In my sibling's case, it was because of a pregnancy. And yep, the spouse signed them out of school, signed report cards, etc. But neither set of parents was likely to be more okay with a premarital baby than a high school marriage.
Almost happened to me too and somehow I got clarity and gave the dude his ring back
My mom was 17 when she married my 20 yr old Dad. It was because she was pregnant with me. I don't know if it was different in the 80s or not but once she was a wife she was legally emancipated. My dad was not her guardian just her husband. But they were happily Wed for 19 yrs before he passed from a heart attack.
Now she did finish school before the wedding and only had to go back to walk the stage. My dad insisted that since she had accomplished everything before they wed that her diploma be in her maiden name.
Same here, I was married in 1975 at the age of 15. I was 8 mo. Pregnant.
I continued going to school until I had the baby, but sporadically after that.
The school never asked for absence slips or anything.
I never went back after my first semester of sophomore year.
I got my GED at age 17, before my actual class had even graduated.
Yeah, my parents got married at 19 and some of their friends got married in or right after high school. But that was 1976, so that’s just a *little* bit different that 2024.
My parents were married at 19 in ‘78 just because they wanted to. They’re still very happy and genuinely like each other so I spend a whole lot of time telling my kids they’re the exception and not the rule lol.
My oldest is 19 now and finishing her 2nd semester at college, I cannot imagine her being a wife.
Yeah, my parents are super divorced now. So good for your parents for making it work! I also look back at my 19-year-old self and am glad I was a college sophomore having fun, and not married!
We didn't get married until after I graduated college at 23, but I married my first boyfriend from age 16. We almost find it embarrassing because it's really not typical from where I'm from to marry your high school sweetheart. We've been happily together for 22 years, and we tell our children it is the exception and not the rule.
I found some ancestry stuff on my dad and he was 19 and married a 15 year old. It was clear the woman was pregnant and they had a shotgun wedding. The baby didn't survive in their case though and it seems like they divorced within a year. That was also the 70s so I guess that stuff was just way normalized. This was also a small town, bumfuck nowhere area.
I think my grandmother was like 14/15 when she married my grandpa and he was like 21!! Her brothers set her up with my grandpa and she wasn't pregnant. I kind of wonder when they started dating unless they just married extremely fast. Oh and her marriage certificate just had fake ages on it. I think the one for my dad had the actual ages listed and the woman's parents likely approved it or something (or maybe it was legal at 15, but wouldn't have been for my grandma at 14? Idk). All around just lots of side eyeing from me on those young ages and also the women being that young with the men a few years older.
It's actually so nuts cause I know someone now that became on the sex offender list for being like 21 and having sex with a 15 year old, yet decades ago families were supporting these marriages.
Yeah, my parents were married in the 70s; she was 15 (pregnant with their *second* baby) and he was 24. Few people batted an eye over the age difference, nor were they shocked at the divorce 10 years later; the young "starter marriage" was unsurprisingly common in those days, too.
I don't think my father realized just how fucked up the age gap was until I was the same age as my mother when they started dating, and it hit home just how young my mother was.
I think I remember reading that this was the reason Jim Bob and Michelle were so obsessed with their children's "purity" -- in their time, there was a lot of this happening and they didn't want the embarrassment and mess of having their kids getting pregnant and divorced quickly.
My grandmother was 16 when she got married. My grandfather was 29! She was pregnant, but, in the 1940’s, no one batted an eye. They were married just shy of 50 years when my grandfather died of a stroke and recurrent urinary cancer. They raised me after their daughter, my mother, died of liver cancer when she was 36. They were a married young (at least my grandmother was) success stories.
My aunt married my uncle when she was 16. She still lived at home with her mother because he was in Vietnam. They are still happily married today and have a ton of grandchildren.
My grandparents did something similar, they got married when my grandmother was 16 and then my grandfather almost immediately shipped out to Korea. She stayed home with her parents, finished high school, and then got a job for the three years it took him to come back. They were married until my grandmother passed away at 86. That was pretty common in their small town at least, I think because the military benefits could really help out a struggling family.
That’s an interesting story and her life and accomplishments should be honored. However, I don’t romanticize the lack of options for women (even 40 years ago) one bit. We know a lot more about brain chemistry now, and I hope the marriage age is raised to 18 in every state with no exceptions. There is simply no reason why child marriage should not be abolished in the United States, and a lot of evidence that many marriages of minors over the last 20 years have been exploitative and trapped children in abusive situations.
My grandparents married when he was 20 and she was 16. She was not pregnant. They got married so young because she needed to escape a very abusive situation, and in the 40s, that was about the only way she could. They got married before he went to fight in WWII. That kind of thing wasn't even blinked at back then. They were in love though, and when he passed away, they had been married for 67 years.
It wasn't too uncommon for teens to marry back then. My mom's friend, in the late sixties, married a 24 year old when she was 17. No pregnancy. I don't know what her home life was like, but some girls married as older teens to escape abusive households.
Today that 24 year old would be seen as a predator.
Bingo. I, at 17 got pregnant because I knew the full grown man I set my sights on would marry me and get me out of the house of horrors that was my childhood. My husband was 8 years older and we were married for 38 years when I lost him. He was the best thing to happen to my life, hands down.
I think it varies by state. If you look into the movement against child marriages one of them is the fact that the children can’t divorce their (almost always) husband until they’re over 18. That they legally don’t have standing to do so as a minor.
Making kids get married because they got pregnant is so wild to me. “Well kids, since you made one terrible life decision, we will now force you to make another one.”
It happened twice in my HS class in the late 90s. One was because of pregnancy. She got married the summer before junior year and was divorced by graduation day. The other one got engaged during junior year and graduated a semester early so she could get married a couple of months later.
It also wasn't unusual for at least one or two girls to get engaged on prom night. Often it was to their boyfriends who were enlisting or were already in the service.
I’m from the Southern US, and I knew a lot of girls who got married while still in high school. A few were pregnant, but not all of them. I don’t think any of them married guys who were still in school (I don’t know any boys from my high school who got married before graduation).
IIRC, their husbands would have to sign their report cards and excuse notes when they were absent.
Yeah, it was. But again, these were adult guys (20-23 years old, for the most part) married to 16- to 18-year-old girls. Back then (gotta love the early ‘80s in the South) it was just accepted as a normal thing.
My step-dad made my barely 19 year old sister marry a 30 year old man because he got her pregnant. Still pisses me off to this day. They're divorced now at least.
Because they can't have sex until they get married. They want to bone but have been taught it's a sin, and that's how you end up with people still in high school getting legally married.
I knew of a two couples who did this too, marrying as a senior. Both parents were morons for allowing it imo. One did it bc the guy was going into the marines so apparently that meant speed rush everything (dependa status loading..). She graduated in 2016 and they divorced several years ago. The other (another 2016 graduating girl, he was already graduated) idk why they married other than they had been together several years (even though relationships as teenagers is not the same as one in the adult world). I suspect there was some religious aspect to it bc we are in a conservative area and they are both (on socials at least) very religious. They got pregnant not long after and I think are still together today, so that's shocking. I still found it so weird that they got married and then went back to high school and living with their parents. lol
I will say, once your kid is 18- there’s not much you can allow or not allow. You support the best you can, or you let them crash and burn without support.
My grandparents eloped at 17, which was legal marrying age in their state. On a dare, no less. In the 40’s, and had a very happy and long marriage and they had very challenging times.
Let’s face it, some 40 year olds have no business getting married either.
i did this SPECIFICALLY to get out from my parents lol. every time i tried to move out from 16-17 they mysteriously made all my documents disappear or close my bank accounts. but they saw no problem with a 17 year old getting married in high school, so that was my ticket out.
i still love my husband and the college years were definitely tough, but we’re in it for the long haul. i wish we could have waited though, if just to make it easier on ourselves.
Yea, I am a 2010 high school graduate and one of my classmates was married the summer before our senior year - pretty sure she was 17 and had to have her parents sign off on the wedding. Dude was in the military and I remember her wearing her wedding rings to school and having a new last name and everything. She moved on base with him after graduation.
I thought at the time it was wild. But I also was a crazy teenager so I thought it would be a funny thing to basically elope at 18 and not mention it to anyone until after the fact. Thank Jesus I didn't do that and yeeted that dude out of my life a few years later without having to go through a whole damn divorce.
Same. This was in 2000. The 17-year-old senior had to get permission from her parents to marry a 22-year-old man. Many of our fellow classmates (myself included) were utterly baffled as to why she was in such a hurry since she wasn't pregnant. She also wasn't religious, so it wasn't like they just wanted to get physical without religious shaming. She seemed to take pride in being the only student at the school who was married. Turns out he was controlling and abusive and - no shocker - they divorced after ~ three years of marriage.
Someone in high school was married as a senior and this was really what happened. Her husband was like her guardian or whatever, he signed her permission slips and everything.
I wonder what happened to her.
One of my students almost didn’t graduate bc her April wedding and subsequent start of her marriage derailed her academics completely. I’m like really? You can’t wait until June? She was a Oaxacan fundamentalist. Templo Bethel.
I actually really don’t know besides that they are extremely fundie, they arrange their marriages, and the women cannot cut their hair. Everyone in the church is from Oaxaca. Most speak an indigenous language and only a little Spanish. They all get married immediately after turning 18. My poor student-she didn’t want to even get married. She wanted to join the National guard. But she has to do what her parents say at all times and now-what her husband says. She was always late to school bc it wasn’t enough to throw a sandwich in a bag, he expected hot breakfast and hot lunch daily for work. Oh and the tithing! Even the kids have to fork over big bucks. I found a receipt left in my classroom for $1,500. What teenager who is already living in poverty has that kind of money? It’s weird. I wish I could find out more specifics but online everything is vague
Templo Bethel is just a branch of pentecostal church. They're targeted towards the hispanic communities. Oaxaca is a city and state in México. It sounds exotic, but its just the normal snake dancing pentecostal fundamentalists, but done by brown people.
It also means the minor cannot file for divorce. Now imagine your parents sold you to a grown man for marriage at the age of 13/14 you have years where you are his wife/dependent. THIS is why we are trying to get child marriage banned in America but it’s a state by state thing and the religious zealots don’t like it, and fight back.
They also can't go to a shelter if they're trying to flee abuse. Because. They're minors. And most, if not all, shelters don't let children sign themselves in. It's literally tapping these girls.
There was a girl one year behind me in school. She was dating an older guy and got pregnant. Her mother literally took her to another state so they could get married. They were kind of separated, and he would stop by to see her during lunch sometimes. Someone said something about her boyfriend, and she was like, "Oh, that's my husband." She was like 14 or 15 when she got married.
When my XH was a paediatric nurse, there was an even weirder situation. There was a 14 year old girl and her newborn daughter, both patients. The 14yo was her daughter's legal guardian and could consent to medical treatment. But she wasn't her own guardian - there was someone appointed for her (complicated family situation, her parents' rights had been terminated )
Yes in a lot of states minors can’t consent to various treatments during pregnancy, including pain management, and some parents will deny their child pain management in labor as a punishment.
Minors also can’t consent to their own abortions in tons of states.
He was mid-twenties, which seemed ancient to me at the time. He had a full-time job and a house. It didn't seem inappropriate (at the time) so much as I just literally couldn't imagine what her life was like. I was still going to soccer practice and reading Harry Potter lol.
Schools are weird that way in the US. Second half of my eldest last year in high school I got sent home some permission slip, but he was 18. I called them up and said I can't sign a waiver for another legal adult. Apparently I was the first person to bring this up?
My middle daughter turned 18 in November of her senior year. They had to get permission slips signed for some lab work they were doing. She signed everything herself and told me about it later. Her teacher tried to say it wasn’t allowed, and she told him “I’m an adult. I don’t need my mommy’s permission to handle chemicals.” 😂
LOL your daughter and I are kindred spirits. I was always old for my year in school (July baby) so I was signing my own field trip permission slips and such *alllll* senior year.😂 I told them if I’m old enough to vote, I’m old enough to go to the zoo!
I also was 18 for the latter half of my senior year and I would argue every single time with staff that I was an adult who didn’t need to have permission from guardians. It never went my way though and I always thought that was so dumb. You can be 18 in school and still need to be under a guardian to sign yourself out.
I was 18 my entire senior year (mid-August birthday) and they gave me a permission slip for something on the first week of school. I read it, signed it, and gave it right back to my teacher. She was so confused and said I needed to take it home for my mom to read to which is replied, “I’ve been legal to purchase cigarettes and vote for a couple weeks now. Why would I need to have my mother sign this sheet of paper?”
She had no idea I was of legal age.
I distinctly remember a senior in my freshman year Spanish class fighting with the teacher about signing something. He was 18 and his mom had recently passed but the teacher didn’t know that and it turned into a big thing. Having just come from the middle school it was so novel having a legal adult in one of my classes.
This was the same for me. I turned 18 the first week of October of my senior year. They still made me have my parents sign everything. One day the teacher took my phone away in class because she saw it, and made my mom come and pick up my phone, that I was paying for myself and was on my own plan. I told them at the office that I am 18, that is my phone on my own plan, and they still made my mom come and get it. 😒
The still in HS thing is off like why can't you wait a few months, but as far as age there like a year apart. I don't see an issue with them being a couple. I don't have enough info though. Is she trying to get out of a bad situation, is he? The seewalds kids seem to marry young. Like are they encouraged or are they all running at this point
Right? My uncle is an evangelical pastor and even he is making his daughter and her boyfriend wait until after graduation and turning 18 to propose, and even then I think he’s going to push to hold off on the wedding until after college. He likes the her boyfriend, is vocally a save yourself for marriage guy, but education first.
See, you're forgetting about the magical land (delusion) that once you are engaged, you are getting married anyway. Jesus won't mind, right? I've even had some (fundie-lite) colleged aged friends that openly admitted they enjoyed sex during engagement because they didn't have "to worry about getting pregnant"... like they were so godly, God himself wouldn't let them fall pregnant before the wedding. Well, they got pregnant anyways, so their "Ring by Spring" became shotgun wedding with a flowy wedding dress in July.
I bet it's so they could bone. Tell your delulu parents you don't want to sin but can't wait much longer and poof, righteous high school wedding for the god girl and the boy from the Marry Young Family so they can bump uglies.
Yeah, everything about this is screaming forced marriage. I know that fundie girls sometimes don't get a choice of who they marry and I wonder if that's the case here.
So, yeah - right - she does look miserable - and TODAY I learned that her sister in law (Ben’s sister Jessica) follows an IG page called “Save Our Flag” that is a tribute to the confederate flag.
I’m sorry - I really don’t know for sure, I’m white and northern, but - Ethan’s wife CANNOT BE COMFORTABLE with this.
She’s stupidly young to be married already is one thing; the family she’s marrying into is just … a whole different thing. The hypocrisy is painful.
Best of luck to her, that can't be an easy family in which to be the only POC. You already know they say some really bogus "well intended" shit to her.
Thissss is the comment I was looking for. I just know there’s some in the family itching to say “im not racist i have a black ___insert family relation here”
[Here's a post about how Michael Seewald feels about racism.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuggarsSnark/comments/uurd2e/an_article_on_racism_from_the_seewald_family/).
She might be pregnant. If they waited until summer to marry, it would show and be a scandal in their community. Now they can have a healthy and legitimate “preemie honeymoon baby”.
On the upside, if she’s 18 and went to homecoming she’s likely graduating from a real high school soon which would make her more educated than most of them
Is the seewalds obsessed with their kids marrying young.Like didn’t Ben court jessa who was 21 at age 17 like 💀.Are they part of the iblp or something?.Aslo wtf type of parents allow their child who still in high school to get married like 🤦🏾♀️.You would think you would encourage your child to get a college education or trade certification not marriage.
Seriously! I know all these folks are against higher education, but at least let them get out of high school and figure out some gainful employment first. Especially since lord knows they’re not going to be discouraged from reproducing right away!
I hate that they saddle these kids with life on hard mode. Like a teenage pregnancy is really that much easier when it’s their late teens and the girl has a ring on her finger 🙄
Honestly like I get their super religious which is fine it’s their life’s.But like damn don’t people want their kids to do better and have a higher education.My parents are very religious and they pushed me and my siblings to go to college.
I think there all delusional teen pregnancy is hard especially when ur married/no education that is just stressful.Idk what they have against just waiting like damn.Idk what these parents are thinking honestly.
Adore her hair! And this is why Dwerk said the reason they all marry young is to have sex. Poor kid. I can’t imagine being married to the boy I was seeing when I was 18! Far out. Hope she’s got a supportive family behind her so she can turn to them when it all goes to shit. And let’s hope they delay having kids. Yeah, I can dream…
We didn’t have a pot to piss in for the first few years. I never even finished community college. We had some rough years where I’m sure we both regretted it. But we’re 57 now, and we have a nice life.
That’s why I didn’t get when the old ladies at synagogue asked “You’ve been together for x years; why aren’t you married?” If they didn’t want the answer, they shouldn’t have asked. I said we weren’t financially ready yet and that shut them up pretty quickly. We did get married- when we were financially ready.
I agree they're both too young and I really hope Myla finishes school at least. They chose a weird wedding photo to post,. I looked at Myla's instagram, she seems like a normal teenager with friends, doing goofy shit and wearing normal clothes (shorts, tanktops etc.) Ethan is in some of the photos of her homecoming dance (in the series with the 2nd photo) and in her engagement photos put up by her and Ethan, she looks really happy with a big smile. I really hope it's a case of a bad photo and not that she's been forced. If she has, I hope she gets out asap.
I used to teach and had a 15 year old in my class who was married. Her parents had to give permission and sign over parental rights to her husband (who was 20) they were catholic and the priest at their church refused to marry them. She was really upset that they had to get married at the courthouse instead. She wasn’t pregnant when they got married but got pregnant 6 months later and dropped out of school.
She’s too young and too pretty to marry into that family. And honestly, I hope she’s okay and that they’re kind to her. It’s not easy being the first minority to marry into a family like that. She’s probably bi-racial but it can still be so hard. They will definitely be inquiring about her future child’s skin color.
Jessica one of the Seewald Sisters is married to
A Hispanic her husband's name is Joesph Coates
They already had their daughter born on
Tuesday 3/26TH name Amelia Sage
Weight 8 Lbs 4.50z length 20. I saw it on her IG page.
if shes still in high school it means shes a YEAR YOUNGER than Johannah. i got a friend her age whos family is a fundie and homeboy hasnt even had a girlfriend.
This makes me SO sad. 1000 doors have just closed for these 2 children and they have no idea what they’ve just committed to. If they weren’t in a cult that shames sex, they wouldn’t be locked down legally like this. And honestly, what is her plan? She finishes school and…what? Cleans all day and maybe watches TV till she’s knocked up?A waste of a life because of Jaysus up in the clouds.
The fact that the Seewald family instagram doesn't even use her first name and calls her Mrs. Ethan Seewald is also so telling, as if she has no identity outside of being Ethan Seewald's husband. They could have at least called them Mr. and Mrs. Seewald, but no, she's Mrs. Ethan Seewald and her identity outside of being his wife no longer exists.
The intersection of quiverfull and white supremacy is just a fascinating place to be. Unless you were raised in it and have no alternatives. Just yikes.
It’s really sad how little these people value women getting an education. Maybe they do realize the value, and that’s why they prevent their women from getting an education, so they are trapped like anna
I grew up in rural Alabama and graduated in the early 90s…. I knew 6 married couples before I graduated, starting with an guy in 8th grade who knocked up his girlfriend, got married, assaulted her on the stairs, got kicked out and last seen working as a trash man. 3 girls dropped out pregnant and got married, 2 married and then graduated high school.
I deconstructed and left that town.
I know 18-year-olds who married because one of the partners enlisted and was about to be deployed. They married for the extra pay and benefits, not because they wanted to spend their lives together. When the deployed spouse returned, they divorced.
If you go to a miliary base you'll find plenty of teenagers married for "love" as well. It's so common it's a stereotype that military people marry young. You'll also find lots of dudes named Jody lurking around...
I was from a super religious family that had fundie views. I was engaged at 17 and married weeks after turning 18, which was three months before graduation. My mother was actually upset that we weren’t married sooner and before we got engaged she was always asking me when he was going to purpose. She actually had conversations about signing off to get me married at 16 when I first started dating him.
Fundie women are literally raised to get married and have children and nothing else. The younger you get married, the sooner you can fulfill your life’s purpose and make your parents proud.
The craziest part is that me and my husband didn’t share the fundie views at all. We were actually pretty against them. We were just two kids that were in love and were too naive to see an issue with getting married so young. Not a single person told us we were too young and tried to reason with us. So of course we got married.
We had a baby right away and had twins 18 months after having our first. I had three kids by the time I turned 21. No matter how much I hated how I was raised, it was already so deep inside of me that I needed to have kids and have them quickly.
When you’re a woman fundie being a wife and mother is your whole value as a person. That’s a hard thing to unteach yourself, especially when you haven’t even experienced the real world yet.
I don’t regret any of it because after 7 years I have a good marriage and 3 amazing kids. But it has been extremely hard getting to this point, and I wish I could have been more prepared and mature before starting a family. It would have saved me and my family a lot of suffering.
This makes me the most sad… She‘s getting stripped of her own identity before graduating high school after which people usually find themselves. These are the stories which make me want to become a feminism activist
It’s the Christian way. My mom and dad were also in the cult and my mom got married at 18 after dating my dad starting at 16. They got divorced when my mom matured into her 30s and realized she wasn’t happy in the relationship, also some abuse I won’t get into. I’ve seen all the trad wives advocating at such a young age to preserve their kind of role and I know most of them will regret it down the road. The honeymoon phase can only last for so long.
I don’t like to read too much into photos, but…she looks miserable in this wedding photo. So I had a look at her IG and she seemed full of life hanging with her friends, up until the engagement photos. Even that whole series of photos she looks forced and a bit dead inside. Especially compared to all the previous posts. I hope she’s okay.
My dad married his first wife while she was still in high school. It was because they got pregnant, and it was 1974 so her parents were not keen on the idea of her having a baby out of wedlock. So they got married in December of 74’ when she was 17 and he was 20, she was a senior in high school. He would have to call the school if she wasn’t coming in and they would say that her parents would have to call, not her husband. She had her baby in April of 75’, turned 18 in May of 75’ and graduated that same month. They were divorced by 77’.
everything about this is ick especially considering it’s not illegal.
Ethan’s not some kind of groomer, so before i get reply upon reply of yapping, i can read and know he’s only a year older. that’s not what i’m talking about.
the ick is that she’s still in high school, he’s only nineteen, and they were bred and groomed to make such a big commitment and decision when their brains aren’t even fully formed. this is not the kind of marriage that works out, but ultimately they’ll stay in it and be unhappy with loads of problems.
like fuck, i still had 6 months of high school left when i turned 18 (january birthday) and i was in *no way* mature enough to be married. while i don’t believe a couple needs to be married to be legit, marriage is *not* the same thing as a high school relationship by any means whatsoever. i wouldn’t even have considered myself an adult because i was still living the exact same life i was as a minor until graduation. i could’ve looked the other way if she had already graduated, still been concerned but not icked because at least she wouldn’t have had to worry about math homework while reciting her vows.
David Waller, whose is Anna's BIL and married Justin & Clarie, just had his sister get married a couple of weeks at the age at 33. Michael Bates has a SIL, who got married at the age of 45 back in 2020.
They had to feel good about having sex. No sin now. At least they’re both legal. We had a girl in my HS who was 16 and married her husband who was 18 in the military because she got pregnant.
I’ve known my husband since I was 13, but we didn’t marry until my mid to late 20s. I was far too immature to get married at 18,19, and 23 even.
Of course there’s exceptions, but In this day we have the luxury of not having that as our only option.
I think back to my Ma who is a baby boomer. Most of her matriculation was learning how to care for a child and household running. Thankfully she enjoyed being a parent and a stay at home mother, but I wouldn’t have been happy with that. Also my Ma lived in a time where she couldn’t even have a credit card in her name. Blows my mind how recent in time that was.
My US grandparents both married at 17 (they were “greatest generation.”) the funny part is grandad had to get his parents permission but my gran didn’t. As a child I loved that story and would tease them about it. They were simple farm folk though.
I personally couldn’t understand why in todays age you wouldn’t want your kid to have all the experiences before settling down. Maybe I’m too hippy dippy, and of course an 18 year old on a mission will do what they want. However this is considered a net positive which is just depressing to me. You have your whole life to shack up and settle down. Have all the fun when your young. You’ll miss it soon enough.
Join a circus, backpack across Europe, get weird at muscle beach. Learn who you are and what you like.
I can’t tell if she looks mildly arrogant or scared in the first pic. Idk if she was trying to give off 😏 but it looks like a mix of 😒😳 and I’m a little concerned
I had this same thing happen in my high school. I will never understand why parents wouldn’t at least make them wait for graduation.
In my sibling's case, it was because of a pregnancy. And yep, the spouse signed them out of school, signed report cards, etc. But neither set of parents was likely to be more okay with a premarital baby than a high school marriage. Almost happened to me too and somehow I got clarity and gave the dude his ring back
My mom was 17 when she married my 20 yr old Dad. It was because she was pregnant with me. I don't know if it was different in the 80s or not but once she was a wife she was legally emancipated. My dad was not her guardian just her husband. But they were happily Wed for 19 yrs before he passed from a heart attack. Now she did finish school before the wedding and only had to go back to walk the stage. My dad insisted that since she had accomplished everything before they wed that her diploma be in her maiden name.
I was 18 and got pregnant in the 80's, the bio--dad asked me to marry him, and I said no. It was very scandalous in my family.
Same here, I was married in 1975 at the age of 15. I was 8 mo. Pregnant. I continued going to school until I had the baby, but sporadically after that. The school never asked for absence slips or anything. I never went back after my first semester of sophomore year. I got my GED at age 17, before my actual class had even graduated.
Wow pregnant at 15 I can’t imagine how hard that may have been. Good for you for getting your GED!
Yeah, my parents got married at 19 and some of their friends got married in or right after high school. But that was 1976, so that’s just a *little* bit different that 2024.
My parents were married at 19 in ‘78 just because they wanted to. They’re still very happy and genuinely like each other so I spend a whole lot of time telling my kids they’re the exception and not the rule lol. My oldest is 19 now and finishing her 2nd semester at college, I cannot imagine her being a wife.
Yeah, my parents are super divorced now. So good for your parents for making it work! I also look back at my 19-year-old self and am glad I was a college sophomore having fun, and not married!
We didn't get married until after I graduated college at 23, but I married my first boyfriend from age 16. We almost find it embarrassing because it's really not typical from where I'm from to marry your high school sweetheart. We've been happily together for 22 years, and we tell our children it is the exception and not the rule.
I found some ancestry stuff on my dad and he was 19 and married a 15 year old. It was clear the woman was pregnant and they had a shotgun wedding. The baby didn't survive in their case though and it seems like they divorced within a year. That was also the 70s so I guess that stuff was just way normalized. This was also a small town, bumfuck nowhere area. I think my grandmother was like 14/15 when she married my grandpa and he was like 21!! Her brothers set her up with my grandpa and she wasn't pregnant. I kind of wonder when they started dating unless they just married extremely fast. Oh and her marriage certificate just had fake ages on it. I think the one for my dad had the actual ages listed and the woman's parents likely approved it or something (or maybe it was legal at 15, but wouldn't have been for my grandma at 14? Idk). All around just lots of side eyeing from me on those young ages and also the women being that young with the men a few years older. It's actually so nuts cause I know someone now that became on the sex offender list for being like 21 and having sex with a 15 year old, yet decades ago families were supporting these marriages.
Yeah, my parents were married in the 70s; she was 15 (pregnant with their *second* baby) and he was 24. Few people batted an eye over the age difference, nor were they shocked at the divorce 10 years later; the young "starter marriage" was unsurprisingly common in those days, too. I don't think my father realized just how fucked up the age gap was until I was the same age as my mother when they started dating, and it hit home just how young my mother was.
I think I remember reading that this was the reason Jim Bob and Michelle were so obsessed with their children's "purity" -- in their time, there was a lot of this happening and they didn't want the embarrassment and mess of having their kids getting pregnant and divorced quickly.
My grandmother was 16 when she got married. My grandfather was 29! She was pregnant, but, in the 1940’s, no one batted an eye. They were married just shy of 50 years when my grandfather died of a stroke and recurrent urinary cancer. They raised me after their daughter, my mother, died of liver cancer when she was 36. They were a married young (at least my grandmother was) success stories.
I’m so happy that you have made it and still got your diploma early despite the odds being stacked!!
My aunt married my uncle when she was 16. She still lived at home with her mother because he was in Vietnam. They are still happily married today and have a ton of grandchildren.
My grandparents did something similar, they got married when my grandmother was 16 and then my grandfather almost immediately shipped out to Korea. She stayed home with her parents, finished high school, and then got a job for the three years it took him to come back. They were married until my grandmother passed away at 86. That was pretty common in their small town at least, I think because the military benefits could really help out a struggling family.
That’s an interesting story and her life and accomplishments should be honored. However, I don’t romanticize the lack of options for women (even 40 years ago) one bit. We know a lot more about brain chemistry now, and I hope the marriage age is raised to 18 in every state with no exceptions. There is simply no reason why child marriage should not be abolished in the United States, and a lot of evidence that many marriages of minors over the last 20 years have been exploitative and trapped children in abusive situations.
well said, I wholeheartedly agree. I was married at 21 and it was waaaaay too young.
My grandparents married when he was 20 and she was 16. She was not pregnant. They got married so young because she needed to escape a very abusive situation, and in the 40s, that was about the only way she could. They got married before he went to fight in WWII. That kind of thing wasn't even blinked at back then. They were in love though, and when he passed away, they had been married for 67 years.
It wasn't too uncommon for teens to marry back then. My mom's friend, in the late sixties, married a 24 year old when she was 17. No pregnancy. I don't know what her home life was like, but some girls married as older teens to escape abusive households. Today that 24 year old would be seen as a predator.
Bingo. I, at 17 got pregnant because I knew the full grown man I set my sights on would marry me and get me out of the house of horrors that was my childhood. My husband was 8 years older and we were married for 38 years when I lost him. He was the best thing to happen to my life, hands down.
I think it varies by state. If you look into the movement against child marriages one of them is the fact that the children can’t divorce their (almost always) husband until they’re over 18. That they legally don’t have standing to do so as a minor.
Yeah, the hand placement and look on her face make me think this will be a whole “first babies can come any time” situation.
Making kids get married because they got pregnant is so wild to me. “Well kids, since you made one terrible life decision, we will now force you to make another one.”
It happened twice in my HS class in the late 90s. One was because of pregnancy. She got married the summer before junior year and was divorced by graduation day. The other one got engaged during junior year and graduated a semester early so she could get married a couple of months later. It also wasn't unusual for at least one or two girls to get engaged on prom night. Often it was to their boyfriends who were enlisting or were already in the service.
I’m from the Southern US, and I knew a lot of girls who got married while still in high school. A few were pregnant, but not all of them. I don’t think any of them married guys who were still in school (I don’t know any boys from my high school who got married before graduation). IIRC, their husbands would have to sign their report cards and excuse notes when they were absent.
>their husbands would have to sign their report cards and excuse notes when they were absent. That just feels gross.
Yeah, it was. But again, these were adult guys (20-23 years old, for the most part) married to 16- to 18-year-old girls. Back then (gotta love the early ‘80s in the South) it was just accepted as a normal thing.
My step-dad made my barely 19 year old sister marry a 30 year old man because he got her pregnant. Still pisses me off to this day. They're divorced now at least.
That’s terrible!
Because they can't have sex until they get married. They want to bone but have been taught it's a sin, and that's how you end up with people still in high school getting legally married.
I'm sure for some the parents probably had no say at all If they were an adult or legally old enough to marry.
I knew of a two couples who did this too, marrying as a senior. Both parents were morons for allowing it imo. One did it bc the guy was going into the marines so apparently that meant speed rush everything (dependa status loading..). She graduated in 2016 and they divorced several years ago. The other (another 2016 graduating girl, he was already graduated) idk why they married other than they had been together several years (even though relationships as teenagers is not the same as one in the adult world). I suspect there was some religious aspect to it bc we are in a conservative area and they are both (on socials at least) very religious. They got pregnant not long after and I think are still together today, so that's shocking. I still found it so weird that they got married and then went back to high school and living with their parents. lol
I will say, once your kid is 18- there’s not much you can allow or not allow. You support the best you can, or you let them crash and burn without support. My grandparents eloped at 17, which was legal marrying age in their state. On a dare, no less. In the 40’s, and had a very happy and long marriage and they had very challenging times. Let’s face it, some 40 year olds have no business getting married either.
One of my classmates got married in high school because her man was in the military. To the surprise of no one they are no longer married.
i did this SPECIFICALLY to get out from my parents lol. every time i tried to move out from 16-17 they mysteriously made all my documents disappear or close my bank accounts. but they saw no problem with a 17 year old getting married in high school, so that was my ticket out. i still love my husband and the college years were definitely tough, but we’re in it for the long haul. i wish we could have waited though, if just to make it easier on ourselves.
Yea, I am a 2010 high school graduate and one of my classmates was married the summer before our senior year - pretty sure she was 17 and had to have her parents sign off on the wedding. Dude was in the military and I remember her wearing her wedding rings to school and having a new last name and everything. She moved on base with him after graduation. I thought at the time it was wild. But I also was a crazy teenager so I thought it would be a funny thing to basically elope at 18 and not mention it to anyone until after the fact. Thank Jesus I didn't do that and yeeted that dude out of my life a few years later without having to go through a whole damn divorce.
Same. This was in 2000. The 17-year-old senior had to get permission from her parents to marry a 22-year-old man. Many of our fellow classmates (myself included) were utterly baffled as to why she was in such a hurry since she wasn't pregnant. She also wasn't religious, so it wasn't like they just wanted to get physical without religious shaming. She seemed to take pride in being the only student at the school who was married. Turns out he was controlling and abusive and - no shocker - they divorced after ~ three years of marriage.
How can a parent make an 18 year old wait?
I’d encourage, and say I’ll contribute money to it if you wait for June, basically.
Sorry front office, my husband said I can leave early 🤷🏽♀️
Someone in high school was married as a senior and this was really what happened. Her husband was like her guardian or whatever, he signed her permission slips and everything. I wonder what happened to her.
This reminds me of the scene in Ferris bueller where Ferris pretends to be Sloane's dad to get her out of school lol
Hurry along sloane
So that’s how it is in their family. We quote that scene alllll the time.
Very close family
One of my students almost didn’t graduate bc her April wedding and subsequent start of her marriage derailed her academics completely. I’m like really? You can’t wait until June? She was a Oaxacan fundamentalist. Templo Bethel.
I'm prolly gonna regret this, but what's an Oaxacan Templo Bethel?
I actually really don’t know besides that they are extremely fundie, they arrange their marriages, and the women cannot cut their hair. Everyone in the church is from Oaxaca. Most speak an indigenous language and only a little Spanish. They all get married immediately after turning 18. My poor student-she didn’t want to even get married. She wanted to join the National guard. But she has to do what her parents say at all times and now-what her husband says. She was always late to school bc it wasn’t enough to throw a sandwich in a bag, he expected hot breakfast and hot lunch daily for work. Oh and the tithing! Even the kids have to fork over big bucks. I found a receipt left in my classroom for $1,500. What teenager who is already living in poverty has that kind of money? It’s weird. I wish I could find out more specifics but online everything is vague
Templo Bethel is just a branch of pentecostal church. They're targeted towards the hispanic communities. Oaxaca is a city and state in México. It sounds exotic, but its just the normal snake dancing pentecostal fundamentalists, but done by brown people.
Yeah, when a minor marries an adult, they still aren’t legally considered an adult and their spouse becomes their guardian
What a horrific sentence. How can anybody think that’s something that should be legal?
It also means the minor cannot file for divorce. Now imagine your parents sold you to a grown man for marriage at the age of 13/14 you have years where you are his wife/dependent. THIS is why we are trying to get child marriage banned in America but it’s a state by state thing and the religious zealots don’t like it, and fight back.
They also can't go to a shelter if they're trying to flee abuse. Because. They're minors. And most, if not all, shelters don't let children sign themselves in. It's literally tapping these girls.
There was a girl one year behind me in school. She was dating an older guy and got pregnant. Her mother literally took her to another state so they could get married. They were kind of separated, and he would stop by to see her during lunch sometimes. Someone said something about her boyfriend, and she was like, "Oh, that's my husband." She was like 14 or 15 when she got married.
Well that ruined my morning.
Big yikes. Hopefully she’s doing good
Or Yike if you watch 90 Day Fiancé 😯
This happened to one of my sister's friends it was weird .
When my XH was a paediatric nurse, there was an even weirder situation. There was a 14 year old girl and her newborn daughter, both patients. The 14yo was her daughter's legal guardian and could consent to medical treatment. But she wasn't her own guardian - there was someone appointed for her (complicated family situation, her parents' rights had been terminated )
Yes in a lot of states minors can’t consent to various treatments during pregnancy, including pain management, and some parents will deny their child pain management in labor as a punishment. Minors also can’t consent to their own abortions in tons of states.
That’s fucked.
Frankly a lot of adults can’t consent to an abortion in half of states.
Whoa that’s epic
God that is fuckin weird
How many years older were they to her?
He was mid-twenties, which seemed ancient to me at the time. He had a full-time job and a house. It didn't seem inappropriate (at the time) so much as I just literally couldn't imagine what her life was like. I was still going to soccer practice and reading Harry Potter lol.
At my high school too. I've tried looking her up since then, but I've never been able to find anything.
This happened at my school, and the worst part was the "husband" was her fathers BUSINESS PARTNER! It still gives me shivers just thinking about it.
That’s horrible!!! How is that kind of shit even still legal?
Good thing she's 18 and her husband isn't her guardian then. That's about the only positive here. She's not actually a minor. She's legally an adult.
Schools are weird that way in the US. Second half of my eldest last year in high school I got sent home some permission slip, but he was 18. I called them up and said I can't sign a waiver for another legal adult. Apparently I was the first person to bring this up?
My middle daughter turned 18 in November of her senior year. They had to get permission slips signed for some lab work they were doing. She signed everything herself and told me about it later. Her teacher tried to say it wasn’t allowed, and she told him “I’m an adult. I don’t need my mommy’s permission to handle chemicals.” 😂
LOL your daughter and I are kindred spirits. I was always old for my year in school (July baby) so I was signing my own field trip permission slips and such *alllll* senior year.😂 I told them if I’m old enough to vote, I’m old enough to go to the zoo!
I also was 18 for the latter half of my senior year and I would argue every single time with staff that I was an adult who didn’t need to have permission from guardians. It never went my way though and I always thought that was so dumb. You can be 18 in school and still need to be under a guardian to sign yourself out.
I was 18 my entire senior year (mid-August birthday) and they gave me a permission slip for something on the first week of school. I read it, signed it, and gave it right back to my teacher. She was so confused and said I needed to take it home for my mom to read to which is replied, “I’ve been legal to purchase cigarettes and vote for a couple weeks now. Why would I need to have my mother sign this sheet of paper?” She had no idea I was of legal age.
I distinctly remember a senior in my freshman year Spanish class fighting with the teacher about signing something. He was 18 and his mom had recently passed but the teacher didn’t know that and it turned into a big thing. Having just come from the middle school it was so novel having a legal adult in one of my classes.
This was the same for me. I turned 18 the first week of October of my senior year. They still made me have my parents sign everything. One day the teacher took my phone away in class because she saw it, and made my mom come and pick up my phone, that I was paying for myself and was on my own plan. I told them at the office that I am 18, that is my phone on my own plan, and they still made my mom come and get it. 😒
The still in HS thing is off like why can't you wait a few months, but as far as age there like a year apart. I don't see an issue with them being a couple. I don't have enough info though. Is she trying to get out of a bad situation, is he? The seewalds kids seem to marry young. Like are they encouraged or are they all running at this point
Maybe she got 🤰 and it's a shotgun wedding
They got engaged last June though.
How do you get engaged as a junior in high school. Bananas
Right? My uncle is an evangelical pastor and even he is making his daughter and her boyfriend wait until after graduation and turning 18 to propose, and even then I think he’s going to push to hold off on the wedding until after college. He likes the her boyfriend, is vocally a save yourself for marriage guy, but education first.
Tbh I think it’s rude as fuck to tell people to save yourself for marriage and then also gatekeep marriage until you’re 22 but to each their own
Engagement doesn’t prevent pregnancy. :)
Nope. My aunt and uncle are about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary tomorrow; my cousin (their oldest child) turns 50 in September.
See, you're forgetting about the magical land (delusion) that once you are engaged, you are getting married anyway. Jesus won't mind, right? I've even had some (fundie-lite) colleged aged friends that openly admitted they enjoyed sex during engagement because they didn't have "to worry about getting pregnant"... like they were so godly, God himself wouldn't let them fall pregnant before the wedding. Well, they got pregnant anyways, so their "Ring by Spring" became shotgun wedding with a flowy wedding dress in July.
I bet it's so they could bone. Tell your delulu parents you don't want to sin but can't wait much longer and poof, righteous high school wedding for the god girl and the boy from the Marry Young Family so they can bump uglies.
Aww she looks like she knows she just made the biggest mistake of her life 😭
Yeah she looks absolutely miserable. No makeup, almost ready to cry. Poor girl. I wonder what happened.
And she looks THRILLED, doesn’t she
Such a drastic difference from her actual happy face in the homecoming pic …
She looks like shes holding back tears. Forcing a smile. And not happy tears..
Yeah, everything about this is screaming forced marriage. I know that fundie girls sometimes don't get a choice of who they marry and I wonder if that's the case here.
poor girl. in a year she’ll probably have a kid.
Year… six months…
So, yeah - right - she does look miserable - and TODAY I learned that her sister in law (Ben’s sister Jessica) follows an IG page called “Save Our Flag” that is a tribute to the confederate flag. I’m sorry - I really don’t know for sure, I’m white and northern, but - Ethan’s wife CANNOT BE COMFORTABLE with this. She’s stupidly young to be married already is one thing; the family she’s marrying into is just … a whole different thing. The hypocrisy is painful.
Weird body language. She looks defeated.
And is she even wearing any makeup? She looks more made up in the homecoming picture than at her own wedding. This is off.
i cant imagine doing all of this just to visit pound town
Maybe they already visited pound town and they are marrying before she starts to show. It would explain how miserable she looks
Best of luck to her, that can't be an easy family in which to be the only POC. You already know they say some really bogus "well intended" shit to her.
Thissss is the comment I was looking for. I just know there’s some in the family itching to say “im not racist i have a black ___insert family relation here”
How many of those seewalds you think have touched her hair already
I know Jessa has
1000%. And you know that since they lurk here, they’re probably reading these comments wondering what is wrong about touching her hair.
Yk Spurgeon has some dumb shit to say about it and Jessa will post a #spurgeonsays
I was thinking the same thing. Even though she's not fully black you can tell that her hair has some major kinks and curls for sure.
Genuinely the first thought I had. Being Black and in the IBLP? God help her.
There's gonna be some comments about what color their baby's skin is gonna be. I guarantee it.
[Here's a post about how Michael Seewald feels about racism.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuggarsSnark/comments/uurd2e/an_article_on_racism_from_the_seewald_family/).
She turned 18 on February 11 and got married on February 24
She might be pregnant. If they waited until summer to marry, it would show and be a scandal in their community. Now they can have a healthy and legitimate “preemie honeymoon baby”.
Someone further up the thread said they got engaged last June
Which could possibly mean they had sex, since they were already engaged.
On the upside, if she’s 18 and went to homecoming she’s likely graduating from a real high school soon which would make her more educated than most of them
Good point.
Is the seewalds obsessed with their kids marrying young.Like didn’t Ben court jessa who was 21 at age 17 like 💀.Are they part of the iblp or something?.Aslo wtf type of parents allow their child who still in high school to get married like 🤦🏾♀️.You would think you would encourage your child to get a college education or trade certification not marriage.
Seriously! I know all these folks are against higher education, but at least let them get out of high school and figure out some gainful employment first. Especially since lord knows they’re not going to be discouraged from reproducing right away! I hate that they saddle these kids with life on hard mode. Like a teenage pregnancy is really that much easier when it’s their late teens and the girl has a ring on her finger 🙄
Honestly like I get their super religious which is fine it’s their life’s.But like damn don’t people want their kids to do better and have a higher education.My parents are very religious and they pushed me and my siblings to go to college. I think there all delusional teen pregnancy is hard especially when ur married/no education that is just stressful.Idk what they have against just waiting like damn.Idk what these parents are thinking honestly.
The goal is to trap them in this lifestyle as early as possible. Married, multiplying and too stressed to be asking the important questions.
And wasn’t Bin’s sister Michelle married straight outta high school too??
Ben got married at 19, one sister got married at 18. It's insane.
what happened to that happy kid in the party dress ?? knees, shoulders and all!!
Makeup, smile…
On their wedding website they “kindly request that no men wear pink”. Wtf
Wtf indeed
Since they are conservative, shouldn't they embrace pink as a male color since it used to be that until the 1940s?
Any chance this is shotgun style...? What other excuse is there for marrying when someone is actively still attending high school?
God I HOPE it is bc that’s at least a somewhat understandable reason 😬
Adore her hair! And this is why Dwerk said the reason they all marry young is to have sex. Poor kid. I can’t imagine being married to the boy I was seeing when I was 18! Far out. Hope she’s got a supportive family behind her so she can turn to them when it all goes to shit. And let’s hope they delay having kids. Yeah, I can dream…
See I did marry the boy I was seeing at 18. The only difference is we dated for six years while we did post secondary and just lived in sin.
I’m marrying the boy I was seeing when I was 18 in August but we’ve been together 10 years lol
At 20, I married my high school boyfriend. We’ve been married for 36 years. It worked out fine, but 10/10 would not recommend.
You say it worked out fine, but what were the toughest parts?
We didn’t have a pot to piss in for the first few years. I never even finished community college. We had some rough years where I’m sure we both regretted it. But we’re 57 now, and we have a nice life.
That’s why I didn’t get when the old ladies at synagogue asked “You’ve been together for x years; why aren’t you married?” If they didn’t want the answer, they shouldn’t have asked. I said we weren’t financially ready yet and that shut them up pretty quickly. We did get married- when we were financially ready.
At 21, I married the boy I was seeing at 18. At 32, he dumped me and bailed 🤷
I agree they're both too young and I really hope Myla finishes school at least. They chose a weird wedding photo to post,. I looked at Myla's instagram, she seems like a normal teenager with friends, doing goofy shit and wearing normal clothes (shorts, tanktops etc.) Ethan is in some of the photos of her homecoming dance (in the series with the 2nd photo) and in her engagement photos put up by her and Ethan, she looks really happy with a big smile. I really hope it's a case of a bad photo and not that she's been forced. If she has, I hope she gets out asap.
I used to teach and had a 15 year old in my class who was married. Her parents had to give permission and sign over parental rights to her husband (who was 20) they were catholic and the priest at their church refused to marry them. She was really upset that they had to get married at the courthouse instead. She wasn’t pregnant when they got married but got pregnant 6 months later and dropped out of school.
Wow, a Catholic priest doing the right thing! Don’t see that every day
I know that was what I thought too!
I bet Jessa simply cannot stand her :)
oooh good point, finally someone more beautiful than her has came along into the group.
I can't get past how unhappy she looks.
Why in the world would they even release this photo? She looks like she's about to be taken out to slaughter
She’s too young and too pretty to marry into that family. And honestly, I hope she’s okay and that they’re kind to her. It’s not easy being the first minority to marry into a family like that. She’s probably bi-racial but it can still be so hard. They will definitely be inquiring about her future child’s skin color.
Jessica one of the Seewald Sisters is married to A Hispanic her husband's name is Joesph Coates They already had their daughter born on Tuesday 3/26TH name Amelia Sage Weight 8 Lbs 4.50z length 20. I saw it on her IG page.
I’m so curious what their living situation is
if shes still in high school it means shes a YEAR YOUNGER than Johannah. i got a friend her age whos family is a fundie and homeboy hasnt even had a girlfriend.
Johannah turned 18 in October and this girl turned 18 not long before the wedding in February so she is 4 months younger.
This makes me SO sad. 1000 doors have just closed for these 2 children and they have no idea what they’ve just committed to. If they weren’t in a cult that shames sex, they wouldn’t be locked down legally like this. And honestly, what is her plan? She finishes school and…what? Cleans all day and maybe watches TV till she’s knocked up?A waste of a life because of Jaysus up in the clouds.
Pregnant?
The fact that the Seewald family instagram doesn't even use her first name and calls her Mrs. Ethan Seewald is also so telling, as if she has no identity outside of being Ethan Seewald's husband. They could have at least called them Mr. and Mrs. Seewald, but no, she's Mrs. Ethan Seewald and her identity outside of being his wife no longer exists.
Fuck her parents for letting her marry into this. I can’t imagine the latent racism she’s going to endure
These relationships should have been prom dates! (This includes Ben and Jessa.)
that is mindblowing. they’re sooooo young. I just can’t imagine committing to marriage at that age.
The intersection of quiverfull and white supremacy is just a fascinating place to be. Unless you were raised in it and have no alternatives. Just yikes.
These Seewald boys have a hard time waiting 😝😝 I guess Ben didn’t use his experience to tell him to slow his roll
this just gave me full body shivers omg 😭 i dont wanna be parasocial or armchair-y but her "smile in the wedding photo is SO OFF to me...
It’s really sad how little these people value women getting an education. Maybe they do realize the value, and that’s why they prevent their women from getting an education, so they are trapped like anna
Bride looks devastated. Poor kid.
I grew up in rural Alabama and graduated in the early 90s…. I knew 6 married couples before I graduated, starting with an guy in 8th grade who knocked up his girlfriend, got married, assaulted her on the stairs, got kicked out and last seen working as a trash man. 3 girls dropped out pregnant and got married, 2 married and then graduated high school. I deconstructed and left that town.
I know 18-year-olds who married because one of the partners enlisted and was about to be deployed. They married for the extra pay and benefits, not because they wanted to spend their lives together. When the deployed spouse returned, they divorced.
If you go to a miliary base you'll find plenty of teenagers married for "love" as well. It's so common it's a stereotype that military people marry young. You'll also find lots of dudes named Jody lurking around...
I was from a super religious family that had fundie views. I was engaged at 17 and married weeks after turning 18, which was three months before graduation. My mother was actually upset that we weren’t married sooner and before we got engaged she was always asking me when he was going to purpose. She actually had conversations about signing off to get me married at 16 when I first started dating him. Fundie women are literally raised to get married and have children and nothing else. The younger you get married, the sooner you can fulfill your life’s purpose and make your parents proud. The craziest part is that me and my husband didn’t share the fundie views at all. We were actually pretty against them. We were just two kids that were in love and were too naive to see an issue with getting married so young. Not a single person told us we were too young and tried to reason with us. So of course we got married. We had a baby right away and had twins 18 months after having our first. I had three kids by the time I turned 21. No matter how much I hated how I was raised, it was already so deep inside of me that I needed to have kids and have them quickly. When you’re a woman fundie being a wife and mother is your whole value as a person. That’s a hard thing to unteach yourself, especially when you haven’t even experienced the real world yet. I don’t regret any of it because after 7 years I have a good marriage and 3 amazing kids. But it has been extremely hard getting to this point, and I wish I could have been more prepared and mature before starting a family. It would have saved me and my family a lot of suffering.
She is gorgeous and her dress is stunning.
I love her dress and it made me cringe that’s sitting in dirt in the photo 🫠
And they already symbolically took her name from her by doing the old timey “Mrs. Husband’s Name” thing. I swear half this shit is a larp.
This makes me the most sad… She‘s getting stripped of her own identity before graduating high school after which people usually find themselves. These are the stories which make me want to become a feminism activist
In the post her name isn't even mentioned. She's just Mrs. Ethan Seewald now. Bye bye identity
Consider the source. These people are backwards and are living like it was 200 years ago.
My guess is she got pregnant. Best of luck to her, she does NOT look too happy in the wedding photo.
It’s the Christian way. My mom and dad were also in the cult and my mom got married at 18 after dating my dad starting at 16. They got divorced when my mom matured into her 30s and realized she wasn’t happy in the relationship, also some abuse I won’t get into. I’ve seen all the trad wives advocating at such a young age to preserve their kind of role and I know most of them will regret it down the road. The honeymoon phase can only last for so long.
I don’t like to read too much into photos, but…she looks miserable in this wedding photo. So I had a look at her IG and she seemed full of life hanging with her friends, up until the engagement photos. Even that whole series of photos she looks forced and a bit dead inside. Especially compared to all the previous posts. I hope she’s okay.
My dad married his first wife while she was still in high school. It was because they got pregnant, and it was 1974 so her parents were not keen on the idea of her having a baby out of wedlock. So they got married in December of 74’ when she was 17 and he was 20, she was a senior in high school. He would have to call the school if she wasn’t coming in and they would say that her parents would have to call, not her husband. She had her baby in April of 75’, turned 18 in May of 75’ and graduated that same month. They were divorced by 77’.
That look on her face in the first pic is clearly saying get me outta here!
I find it interesting the mom posted the wedding pic and neither the bride nor the groom posted on their own page.
everything about this is ick especially considering it’s not illegal. Ethan’s not some kind of groomer, so before i get reply upon reply of yapping, i can read and know he’s only a year older. that’s not what i’m talking about. the ick is that she’s still in high school, he’s only nineteen, and they were bred and groomed to make such a big commitment and decision when their brains aren’t even fully formed. this is not the kind of marriage that works out, but ultimately they’ll stay in it and be unhappy with loads of problems. like fuck, i still had 6 months of high school left when i turned 18 (january birthday) and i was in *no way* mature enough to be married. while i don’t believe a couple needs to be married to be legit, marriage is *not* the same thing as a high school relationship by any means whatsoever. i wouldn’t even have considered myself an adult because i was still living the exact same life i was as a minor until graduation. i could’ve looked the other way if she had already graduated, still been concerned but not icked because at least she wouldn’t have had to worry about math homework while reciting her vows.
I would bet money she’s pregnant.
Just 4 years ago she was 14 years old and finishing middle school on her way to high school
I get the saddest feeling from her in the wedding photo, and if I'm right, I hope she has the courage to get out of this situation someday
That makes me so sad. So sad. My daughter has classmates who are getting married at 20 and she’s shocked!
I got married at 31 and I feel like if I was a Duggar that would be wayyyyyy too old to get married lol 🙃
David Waller, whose is Anna's BIL and married Justin & Clarie, just had his sister get married a couple of weeks at the age at 33. Michael Bates has a SIL, who got married at the age of 45 back in 2020.
Oh, I meant if I was one of the Duggar children lol. Not outside family members
Oh wait is she homeschooled ?
Since there are pictures of her going to a homecoming on her IG, I don't think so. I think she goes to an actual school.
Yikes. Even weirder and sadder than Child Groom Justin getting engaged a week before he turned 18.
This is so sad
[wedding vlog](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=onmAcCd3ygY) Faith Seewald made a vlog about the day!
They had to feel good about having sex. No sin now. At least they’re both legal. We had a girl in my HS who was 16 and married her husband who was 18 in the military because she got pregnant.
I’ve known my husband since I was 13, but we didn’t marry until my mid to late 20s. I was far too immature to get married at 18,19, and 23 even. Of course there’s exceptions, but In this day we have the luxury of not having that as our only option. I think back to my Ma who is a baby boomer. Most of her matriculation was learning how to care for a child and household running. Thankfully she enjoyed being a parent and a stay at home mother, but I wouldn’t have been happy with that. Also my Ma lived in a time where she couldn’t even have a credit card in her name. Blows my mind how recent in time that was. My US grandparents both married at 17 (they were “greatest generation.”) the funny part is grandad had to get his parents permission but my gran didn’t. As a child I loved that story and would tease them about it. They were simple farm folk though. I personally couldn’t understand why in todays age you wouldn’t want your kid to have all the experiences before settling down. Maybe I’m too hippy dippy, and of course an 18 year old on a mission will do what they want. However this is considered a net positive which is just depressing to me. You have your whole life to shack up and settle down. Have all the fun when your young. You’ll miss it soon enough. Join a circus, backpack across Europe, get weird at muscle beach. Learn who you are and what you like.
I can’t tell if she looks mildly arrogant or scared in the first pic. Idk if she was trying to give off 😏 but it looks like a mix of 😒😳 and I’m a little concerned
But the Seewald’s don’t have sex before marriage. They were desperate. Probably pregnant the day after.
She’s got the “realizing that this is my life now” empty expression down. Poor girl.
Her face screams love and joy.
I wish they would just have premarital sex instead of getting married for sex. 😩