hre money, or something on that order.......And what I remember about Bin and Jessa is that they seemed to handle the incident very badly.....and basically didn't seem to communicate with the woman at all or show any empathy or understanding of the situation.....Now, obviously we didn't get the whole story. But given what we did see, neither Bin nor Jessa seemed to deal very kindly or competently with an adult stranger.....They weren't what I'd want for kids' role models in that.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Churchhoney

[MunichNark]

They don't seem to have any friends, do they? Jessa has never been the person to be comfortable around others either. All these kids see are probably cousins.

I daresay that Splurge and Henry are bored silly. No other kids their age to compete against, no peace to study, no stimulation, just Bin and Jessa all day long

[GeeGolly]

Kids see life through kid lenses. Even simple stories may have different meanings to kids. Kids have no way of adapting ancient Bible stories to today's world. They have no idea of what applies to their world and what doesn't/can't. And no one knows what they're thinking or how they are interpreting things, unless they say something. And by the #SeewaldKidsSay they're internalizing some scary stuff.

A far reaching example... one time my oldest was hit in the face with a Wiffle ball, when putting him to bed I said, if your eyes are black and blue in the morning we will have to get your nose checked out to see if its broken. Weeks (or months) later my daughter hurt her finger. As I was putting her to bed she said, if my eyes are black and blue in the morning we'll know if my finger is broken. 🤔

Kids don't know what they don't know, but they'll try and make what they hear fit into their world.

[BitterApple]

I think both Bin and Jessa are bitter, cynical people and that attitude is clearly rubbing off on their kids. I've been to plenty of restaurants with small children, and in my experience, their main concern is how fast their chicken fingers will arrive. I've never seen a five year-old question a waitress's motives

It makes me wonder what Jessa's kids overhear living in that matchbox house. I could see Jessa making a comment to Bin about one of her siblings sucking up to Boob for money, and Spurge internalizing it as "People are only nice when they want something from you." He has virtually no exposure to the outside world, so he has to be getting this stuff from somewhere. It's just sad to see such a young child already so down on life. There's very little positivity or joy in his demeanor.

[Zella]

5 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

I could see Jessa making a comment to Bin about one of her siblings sucking up to Boob for money, and Spurge internalizing it as "People are only nice when they want something from you." He has virtually no exposure to the outside world, so he has to be getting this stuff from somewhere.

I could also see his parents having said something similar about a server or someone else in customer service and then him just repeating the same thing. 

[BitterApple]

1 minute ago, Zella said:

I could also see his parents having said something similar about a server or someone else in customer service and then him just repeating the same thing. 

Most definitely, like when Jessa refused to ask the Guitar Center staff for recommendations. She said they'd just try to scam her into buying the most expensive instrument. 

[Cinnabon]

3 hours ago, ginger90 said:

Does he practice what he preaches, though?

I haven’t seen much charity. 

Focus on the New Testament, Bin.

[Joan of Argh]

3 hours ago, BitterApple said:

Most definitely, like when Jessa refused to ask the Guitar Center staff for recommendations. She said they'd just try to scam her into buying the most expensive instrument. 

Good point, I wonder if Jessa got that idea from her families businesses like the used car lot and how they treated customers.

[emmawoodhouse]

1 hour ago, Joan of Argh said:

Good point, I wonder if Jessa got that idea from her families businesses like the used car lot and how they treated customers.

I think it came straight from skinflint Boob.

[Absolom]

7 hours ago, Churchhoney said:

They do go to some Calvinist conferences every now and then. But they go with other Duggars, so do they interact with anybody else?

The Duggars rarely, if ever, go to Calvinist conferences these days and Ben seems to have switched over to regular Baptist if not IFB.  The Duggars did go to Vision Forum things when they were getting something out of it.  Nowadays, they aren't being invited much of anywhere.  Thank you, Josh.  

[emmawoodhouse]

6 minutes ago, Absolom said:

The Duggars rarely, if ever, go to Calvinist conferences these days and Ben seems to have switched over to regular Baptist if not IFB.  The Duggars did go to Vision Forum things when they were getting something out of it.  Nowadays, they aren't being invited much of anywhere.  Thank you, Josh.  

They aren't even speaking at Big Sandy this year! They've been headliners there forever. You know who IS speaking? Michael Bates' husband, Brandon Keilen. And of course, TFDW.

Edited April 20, 2022 by emmawoodhouse

[Cinnabon]

11 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

They aren't even speaking at Big Sandy this year! They've been headliners there forever. You know who IS speaking? Michael Bates' husband, Brandon Keilen. And of course, TFDW.

Isn’t that basically a “homeschooling” event?

[Churchhoney]

46 minutes ago, Absolom said:

The Duggars rarely, if ever, go to Calvinist conferences these days and Ben seems to have switched over to regular Baptist if not IFB.  The Duggars did go to Vision Forum things when they were getting something out of it.  Nowadays, they aren't being invited much of anywhere.  Thank you, Josh.  

I didn't meant they go to a lot of conferences. I know they don't do nearly as many events as they used to.

But they've been to the G3 pretty much every year for the past several years, I think. That's what I was talking about -- 

https://www.duggarfamilyblog.com/2021/10/jana-and-jessa-at-g3.html

Here are Bin, Jana and Jessa at the G3 last October, for example. 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Churchhoney

[emmawoodhouse]

Pretty sure G3 is Calvinist. The Masters University (not the seminary) is one of their sponsors. 

Edited April 20, 2022 by emmawoodhouse

[Churchhoney]

4 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Pretty sure G3 is Calvinist. The Masters University (not the seminary) is one of their sponsors. 

Yep, G3 is absolutely Calvinist. MacArthur attends. As does Jer. It's not every Calvinist's cup of tea, obviously.

And the church where Bin preaches is Baptist. ....

But the old unbreakable wall that used to exist between Baptists and Calvinists has really been knocked down in a lot of places over the past couple decades, with lots of people from the Baptist side, especially, putt ing a foot firmly on each side of the fence..... That doesn't make much sense if you go by the theologies they've historically held. But that doesn't seem to bother those who do it. 

 

[crazy8s]

Jessa claims she has read a book! 

https://www.risenmotherhood.com/book

These ladies talk about all sorts of things. I hope Jessa listened to their Podcast on "Sharenting, Should I post pictures of my kid on social media."

transcript here https://www.risenmotherhood.com/transcriptions/socialmedia05

[GeeGolly]

33 minutes ago, crazy8s said:

Jessa claims she has read a book! 

https://www.risenmotherhood.com/book

These ladies talk about all sorts of things. I hope Jessa listened to their Podcast on "Sharenting, Should I post pictures of my kid on social media."

transcript here https://www.risenmotherhood.com/transcriptions/socialmedia05

I checked out the authors' IGs. While not every day, they do have posts featuring their kids.

This book sounds perfect for Jessa as its all about "connecting the gospel" to parenting.

[luvbadtv]

On 4/18/2022 at 5:20 PM, GeeGolly said:

My son at that age used to say when he grew up he was buying the house next door and taking the Nintendo with him. No thoughts of wives. No thoughts of guns. Just that he'd live nearby and got the game console. 🤣

Those poor kids.

My 25 year old son still has no thoughts of wives ;).

[Cinnabon]

7 hours ago, crazy8s said:

Jessa claims she has read a book! 

https://www.risenmotherhood.com/book

These ladies talk about all sorts of things. I hope Jessa listened to their Podcast on "Sharenting, Should I post pictures of my kid on social media."

transcript here https://www.risenmotherhood.com/transcriptions/socialmedia05

JoUrNeY oF mOtHeRhOoD 🤣

[YupItsMe]

Jessa is posting more sayings of Spurge, all about how she’s beautiful and a great singer…

[emmawoodhouse]

Good lord she posted like 20 #sayings all in a row earlier today. They're all equally stupid.

[iwantcookies]

[iwantcookies]

A. Jessa your hair does weigh 48 pounds.

B. Ashley haha haha. Did Henry mean Ashley Madison?

C. Jessa, Send your kids to school and read some books in your free time. You certainly don’t spend any time cleaning your house. 

[awaken]

Oh geez, did she really dump all those at once?

[iwantcookies]

One of the comments. Don’t give her any ideas. These sayings aren’t book worthy. 

9 minutes ago, awaken said:

Oh geez, did she really dump all those at once?

Yes. There are 15+ more… 

[emmawoodhouse]

32 minutes ago, awaken said:

Oh geez, did she really dump all those at once?

Yeah, she literally spammed her page with about 20 of these witticisms. 🙄

[Ljohnson1987]

Jessa has enough education to read? Ha! Also, the sayings are out of hand. We don't care about everything you claim the kids say, Jess. 

[ozziemom]

1 hour ago, Ljohnson1987 said:

Jessa has enough education to read? Ha! Also, the sayings are out of hand. We don't care about everything you claim the kids say, Jess. 

Actually I don’t care about anything Jessa claims her kids say. It’s all fake and what Jessa thinks her audience wants. I guess the leghumpers love it???

[Cinnabon]

Just now, ozziemom said:

Actually I don’t care about anything Jessa claims her kids say. It’s all fake and what Jessa thinks her audience wants. I guess the leghumpers love it???

They may love it, but why post 20 within a few hours? Even for the leg humpers, that is overkill. She should have spaced them out. 2 today and 2 tomorrow, and so on, lol.

[cmr2014]

Why isn't she packing? Aren't they supposed to be moving any day?

I think she's procrastinating. The move date is getting close, and she really hates change, and she's just collecting the "witticisms" or her very ordinary children rather than focusing on the actual task at hand.

[iwantcookies]

13 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Yeah, she literally spammed her page with about 20 of these witticisms. 🙄

I read that as witchisms and had a good laugh

Jessa is witchy there is not a nice bone in her body

[Suzn]

I honestly don't know if these things are really being said by the kids, but I do know that they aren't funny, clever or indicate great intelligence.  They vary between blah and disturbing.  Jessa needs to get out more and so do her kids. What narrow restricted lives they lead and apparently are completely unaware.

[madpsych78]

The only one that I did think was funny was the hair being 48 pounds. I didn't see any sayings of Spurgeon though...

[YupItsMe]

22 minutes ago, madpsych78 said:

The only one that I did think was funny was the hair being 48 pounds. I didn't see any sayings of Spurgeon though...

And the one throwing shade at her “friend” with all the failed relationships. Not funny, just passive-aggressive mean girl Jessa.

[emmawoodhouse]

24 minutes ago, madpsych78 said:

The only one that I did think was funny was the hair being 48 pounds. I didn't see any sayings of Spurgeon though...

There were some. He had a dream in which Ben's eyes were clocks. He thought God was telling him something in Chinese. 🙄

3 minutes ago, YupItsMe said:

And the one throwing shade at her “friend” with all the failed relationships. Not funny, just passive-aggressive mean girl Jessa.

That one was awful.

[Westiepeach]

29 minutes ago, YupItsMe said:

And the one throwing shade at her “friend” with all the failed relationships. Not funny, just passive-aggressive mean girl Jessa.

Where is she posting all of this nonsense?

[YupItsMe]

8 minutes ago, Westiepeach said:

Where is she posting all of this nonsense?

I saw them on Facebook.

[awaken]

23 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Yeah, she literally spammed her page with about 20 of these witticisms. 🙄

Why not save them as fodder for the next two months worth of posts, and trot them out one by one? 

[SMama]

Jessa has reached Alyssa Webster level of desperation.

[madpsych78]

#bitchingsofjessa

[emmawoodhouse]

Jessa needs to realize that her kids aren't that special. If she had more interaction with other children, she might get it. 

[GeeGolly]

I wonder what is up with the new home. Are they still being held up? Is Jessa trying to gain clicks by waiting for the 'big reveal'?

We've been doing some big time reno at our house and ordered 3 pieces of furniture from 3 different stores - the delivery dates vary from 4 months to a year. I know - crazy.

I'm thinking maybe they moved with Big Birtha, but are waiting for a reveal after their new furniture comes in.

[Joan of Argh]

On 4/28/2022 at 7:11 PM, iwantcookies said:

 

 

Actually a “yoke” is a wooden crosspiece that’s fastened over the necks of two animals… or part of a garment that fits over the shoulders….and this is the person in charge of her kids education 🥴

Edited April 30, 2022 by Joan of Argh
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