Vyckie’s Tour de Crap

To My Shame … I think I might understand Hillary Adam’s mother

November 3, 2011

Major trigger warning for all former QF moms who read here at NLQ:(

httpv://youtu.be/Wl9y3SIPt7o

by Vyckie

Okay – I told myself not to watch that Judge Adams video, cuz I knew it would be triggering – but I followed the link posted by an NLQ forum member to Pandagon, read the article – and then played the video. God help me.

All I could think was – what ever must Hillary’s mom have been thinking? And the horrible thing about it is that I could guess what must’ve been going through her mind when she actively participated in the beating of her daughter.

I can remember many occasions in which my ex-husbands’s abuse of the children was so intolerable – I would actually jump in and take over because I knew that at least I’d be easier on the kids and their dad would be satisfied that he was right and the kid was wrong and I was acknowledging his rightness and fulfilling my Christian duty by upholding his authority – and so he would finally calm down.

::hangs head::

Did anyone else notice that the mother only gave Hillary one swat with the belt – and then thanked her for finally cooperating – and seemed relieved as she left the room?

That’s how it worked in our family too – especially with my oldest – I “disciplined” her in order to spare her from her dad’s anger.

Eventually, I guess I figured out that this tactic worked so well – so then when I could see trouble brewing – saw my kids defying their father, or even simply standing their ground when he insisted it was one way even though they could plainly see it was another way – so in an effort to head off the escalation of my Ex’s anger, I’d jump in there first and yell at the offending child and give them a “good talking to” – in the hopes that the child would respond “reasonably” to my more mild chastisement and their dad would be satisfied – abusive spanking session averted.

So my younger kids did not get nearly the number of whippings because I’d learned to abuse them first (to a lesser degree) in order to spare them from their father’s spanking sessions which were extremely similar to Judge Adam’s – only often, far worse.

And now, I’m sick.

Full post …

Vyckie’s Tour de Crap: The Elsie Books

November 22, 2009

Print Friendly This’ll be interesting.  While cooped up in the three back rooms with Warren and all six kids during the remodeling project, I picked up one of Angel’s books, “Elsie Dinsmore” ~ just skimming through when something caught my attention and led to me reading the entire 8 book set.  (More volumes have since been published.)  I was seriously rolling my eyes the whole way through.  I wrote this review and submitted it to Harvey & Laurie Bluedorn’s “Teaching the Trivium” discussion list for classical ed. homeschoolers. The Elsie Books   The main problem Full post …

Vyckie’s Tour de Crap: Quiverfull and the Life of the Mother

November 19, 2009

Print FriendlyThe recent “Born to Breed” episode of “Secret Lives of Women” has attracted quite a bit of attention from practicing Quiverfull women ~ and several QF/P blogs are discussing my story and NLQ.  I appreciate that quite a few of these blog commenters are giving thoughtful consideration to the message here.  But many others are insisting that my Quiverfull “conviction” was a burdensome form of legalism rather than a true calling from the Lord.  It is frustrating to read their comments as these women dismiss my Quiverfull experience as irrelevant by concluding that what we were doing Full post …

Vyckie’s Tour de Crap: “The children do not get it at all …”

October 24, 2009

Print Friendly This letter which I wrote to Jonathan Lindvall via his “Bold Christian Living” email discussion list fits into the time period of the latest installment of my story.  This one is total crap ~ I was trying so desperately to figure a way to get Angel to accept and embrace the godly, quiverfull lifestyle which we’d chosen for our family ~ I think that my desperation is quite apparent in this rather pathetic letter: Dear Mr. Lindvall, Thank you so much for your ministry — you have been a great encouragement to my Full post …

Vyckie’s Tour de Crap: Please do not refer to homosexuals as “gay”

October 9, 2009

Print Friendly Warning: If you are a sensitive individual ~ possibly prone to PTSD reactions ~ please be aware that this particular edition of my “Tour de Crap” will likely trip your trigger.  It’s a choice piece to be sure ~ and timely too, in light of all the ruckus over the Conservative Bible Project’s determination to eliminate liberal/progressive bias from the bible.  That’s right, not even the bible itself is conservative enough for True Believers ™. I understand the mentality ~ BTDT, wrote the following column for our “pro-life, pro-family” newspaper back when my head Full post …

Vyckie’s Tour de Crap ~ On Our Anniversary …

August 5, 2009

Print Friendly  By Vyckie     “Just smile, okay?” ~ this picture of me with Warren was taken two years ago today ~ on our 18th wedding anniversary, just before church. During the service that Sunday morning, I surprised everyone by going to the front of the church and reading aloud the following letter: On August 5, 1989, Warren and I pledged our love and our lives solely to one another in a small church in Dennison, Iowa. Just before the wedding, a tornado went through town and we couldn’t help but wonder if that Full post …

Vyckie’s Tour de Crap: They Shall Not Be Ashamed

May 14, 2009

Print FriendlyHere’s an article which I wrote shortly after a QF-ing friend had twins (I was so jealous) ~ this was published in Above Rubies and SALT magazines. I’ve added my comments at the end of the article … THEY SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED by vyckie bennett It sure seems to me that a high percentage of Quiver-minded families are blessed with twins (and triplets). Of course, the mere fact that we’re having more pregnancies and many QF mothers are older (two of the “risk factors” for multiples) can partially account for this phenomenon – Full post …

Vyckie’s Tour de Crap: A Change of Heart

May 9, 2009

Print Friendly Are these all yours? No ~ not all ~ Angel was at the zoo when this picture was taken yesterday at the park ~ so one of them is missing I’ve been thinking that now would be a good time to add our “reversal testimony” to my Tour de Crap ~ since I am to the part in my story when the babies started coming … and coming … and coming. Plus ~ Mother’s Day is coming up so that seems like an appropriate opportunity to tell how it is that, although I Full post …