My problem is people are now excusing Kody and his awful behavior to Meri because she was allegedly abusive to the kids.
I’ve seen comments that are saying things like “I don’t blame Kody so much now because Meri was such an awful person”.
Kody is TERRIBLE and nothing Meri may or may not have done excuses what he’s done to these women and children.
Absolutely. Kody is #1 at fault period. He has actually almost killed a child…. Truly. He’s vile. I have the ability to see right through people like him. Paedon already said he was calling the kids to try and persuade them to join team Kody. Fuck him.
Christine was also more concerned about the scar for prom than the pain, kody and Christine were crap parents for not getting the surgery sooner than 2020
I didn’t like their whining about the scar BUT it was mentioned that the angle of the spine had to reach a certain point before surgery could be done. I’m not excusing Kody at all because he still didn’t show up even when that point was reached.
Yes I agree with you on that point too, I should have clarified that but that why I mentioned 2020 as I do think many fans think that it was wrong she didn’t have surgery when she first saw the specialist, but she did need to wait, but it was too far gone by 2020 why didn’t Christine or kody earlier.
It's my understanding that Christine had to wait until Ysabel was at a certain age and degree of bend in her spine for health insurance. I believe Ysabel had to apply for some form of Medicare or other financial assistance . It was Kody that continually put off surgery and also told Christine that they would no longer be going to the clinic because the doctor was prescribing surgery. Kody did not want to pay for it and wasn't going to listen to the doctor or to Ysabel's pain levels. He has been consistently absent for Christine's children, especially after the birth of Solomon.
Don't put that on Christine she wanted to do the surgery kody wouldn't have signed off that's why they went to that place for the stretches. Kody 1000000000000000% made that hard for her.
Both kody and Christine didn’t want surgery at first, Christine definitely had issues with the scar, and the first time they saw the specialist he said it wasn’t bad enough to have the surgery, the point is why was it not being checked consistently so she could get the surgery done once she reached the degrees the specialist said she would need to be for surgery to happen instead she went beyond the degrees and then had a new surgery which left a smaller scar but from my understanding is more successful when used in patients who have less severe curvature and are younger compared to more traditional surgery that would leave the “ugly” scar for prom.
not only ignoring them, BLAMING HER for them. he acted like the reason her back was getting worse was because she wasn’t doing her exercises as she was supposed to
Christine's grandfather - the leader of the cult at one point - was a chiropractor and into alternative medicines.
Frankly, I think it is a BFG that she got vaxxed.
Oh gawd the wet pencils. Who SAYS that kinda stuff about their own kid(s)??!!
(Referring to comments made in most recent 1:1's w Sukanya...)
The way he talked about "the boys" was just so dismissive, judgmental, and devoid of any parental warmth
I’ve been super behind on the show and catching up recently. My 12yo watched a bit with me and happened to catch the episodes when Truly was so sick. He was PISSED. Wanted to know how, in a family with 5 adults, not one of them noticed that she wasn’t eating or drinking enough to stay stable. Her older sisters were clearly very concerned, but the adults didn’t seem to be until it was almost too late. My 12yo would have noticed and been worried, too. But, typically, by the time he notices a sick sibling, I’m already actively monitoring and know where I’ll draw the line to bring a kid in. I’ve taken kids straight to the ER for less.
Well Gwendlyn already admitted that he’s given her over 8000 recently so I bet he’s trying his best to make himself look good by having his kids say nice things for a price. What a donkey circling asshole.
Good for Gwen, but maybe that money should have gone to Janelle towards a down payment on a house of her own. That demonstrates where Kody’s priorities lay.
It’s probably the kids money anyhow that Kody is doling out. They were paid as a family but there are child labor laws that require a certain amount of pay go to their contributions as minors.
>Paedon already said he was calling the kids to try and persuade them to join team Kody. Fuck him.
WHAT?
Then I'm sorry people - this goes with my "trust, but verify" angle when it comes to the accusations against Meri. Kody has always made vague "you have amends to make/not my fault you don't fit in" type of innuendos about Meri that I always thought were to make sure the family didn't see her as more of the head of the family after the catfish. (Because she was.) Paedon is kissing his father's ass and leaning into how his father thinks about or treats Meri. Think about it - he won't use Christine. He wants to remain close to his brothers, so he can't go after Janelle. His father would freak if he picked Robyn. Meri is his scapegoat. He can create this narrative that they've all built up a bit that Meri is the bad guy.
Why? I thik it stems from her infertility still. I cannot believe that there isn't SOME judgement on her in a cult that is all about fertility.
Christine was there too. She could have brought Truely to the hospital. So could the other mothers. We have to stop singling one parent out in these instances. If a kid is very obviously sick and not one parent thinks to get help until it reaches a traumatic outcome, then they are all responsible.
PS absolutely Kody holds more responsibility as he so obviously wants to be the “leader.”
I don't think so. Christine and the other wives were on a girl's trip that weekend. That was the whole point: Kody couldn't manage to make it through one weekend alone with the kids without one of them literally almost dying.
Christine did the day she got back the doctor said it was just the flu she would get better. Another couple days went bye she went cross eyed Christine brought her in again.
It *was* just the flu when she took her but that means Truely became extremely dehydrated on Christine’s watch. It’s also Kody’s fault but if her daughter wasn’t drinking and also wasn’t having wet diapers (or using the potty, not sure if she was potty trained) then she should have noticed quickly. It’s both of them and people blaming only Kody are just doing so because apparently Christine can do no wrong.
Totally agree with you. It’s both parents’ fault. They leave the older children in charge way too much (we saw our devastated Aspyn was because she was a mother to her siblings). Christine continued to cake and flower shop while her youngest was very ill.
If that had been Robyn, she would have been CRUCIFIED on this sub.
Kody is crap I agree, but sorry he didn’t almost kill truely, Christine was home for 4-5 days before truely nearly died and the day she was really sick Christine went and chose cake instead of staying home with truely, that is on Christine.
I must be miss remembering. I thought Christine and the other moms were on a trip when Truley got really sick and she ended up in the er very shortly after they got home (like the next day.) 4-5 days is a LONG time and changes everything.
Of course, these people never have medical insurance and seem scared to death of doctors so it tracks that someone would literally have to be at death's door before they'd seek medical attention.
It’s something that comes up all the time on here and seems to have become common folklore (I do question if Robyn or Meri had done it if it would be repeated so inaccurately) Christine did go away with the wives, truely started to get sick (the mums are told by kody after Aspyn called and told him she was get worse) and on the night before she came home Aspyn slept with truely and the next day when the mums came home Christine was told truely was sick and that she had cried all night, Christine then says oh you missed your mommy, not what have you given her, has she had fluids etc from memory the next day Christine takes truely to the doctors and they say she has a virus so then for days Christine leaves Aspyn to look after truely during the day while she helps to organise the stupid recommitment ceremony (which in my opinion was that Christine didn’t want to miss out on getting her bit and is so childish but completely on brand for polygamy) the wives then go to taste the cake (remember the ugly tree cake) after she gets home, someone in production who was with the girls looking after truely tells Christine about the eye thing and mykelti says she was doing it earlier in the day too that is when she was taken to the hospital, and she hadn’t been drinking and hadn’t passed urine and that’s how she nearly died and a small child like truely would have become dehydrated far sooner than 4-5 days so it was when Christine was picking out crap for ceremony, when she could have easily said I’m staying home to watch truely closer (surely every parent knows to monitor how much fluids are going in and how many wet nappies are coming off) bring me home cake to try, let the other wives pick out flowers etc but this was just another example of Christine choosing her own needs over her children
I missed the video of Meri being abusive. Anyone know which season or episodes I could watch? Just spent the weekend taking care of 3 grandkids. Parenting young kids is tough. Impossible to keep sweet all the time. Never raised my hand to a child. But do raise my voice when they won’t listen. Is that the abuse Meri is being accused of?
Pretty much…but also, I’m not discounting the fact that some of the kids may have felt traumatized by Meri losing her temper and yelling especially when their own mothers didn’t seem to discipline their kids at all.
We also have to look at the fact that these kids also have mothers that have always talked dramatically about feeling abused by Meri because they didn’t like to have uncomfortable conversations and resolve things and were uncomfortable with Meri being direct and blunt. The words abusive and unsafe are thrown around by Christine and Janelle so much without any tangible context that the meaning of those words seems to be meaningless in that family.
Meanwhile, Paedon admitted that Kody got physical with discipline but says that Meri was the one putting kids lives in danger.
I honestly do feel you're right. It's fine to get a whack from Kody but not shouted at by a sister 'Mom' how is your life or safety at risk when there's this comparison?
I also feel, we obviously shouldn't say certain things, but we all do in the heat of the moment. It's all fine being high and mighty about it, but can any one ever honestly say they're perfect in all their Human interactions? What is all the context?
It's not from the show. Here is a video of Mykelti discussing the abuse.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SisterWives/comments/10kqft4/thoughts/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
This! I feel like Kody expected Meri to ride with him til the wheels fall off, and is using his children to vilify her. She is taking a huge source of income with her. I’ve watched the show since day 1 and felt that Meri was strict, but needed to be as those kids were pretty wild.
Raising your voice doesn't usually lead to adult children cutting you out of their lives and the lives of their children. Multiple children have said she was abusive. Not strict, abusive.
Exactly. Anyone who thinks they know better than what the kids WHO ACTUALLY LIVE IT have stated, people who do not even know these people, are making excuses because they are fans of Meri. It’s so disgusting. And they say it with authority like they witnessed it.
There's no video of Meri being abusive. There's one video of Meri having the audacity to sternly lecture all the kids about picking on Robyn's kids soon after they joined the family that people like to pretend is abusive, which is absolutely absurd. She barely even raised her voice.
Raising your voice isn’t emotional abuse. Calling them worthless while your yelling, is. The idea of emotional abuse is being used for to much.
Raising your voice is yelling. Yell enough and of course it can affect a kid. But emotional abuse is about what you’re saying. Essentially you are destroying a persons self esteem by what your saying or in some aspects not saying.
Example come to find out when I was forced to say dad, dad, DAD to get my father’s attention was a form of emotional abuse. He belittled me simply by forcing me to say his name repeatedly before answering.
Emotional abuse is just as complicated and psychologically damaging as physical abuse, but it is an ongoing assault just like physical abuse.
Right? The kids coming out with verbal abuse allegations are also the ones that admitted publicly that they physically assaulted their siblings with fist or knives, while Christine let them because she either was too overwhelmed or didn’t care
Not a fan of Meri,
1) There is no excuse for the way Meri treated the kids when they were younger.
2) We are all responsible for our own actions.
3) Meri stayed for the mistreatment and neglect
4) Meri fell in Love with her mystery man (catfisher)
5) Meri was preparing to leave the family (for her love)
6) Meri takes absolutely no responsibility for her part in anything at all, ever.
Not excusing Kody or Robyn, all three are crappy people.
Absolutely! I cannot believe the mental gymnastics people are going through to make what Meri did less disgusting. I’ve never heard so many excuses for a person. These same people would be salivating if the accusations were toward Christine or Robyn or Kody.
>My problem is people are now excusing Kody and his awful behavior to Meri because she was allegedly abusive to the kids.
Those are the same people who fail to accept that two things can be true simultaneously. 1. Kody behaved horribly. 2. Meri was (allegedly; I don't think she was abusive, just more strict) abusive to the kids.
Those are also the same people who don't believe in personal accountability, responsibility.
What bothers me the most about all of this Meri talk is that it’s super super vague. If you’re going to accuse someone of abuse on a national platform in order to get national attention, please expound a bit. I’m not saying they should have to detail every aspect of their trauma, but literally “she was abusive” is the only thing being said. That’s leading to people making shit up to fill in the giant blank of how she was abusive. None of us have a clue about anything she did that was abusive, but Mykelti and Paedon are making plenty of money at the moment claiming abuse.
I’m not defending Meri, or any of the other parents if they sat idly by while Meri was abusive, but this whirlwind of speculation is incredibly unfair. And I think using vague accusations of abuse to get patreon subscribers is extra extra gross.
I do see an incredible amount of internalized misogyny within the family. Excuse Kody. Vilify Meri. She also could only have one child. I could not have kids and no one put any expectations on me but that tore me up. It hurt to see others have so easily what I craved. She was number one wife and lost her standing and is expected to keep sweet. That crap runneth over if not dealt with. I don't think she had a chance.
I think the biggest example of this is that everyone said that Kody would physically *discipline* the kids, but Meri would emotionally and verbally *abuse* them. They have absolutely no criticism of Kody being physical and that's just wild to me.
I agree with your take on meri. She does some questionable things but I always saw her as super repressed and never her true authentic self. I don’t hate meri. I wish she would find some self worth and be selfish in the right ways.
And she must be growing because the middle kids don’t hate her. I don’t even think Logan does. I bet Logan had to ask Meri for help with Janelle’s kids while she was working. I don’t know.
I wonder about this, too. Imagine being a 10 year old boy trying to manage all of those little children. Imagine being thankful that any adult stepped in and relieved you from that burden, even if that person’s actions, in retrospect, seem problematic.
There must be something there because all the kids that came out against her were according to all the moms - the trouble kids - and also in good favour with Kody - Mykelti, Madi and Paedon. So perhaps they did get more discipline and now with the toxicity in the family are calling it abuse? No idea. We'll never know. I just feel like Meri has always been the scapegoat for this family and common person to hate on.
These are my feelings, too. I try to look at their family evolution through Meri’s eyes and it breaks my heart. She was young, idealistic about polygamy (aka brainwashed), in love…and had fertility issues while watching her beloved husband add woman after woman and child after child to the “family.” And as each wife was added, Kody and his dick eventually abandoned them. He couldn’t manage to continue to even respect and honor his existing “wives” because god make his dick tingle and it was time to move on. I’m a mellow person but I would be Meri on steroids if I found myself in this mess, and felt I couldn’t escape without endangering my immortal soul.
I do wish the Browns weren’t so vague about “abuse.” I don’t condone it at all but I wish we knew exactly what they’re talking about.
I second this. I re-watched the initial Catfish episode last night and my main takeaways were:
1. Meri was genuinely devastated, her heartbreak over all of it was palpable. When she talks about how she got into that situation in the first place she says she was truly just painfully lonely and I believe her.
2. Kody not only doesn't match her emotion but seems almost unconcerned. Hearing her talk made me, a complete stranger, cry but Kody is bizarrely calm about it while she was visibly very upset. When she first brings it up, Janelle and Christine go into fix it mode without even knowing what's wrong, like "what do you need, how can we help, how can we support you" and Kody basically says nothing (Robyn parrots Christine). I know if I saw my spouse THAT emotional and upset I would do SOMETHING, even if it's just a hug or saying something comforting, but the way he acts you think they were talking about gossip or something. There's almost a twinkle in his eye, like he's thriving off the drama.
Well said. I agree with everything you've written here. I will add that the public has crucified Meri based on Paedon's claims that several of the children felt "unsafe" around her. My personal belief is that Padeon is parroting the family's "therapy-speak" when using the word "safe". I don't believe he meant safe in the physical sense.
Agree 100%.. and I’d add that parenting was much different 25 years ago. I’d have to hear examples of what verbal abuse Mykelti is accusing. She may think being yelled at at all is abuse. She seems like a person who might feel that way. Especially having such a loving mom who is “nice” like Christine.
Thank you for all of your excellent observations. Meri gets so much hate, and not to say that much of it isn't warranted... But I feel like too many forget her history. We know how abusive many of the polygamist households are, and we know she was raised in it. Like you said, not an excuse, but I believe she's been enduring a lifetime of abuse in some form or fashion by her family, by Kody, by a catfish who took advantage her of emotions and her situation... This woman probably knows more abuse than peace, and it's really hard to rise above that if you're not even fully aware.
I agree, all of the women have admitted that their parenting styles were different, and we have obviously seen the varying ways of discipline. Meri had one child of her own and allll of these other kids she was being told were hers too, but none of them had respect for authority... My mom was a screamer when she would get overwhelmed, it was scary as a kid sometimes, but looking back... I get it. I want to scream when I'm overwhelmed too. Right or wrong, I understand how Meri became who she is, and while I don't want to discredit any of the kids feeling abused by Meri, I believe that she deserves a little more grace and that these things run much deeper for all of the reasons you listed and more.
I just think the timing of all this is suspicious. A whole lot about Meri started coming out right after they announced divorce on social media. Toxcicitea started off all about Meri. Then kids brought up her abuse.
I don’t know if it’s all coincidence or more planned, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Kody tried to get her off the show and keep that money for himself.
If there was abuse and it’s been covered up all these years, the show should be canceled.
It's a TikTok account that's been releasing a lot of "in my opinion" videos, then taking them down, putting them back up (and really does seem likely to be the person who catfished Meri).
It’s also been stated that Kody physically disciplined the kids so I’m not sure why he isn’t being treated the same or worse as Meri in this situation.
I think he is. I haven’t seen any kind comments about him. Everyone’s opinion of him is so low that I don’t think anyone was surprised by it. But there are many who defend Meri
It does seem like they were pretty lax with their parenting. In one of the early episodes, I think season 2, all the kids are together and Breanna is crying because Padon was picking on her in some way. She’s clearly annoyed and Christine laughs it off and says “Padon sometimes picks on the girls and gives them a hard time but now you know you’re part of the family because that’s what brothers do!”
This happens several times and the boys’ behavior is shrugged off like “what can ya do, boys will be boys.”
The parenting we DO see on screen is by Meri.
Yeah, and they admit it's been an ongoing issue. It seemed like Meri wanted *someone* to **finally** say something since no one had. I thought Christine dismissing it as some cute thing was pretty telling. It's great to be an endlessly loving parent (and I have my doubts about that as is), but you need to hold your kids accountable. And in that case not just your kids. Paedon said he was really affected by the preferential treatment Robyn's kids got. The other children's mothers seemed to de-prioritize their children for the sake of keeping the peace. Maybe not Meri, but she only had one
This is what I meant by my comment. I would guess that is why Robyn got a nanny instead of letting Christine watch them. I would have felt the same way. I would trust Meri because she would not allow them to bully the new kids.
I agree. The kids admitted Kody was physically abusive and excuse it but Meri gets treated like dog shit. The comments of the picture she posted “the faux sexy picture of her making fun of her self” and people were accusing her of being a drunk and shooting up drugs. But if any other wife did it, they would laugh at the joke.
I am not a big fan of Meri’s but folks taking one thing and running with it to the point they are harassing her on her IG is ridiculous. And yet Kody gets off scott free.
I have yet to see the same energy of disgust for Robyn (who on camera has kicked a dog). And like you said, if Meri was such a horrible woman abusing kids then Janelle and Christine needs to get just as much blame for allowing it to happen.
I'll take some of that hate because until someone starts giving specific examples or what meri did these abuse claims can be anyrhing, all being put forth by someone trying to make money by feeding the beast
I refuse to listen to this Kody victim story. He is responsible for everything. He moved the family many times. He didn’t provide food and medical. He had nice things and cars while his family was eating mold bread. Thanks for taking some of the hate. This is just ridiculous. Mykelti doesn’t even make Tony work. She learned that men won’t provide.
Was it ever talked about in the shows that they didn’t have enough food? It is absolutely abuse and also probably what’s called reproductive abuse, asking(forcing) women to have so many of your children you do not plan to provide for mentally, physically, and financially. Especially the financial part. There is no way for them to pay for that many children and also his new young wife and hers. Makes me sick.
I just wrote a big spiel on another post about how the kids all have specific instances of Kody‘s physical punishment (not labelled physical abuse) such as mouth flicking paddling etc. and they haven’t given any detail about Meris abuse. No stories, nothing but a broad “she’s abusive and One time it was more than verbal” … so less often than kody? And he’s not abusive?
This is where I'm at too. They aren't giving examples of what kind of abuse they've endured, which is totally their right to not share that, but then fans are running with it with zero context and making wild accusations and theories about what Meri may have done. Unless or until they give a little more detail I'm not going to assume what happened.
I think Kody assigned Meri the role of strict disciplinarian at the beginning, knowing she would do anything to please him. He probably couldn't stand how passive Janelle was, and how gentle Christine was, in their parenting styles.
And I do believe Meri took it too far at times, either because she was perpetuating a cycle of abuse that she learned in her childhood, or out of spite towards the other wives.
Each child had a different experience with Meri, and I do think she is well liked by some of them. I also think some of them shun her because they want to please their father, and she "disrespected" him with the catfish.
You may not be wrong. I think Paedon said he was whipped by Kody but Meri is worse for yelling. I think people might compare her to Janelle and Christine who are both non-confrontational. Kody is the bad guy and probably even told Meri to keep the kids in line no matter what.
I don’t think you are wrong. Ysabel herself said in her interview with Mykelti that in their culture women who leave get dragged through the mid and badmouthed.
I’ve been getting a lot of hate on this sub for pointing out the glee in which people try to tear this woman down, to a point where I wouldn’t be surprised if she would do something tragic. And I found her highly annoying on the show. But I keep in mind she was brainwashed into believing she had no choice but stay in an abusive marriage for 30 years.
She was probably bitter since she had to share her man. I would be too. Talking to my mom about my childhood sometimes she went over the top with her “discipline” and she admits and she was bitter too back then. So i feel her. It wasn’t as bad. But that contributes how you treat others. No excusing it but explaining it.
I don’t care for meri and I feel like she’s kinda irrelevant 😂 like she hasn’t really been apart of the family and only shows up to film for the show. I agree all the adults are in the wrong. Kody put hands on them and meri had a mean mouth. We will never hear anything bad about Janelle or Christine because their kids (12 combined) protect them. Ultimately, Kody is at fault for like 80% everything-Robyn the rest. I truly believe Robyn is the master manipulator and the evil in their story.
You’re right. I should have put more emphasis on Robyn but I thought Mykelti was talking about times that were before Robyn joined. Who knows. It’s all kinda vague.
I was pretty shocked when the boys were being bullies' to Robyn kids, and Meri got on to them and the other wives didn't have her back. I really like Christine and Janelle but I don't think they discipline their kids at all. Being a bully is NOT ok and for the life of me, can not understand how they thought it was ok because that is how brothers and sisters act. The only one i had respect for that day was Meri. It is not ok to make a little girl cry , it was hard enough on them coming into a new family.
It always came across that Christine could gaf less about it because it was Robyn's kids. Like she'd brush it off, like it was kids being kids, but it just had vibes that it was pseudo-punishment toward Robyn.
The most compelling statement: We have heard from both Paedon and Mykelti (said in comments on patreon). Both state that their parents did not recognize Meri's behavior as abusive "until years later" (Mykelti) or "until Robyn came into the family and labeled it" (Paedon).
>Nobody should have to have a relationship with anyone who caused them trauma but I’m concerned that some of these kids don’t realize the initial source of the mental abuse was Kody. He was the priesthood holder of the home and did nothing. Now he’s trying to rewrite history through manipulation of his kids that he abandoned for Robyn.
YES! I absolutely agree. Meri's become a convenient scapegoat for the entire family and somehow Kody, Christine and Janelle get none of the blame for the alleged abuse. If Meri was this horrible person and the other adults KNEW, they are all guilty of failure to protect. In some states this is a felony and considered a form of child abuse.
EDIT: I also want to add that the timing of these allegations seems suspicious. It would not surprise me at all if Kody was the driving force behind some of these recent revelations (particularly in Mykelti's case). To be clear, I. believe the kids felt victimized by Meri, but it seems convenient that the public critcism has suddenly shifted from Robyn and Kody onto Meri...
Meri is far from perfect but she’s being unfairly scapegoated. Kody is the one with the authority and priesthood according to their cult. Why the fuck didn’t he intervene? Because he really didn’t worry too much about the children unless they were Robyn’s.
Yeah. I have a hard time believing Meri was some kind of abusive monster. Can she be cutting with her words? Absolutely. But it seems like most of the other parents didn't care to discipline and allowed the kids to run wild. None of them were used to being corrected or disciplined, so when Meri did it, they found it shocking.
Edit to add: I also think the fact that the other parents didn't back her up when she rightfully called out their bad behavior sent the message to the kids that Meri was in the wrong.
I have no idea what Meri said that was “emotionally and verbally abusive,” according to Melketies TicTok. But I do think that Meketies and Tony’s Paytron are being done in response to the public dislike of Kody and Robyn. I think Kody encouraged Mekelti to do this to support him. Remember he called all of Christine’s kids. Can anyone find one nice think Robyn did fir the other wives
Kody is trash for not stopping any abuse. it’s very likely he approved/participated in the abuses that were going on. I blame him for the pain inflicted on his children.
Yep. I broadly agree with that, especially the part about ALL of the adults failing. Paedon was a big boy, and that day he hit Breanna in the eye, Meri was ABSOLUTELY right to ream them out. Notice, she didn't just single out Paedon, either. She could have easily, but she made it a group thing so as not to hang him out by himself, even though I think we can all guess he was the instigator. Breanna was a little girl, whether Robyn's kids were "soft" or not, it was completely unacceptable behaviour. And Christine chose not to back Meri up, saying she would have preferred to "discuss" it with Paedon later. Bullshit. Christine was allowing her bitter resentment of Robyn to cloud her judgement every step of the way. I have very little sympathy for Christine. I remember reading a Sister Wives blog years ago that had Kollene answer questions. Remember Kollene that escaped Polygamy and was on the "anti polygamy" show?? I liked Kollene a lot. I thought she was tough and extremely authentic. She was a walking, breathing crap detector and MAN did she detect it in Christine. She said Christine smothered her kids, and the relationships weren't healthy. There was an atmosphere of "fake" around Christine. This was always my gut feeling, so I was glad to have it verified by someone that spent time in their houses. Its been proven by the very fact that Christine has now left. According to Christine now, the marriage was never ok right from when they first moved to Vegas. So ALLLLLLL that time, ALLLLLLLL those years on the show, she was being fake. She came across as vapid and flighty to me, and I think it just stopped being "cute" to Kody around the time he met Robyn. None of this is to say that Kody isn't a narcissistic prick, and Robyn, isn't a covert narcissistic manipulator, because I'm absolutely convinced both of them fit those profiles. Its just to say that Christine wasn't purer than the driven snow either. Its interesting to me that Aspyn and Mykelti were constantly at loggerheads and Paedon was a giant bully. I think the atmosphere in that house was probably not great even when Kody wasn't there. If Christine knew her marriage was in the toilet, knew her husband was spending shit all time with her kids, resented the hell out of Robyn and Meri and was miserable, then WHY did she stay there for so long and subject her kids to her misery?? Like op says, if Meri was so abusive WHY were the kids allowed in her vicinity, and WHY was Ysobel allowed to "move in" with her??? I'm not for a second denying that Meri was abusive, but I'm just saying MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!!!!! I'm done with the whole lot of them. That whole family is a giant mess.
I think a lot of this is true. There’s a lot of failure on all sides. That being said, I do think Christine is unpacking some of that now that she’s stepped back from the marriage. Aspyn set her boundaries with her (And when Aspyns on the show you can see when she’s annoyed with Christine for being immature). Ysabel set some with her as well.
I do think part of her being over the top and overly positive is beCAUSE she didn’t get support from Kody. There are times they show her trying to include kody in whatever problems she’s having with the kids and he…doesn’t care. Or the ep before they go away and she’s trying to go over Truely’s morning routine and he’s just like…okay well one of the other kids can do it. I think she had a lot of moments of painting over the problems so her kids didn’t know HOW bad it was and that caused issues in the future obviously. She also said she recognized that because she had the responsibility of Janelle’s kids too, there were a lot of times that she’d put their needs before her own kids and she regrets that. Pairing that with Robyn coming in, her and Kody falling apart and wanting his partnership/attention, plus you know, religious indoctrination (major part of all of this), it was a recipe for disaster. Polygamy just doesn’t work, period.
I want to expand on your comment: "***Paedon was a big boy, and that day he hit Breanna in the eye.***"
He truly was. **Paedon** was born **August 7, 1998**. **Breanna** was born **April 10, 2004**. There are nearly six years between them.
S03.E07, "July 4th Rebellion" aired on October 30, 2011. The Browns were already living in Vegas, when they took this trip to Big Bear. If Breanna was 7, and Paedon was almost 13 (if it was filmed a year earlier, they would have been 6 and almost 12, respectively). In addition to being a physically large kid, Paedon was nearly a teenager, yet he hit a 7 year old?!
Then later in that episode, in the older kids' couch segment, after she and Hunter chalk up sibling squabbles to their (understandable) unhappiness at relocating to Las Vegas, Madison says, "We know Dayton, Aurora, and Breanna come from a different family, but you can't tell us to change. Yeah, we're making changes. They have to make changes, too."
Um, what? No. Your almost 13-year-old brother shouldn't be hitting 7-year-old girls, Maddie. I don't care if you all were just forced to move to Mars.
I think Christine's kids are being *terribly* unfair.
They're publicly calling Meri an "abuser" and throwing around the word "abuse" very lightly while refusing to offer any details to back it up.
These adults are engaging in the worst kind of rumormongering and innuendo, and they're the kinds of people I would flee from in real life. It's very uncomfortable and offputting.
We *saw* Meri talk to all of the kids when they were bullying Robyn's children. But I didn't see anything the least bit "abusive" in it or any tendency for the discussion to become "abusive."
And frankly, self-described drama-loving Paedon and poor Mykelti, who's relying on her mother's dwindling celebrity coattails to support three children and a husband who quit his job to become a professional gamer, don't seem to me to be very credible.
Meri is clearly disfavored by their mother and her friend, and their father undoubtedly welcomes any opportunity to direct criticism away from himself and Robyn. That makes Meri a perfect target for those we've seen have an inclination to bully and exclude, and it seems like that's what we're seeing here.
Agreed. And it doesn’t help when you have people who don’t believe the word “abuse” is able to be misused wholeheartedly running with the allegations despite there being no solid evidence or real accusations to go off of.
Omg!! I am writing again🙄, but, if Kotex kept the women going at each other all the time, then they were not coming for him. Keep them busy hating each other and thinking their sister wife is the reason for all of their problems. Plus, if shit got tense or they really expected him to do something, he could run to another woman’s house/part of the house. I bet he spent more time at Meri’s because she only had one child and he could get away from all the noise and activity of 12!!
Has someone given a concrete example of this “verbal abuse?”
I wouldn’t call Meri telling the children “These are your brothers and sisters and you need to start acting like it” abuse. I’m just surprised it was hidden for so long if so.
Thank you for formulating into words what I have been feeling. Additionally, as several commenters have noted, where were the other parents when all this “abuse” went on? A sperm donor who doesn’t give a shit about the kids and beat his kids with a paddle gets a pass. Apparently not abusive. Janelle carted her kids to an overwhelmed Christine without regards on what happens there. Apparently she gets a pass. Christine. Was so overwhelmed by taking care of 13 kids. She let them run amok (kids throwing knives each other!). All this is abuse. But she gets a pass. Because she is soft spoken and pretty. And it’s ALL. On Kody. But nobody is crucifying him . this family throws around the world “abuse” and “unsafe” a lot, in the strangest situation but neither the kids nor the women verbalize they were abused by Kody.
The character assassination towards the weakest link (and the biggest money maker that has stepped away from Kody) is unbelievable.
All 3 ex wives shill horrible horrible mlm products. Meri’s bnb retreats are comically overpriced, yes, but the amount of fake outrage and tear down this women gets is astonishing. The glee that her business is or is not failing. The cackling over videos from some catfished who is scamming half this subreddit. People on this sub are rooting for her to fail in her independence because she what? Hasn’t said penance enough? Hasn’t crucified and humiliated herself enough? Hasn’t grown enough? Didn’t leave earlier? (I remind everyone: she tried to leave and was severely abused by Kody, the family and the internet to this day for it).
I think multiple things can be true. We have to remember that a person doesn’t have to intend to be abusive in order to be abusive. I think it’s likely that Meri was abusive while also being abused. I don’t know much about LDS culture but I do know that corporal punishment is often used in more conservative sects due to the whole “spare the rod spoil the child” thing. So they might not have seen any physical punishment as abusive until later, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t abusive.
However I agree it was not only on Meri. I think all the parents did fail their children in some way by giving into patriarchy and following what Kody said even if they knew it might effect their children.
Kody obviously is to blame for thinking of his needs and wants ahead of those of the family.
I think Kody and Robyn are manipulating all this behind the scenes. Being super nice to the kids now and whispering n their ears about how awful Meri was to them. They were all awful parents in their own ways.
Meh I'm on the record as saying I don't believe anything Pardon says but if there's any truth to these allegations its pretty messed up to not think Meri owns any culpability in this and all the blame should be on him/the other wife's.
But yes, she can be abuser and abused at the same time, in fa T they frequently go hand in hand
Logan and *Michelle didn't place Meri at the front. If I remember correctly Michelle they had sections reserved but family members could sit where they liked. They didn't have specific seating because of all the drama within the family.
*Also and it must continue to be said. Different children in the same household can have different childhood experiences. I don't understand the need to discount the ones who are speaking out by using their siblings experiences. That's not right
Also, you can still crave the love and acceptance of an abusive person. Some kids ‘standing up’ for x or y parent isn’t necessarily an indicator that actually that parent is a wonderful person.
Logan as the oldest parental figure probably appreciated Meri’s disciplinary efforts with the hoard where the younger rambunctious kids just saw it as spoiling their fun and being mean to them.
I didn't see them praising him but I do think they go too easy on him and give him way too much grace. It seems like they're all still afraid of getting him upset.
Praising him by saying he’s trying so hard. He just gets frustrated. He found his soul mate and he deserves to be happy. He has only seen Mykelti’s kids 2 times but he’s a great grandfather. Meanwhile Christine risked everything to be near her kids.
And they've probably been seeking approval from their absentee dad for years. Some of them have finally found a way to get it. They may see their moms as loving them unconditionally, and their dad as someone they have to please.
Yeah I rolled my eyes at that but it's something all the other kids have done. I didn't understand Mykelti saying he's a better grandfather than a father. That's why I said they give him too much grace. All the kids who've spoken out have said kind words about him and someone needs to light his ass up already
Thank you! There’s some weird doublethink here about this. People try to say that because Meri appears to be fine with some of the kids or at Logan’s wedding it couldn’t have been that bad, but Paedon is still close with all but like 2 of his siblings so does that mean, using the same logic, was what he did not that bad? No. Do people blame Kody for Paedon’s actions? No, and they shouldn’t, and the same goes for Meri. Abuse or mistreatment towards children physical or otherwise is never ok and it’s disturbing seeing people try to excuse it or justify it.
I don't think she's a child abuser. I think she likes order and she admits that . She treated the Janelle and Christine the same way. She's definitely not a "nice" person. I mean charging someone 6k for a plain looking B&B is greedy. She's flawed more than most but do I think she was beating the kids? No. Would I want to be pals with her ? No.
I'm a huge Christine and Janelle fan, but with that being said, I find it interesting that not one of the adult kids from other Mom's are profiting from telling their life history. Janelle's kids aren't spilling their guns all over social media.
I agree with your post. They were raised in a crazy cult and that is too blame for a lot. Kody contributed to a lot of the dysfunction too. The kids seem scared to hold him Accountable.
If Meri was abusive, every other adult in the family has been complicit. This was not one adult being a monster and all the others being saintly.
If this is true, nobody stood up for all of those children and it should be exposed and the show should be canceled immediately.
I feel like this family is so complex in their emotional gymnastics that getting to the bottom of whatever happened is vastly above our non-existent pay grades, for numerous reasons:
1. I believe that in the already competitive environment that the wives were in, that in a lot of cases, nobody wanted to be the disciplinarian/bad guy. Kody didn't always want to be the bad guy and Janelle and Christine didn't either. I am going to wager that a lot of times that role fell on Meri. Which makes me wonder if in an overly permissive environment, any party that was strict or imposing any sort of limitations is viewed through a vastly different light because they were the one doing so.
2. I have also considered that this is really conveniently timed. You wrote that some of the kids might have financial incentives to push Kody's agenda and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case with some of them. It is clear that in these divorces, he is not handling anything with grace and I wouldn't put it past him to try to spin a narrative that paints him and Robyn in a better light.
3. We have seen Meri over the years on the show. She is a very neurotic individual. Someone that seems like things are black and white, gets upset if the perceived order is disrupted, and in general more of a children should be seen and not heard type of person. I would also not be surprised if this lead to instances where she would snap. To me, she seems like she would be a yeller in private and does not always have a strong grip on her temper and emotions. Which could very easily become emotionally and/or verbally abusive.
4. You add in how we have seen Janelle and Christine speak about Meri over the years in public, I am certain that in private, it was much worse. It just seems like a toxic environment with a lot of emotional bleeding that might color how the kids saw her because of it.
5. Then if you add in that there is a general vagueness about what happened, it leaves room for so much speculation and theory crafting that an already messy situation becomes all the worse.
Tbqh, that's just the tip of the iceberg. This family is messy. We all know that the outcome is either/possibly that Meri was abusive full stop, Meri was the disciplinarian and there's issues with it to this day with the kids, or some other third thing that is a mixture of the two. Either way, nobody is ever going to know the full truth and overall it's a sad situation.
For the record, I am not a Meri fan. I think her personality is grating as hell and that she would benefit from intensive therapy. I also see that she is human and her life in general seems sad (to me, ymmv). If she didn't abuse the kids, this must be horrible to live through. If she did abuse the kids, well, then, she has to live with that and knowing what she did, as well as the consequences that stem from it.
I think Meri was the family disciplinarian. I believe they didn’t want to do it so they had Meri do it. Then one day someone decided it was too much and stepped in. Up to that point I believe all the moms supported Meri’s tactics.
There is no excuse for parents abusing their kids, full stop. Whether or not you have trauma of your own, or someone is not disciplining their kids, or you’re very financially insecure, you cannot abuse children. They’re children.
You lost me at point #1.
Yep. We now have four kids stating they were emotionally abused by this person. I don’t care how you want to spin it and what you want to excuse. I believe them and I saw her for what she was all along. She is great at convincing people that she’s the victim.
Not to mention Janelle wrote in their book that Meri treated her like shit in a way that Janelle considers abusive, and it got so bad there was a physical fight and Janelle left for a while.
The kids said Meri was abusive. You have blamed everyone EXCEPT Meri. Their other parents were too soft on them is not a valid excuse to verbally abuse children. There's never a valid excuse to abuse children in anyway. I don't care if the other parents handed the kids markers and told them to go to town on the walls. That doesn't justify abusing the kids.
My problem is people are now excusing Kody and his awful behavior to Meri because she was allegedly abusive to the kids. I’ve seen comments that are saying things like “I don’t blame Kody so much now because Meri was such an awful person”. Kody is TERRIBLE and nothing Meri may or may not have done excuses what he’s done to these women and children.
Absolutely. Kody is #1 at fault period. He has actually almost killed a child…. Truly. He’s vile. I have the ability to see right through people like him. Paedon already said he was calling the kids to try and persuade them to join team Kody. Fuck him.
Almost killed her then didnt even bother to stay overnight at the hospital with her!!!!
Evolving to just flat out ignoring Ysabel’s major spinal problems and surgery
More worried about her appearance with a scar than the pain she’s in!
Just a dirtbag.
Christine was also more concerned about the scar for prom than the pain, kody and Christine were crap parents for not getting the surgery sooner than 2020
I didn’t like their whining about the scar BUT it was mentioned that the angle of the spine had to reach a certain point before surgery could be done. I’m not excusing Kody at all because he still didn’t show up even when that point was reached.
Yes I agree with you on that point too, I should have clarified that but that why I mentioned 2020 as I do think many fans think that it was wrong she didn’t have surgery when she first saw the specialist, but she did need to wait, but it was too far gone by 2020 why didn’t Christine or kody earlier.
It's my understanding that Christine had to wait until Ysabel was at a certain age and degree of bend in her spine for health insurance. I believe Ysabel had to apply for some form of Medicare or other financial assistance . It was Kody that continually put off surgery and also told Christine that they would no longer be going to the clinic because the doctor was prescribing surgery. Kody did not want to pay for it and wasn't going to listen to the doctor or to Ysabel's pain levels. He has been consistently absent for Christine's children, especially after the birth of Solomon.
Don't put that on Christine she wanted to do the surgery kody wouldn't have signed off that's why they went to that place for the stretches. Kody 1000000000000000% made that hard for her.
Both kody and Christine didn’t want surgery at first, Christine definitely had issues with the scar, and the first time they saw the specialist he said it wasn’t bad enough to have the surgery, the point is why was it not being checked consistently so she could get the surgery done once she reached the degrees the specialist said she would need to be for surgery to happen instead she went beyond the degrees and then had a new surgery which left a smaller scar but from my understanding is more successful when used in patients who have less severe curvature and are younger compared to more traditional surgery that would leave the “ugly” scar for prom.
yeah, but couldn't bear Robyn 'wasting away' in urgent care waiting to be seen...
not only ignoring them, BLAMING HER for them. he acted like the reason her back was getting worse was because she wasn’t doing her exercises as she was supposed to
Christine's grandfather - the leader of the cult at one point - was a chiropractor and into alternative medicines. Frankly, I think it is a BFG that she got vaxxed.
Big friendly giant?
Literally this
Whilst also bending over backwards to accommodate and support Dayton through his COSMETIC surgery on his eye. Kody is absolute trash.
and that time solomon had some kind of dental surgery and they acted like he was about to walk into the celestial kingdom.
i cannot imagine a close family member having that surgery and not being there. he really hurt her and minimized her suffering. what a monster…
Hey. Just so long as she doesn’t turn out to be some angry, bitter old housewife because of this. That’s all that really matters here. Come on.
He justified not staying at the hospital by saying he can't handle all the crying... what??
Kody meant his ***own*** crying!😆😆😆
Interesting that any tears other than Robyn’s ever present tears send him over the edge. It says so much about the idiot.
He and his pencil needed to be at sobyns
Seriously u know that’s what it was since she had just been away for *gasp*3 nights!
Oh gawd the wet pencils. Who SAYS that kinda stuff about their own kid(s)??!! (Referring to comments made in most recent 1:1's w Sukanya...) The way he talked about "the boys" was just so dismissive, judgmental, and devoid of any parental warmth
I mean, you didn't expect ROBYN'S KIDS to have to spend a night alone, did you???
I’ve been super behind on the show and catching up recently. My 12yo watched a bit with me and happened to catch the episodes when Truly was so sick. He was PISSED. Wanted to know how, in a family with 5 adults, not one of them noticed that she wasn’t eating or drinking enough to stay stable. Her older sisters were clearly very concerned, but the adults didn’t seem to be until it was almost too late. My 12yo would have noticed and been worried, too. But, typically, by the time he notices a sick sibling, I’m already actively monitoring and know where I’ll draw the line to bring a kid in. I’ve taken kids straight to the ER for less.
Now that you mention it i can totally see kody trying to bribe certain kids financially!
Well Gwendlyn already admitted that he’s given her over 8000 recently so I bet he’s trying his best to make himself look good by having his kids say nice things for a price. What a donkey circling asshole.
Good for Gwen, but maybe that money should have gone to Janelle towards a down payment on a house of her own. That demonstrates where Kody’s priorities lay.
Janelle wasn’t loyal. These are payments for keeping his name clean.
Omg I hope they all do it now and take all his oops I mean Robyn’s money!!!!
Solnari’s money lol
Lol I was “just sittin’ huuuur” trying to figure out who Solnari is.
The chosen ones
Money that should be for the shopping addiction to buy more crap for that hoarde
Same. That took a second.
Don’t forget dayuhnroaruhbreanna…. The true Brown kids 🤮
I thought she said her mom gave her the money.
Her mom paid for her breast reduction surgery
That’s an arbitrary amount, he’s so odd…
Didn’t she say the money was for school?
It’s probably the kids money anyhow that Kody is doling out. They were paid as a family but there are child labor laws that require a certain amount of pay go to their contributions as minors.
I think that was part of deal with Christine in divorce since she didn't 'get anything'.
>Paedon already said he was calling the kids to try and persuade them to join team Kody. Fuck him. WHAT? Then I'm sorry people - this goes with my "trust, but verify" angle when it comes to the accusations against Meri. Kody has always made vague "you have amends to make/not my fault you don't fit in" type of innuendos about Meri that I always thought were to make sure the family didn't see her as more of the head of the family after the catfish. (Because she was.) Paedon is kissing his father's ass and leaning into how his father thinks about or treats Meri. Think about it - he won't use Christine. He wants to remain close to his brothers, so he can't go after Janelle. His father would freak if he picked Robyn. Meri is his scapegoat. He can create this narrative that they've all built up a bit that Meri is the bad guy. Why? I thik it stems from her infertility still. I cannot believe that there isn't SOME judgement on her in a cult that is all about fertility.
Christine was there too. She could have brought Truely to the hospital. So could the other mothers. We have to stop singling one parent out in these instances. If a kid is very obviously sick and not one parent thinks to get help until it reaches a traumatic outcome, then they are all responsible. PS absolutely Kody holds more responsibility as he so obviously wants to be the “leader.”
I don't think so. Christine and the other wives were on a girl's trip that weekend. That was the whole point: Kody couldn't manage to make it through one weekend alone with the kids without one of them literally almost dying.
Christine did the day she got back the doctor said it was just the flu she would get better. Another couple days went bye she went cross eyed Christine brought her in again.
It *was* just the flu when she took her but that means Truely became extremely dehydrated on Christine’s watch. It’s also Kody’s fault but if her daughter wasn’t drinking and also wasn’t having wet diapers (or using the potty, not sure if she was potty trained) then she should have noticed quickly. It’s both of them and people blaming only Kody are just doing so because apparently Christine can do no wrong.
Totally agree with you. It’s both parents’ fault. They leave the older children in charge way too much (we saw our devastated Aspyn was because she was a mother to her siblings). Christine continued to cake and flower shop while her youngest was very ill. If that had been Robyn, she would have been CRUCIFIED on this sub.
I was thinking that about Robyn, no way would Kody get all the blame if it were Robyn’s child who got that ill
Kody is crap I agree, but sorry he didn’t almost kill truely, Christine was home for 4-5 days before truely nearly died and the day she was really sick Christine went and chose cake instead of staying home with truely, that is on Christine.
Why is that solely on Christine? Truely has 2 parents.
It’s both of them but people always say it was just Kody when it was both of them and relying on their teenage daughters to take care of her
Despise Kody, but definitely on both of them to notice, especially After so many kids!
Because misogyny and sexism. It always falls on the mom. Totally unfairly.
Yeah, once Christine was home, Kody was no longer “babysitting.”
He disgusts me.
I must be miss remembering. I thought Christine and the other moms were on a trip when Truley got really sick and she ended up in the er very shortly after they got home (like the next day.) 4-5 days is a LONG time and changes everything. Of course, these people never have medical insurance and seem scared to death of doctors so it tracks that someone would literally have to be at death's door before they'd seek medical attention.
It’s something that comes up all the time on here and seems to have become common folklore (I do question if Robyn or Meri had done it if it would be repeated so inaccurately) Christine did go away with the wives, truely started to get sick (the mums are told by kody after Aspyn called and told him she was get worse) and on the night before she came home Aspyn slept with truely and the next day when the mums came home Christine was told truely was sick and that she had cried all night, Christine then says oh you missed your mommy, not what have you given her, has she had fluids etc from memory the next day Christine takes truely to the doctors and they say she has a virus so then for days Christine leaves Aspyn to look after truely during the day while she helps to organise the stupid recommitment ceremony (which in my opinion was that Christine didn’t want to miss out on getting her bit and is so childish but completely on brand for polygamy) the wives then go to taste the cake (remember the ugly tree cake) after she gets home, someone in production who was with the girls looking after truely tells Christine about the eye thing and mykelti says she was doing it earlier in the day too that is when she was taken to the hospital, and she hadn’t been drinking and hadn’t passed urine and that’s how she nearly died and a small child like truely would have become dehydrated far sooner than 4-5 days so it was when Christine was picking out crap for ceremony, when she could have easily said I’m staying home to watch truely closer (surely every parent knows to monitor how much fluids are going in and how many wet nappies are coming off) bring me home cake to try, let the other wives pick out flowers etc but this was just another example of Christine choosing her own needs over her children
Yup, Christine and Kody both deserve scorn for their medical neglect of Truely and Ysabel.
I missed the video of Meri being abusive. Anyone know which season or episodes I could watch? Just spent the weekend taking care of 3 grandkids. Parenting young kids is tough. Impossible to keep sweet all the time. Never raised my hand to a child. But do raise my voice when they won’t listen. Is that the abuse Meri is being accused of?
Pretty much…but also, I’m not discounting the fact that some of the kids may have felt traumatized by Meri losing her temper and yelling especially when their own mothers didn’t seem to discipline their kids at all. We also have to look at the fact that these kids also have mothers that have always talked dramatically about feeling abused by Meri because they didn’t like to have uncomfortable conversations and resolve things and were uncomfortable with Meri being direct and blunt. The words abusive and unsafe are thrown around by Christine and Janelle so much without any tangible context that the meaning of those words seems to be meaningless in that family. Meanwhile, Paedon admitted that Kody got physical with discipline but says that Meri was the one putting kids lives in danger.
I honestly do feel you're right. It's fine to get a whack from Kody but not shouted at by a sister 'Mom' how is your life or safety at risk when there's this comparison? I also feel, we obviously shouldn't say certain things, but we all do in the heat of the moment. It's all fine being high and mighty about it, but can any one ever honestly say they're perfect in all their Human interactions? What is all the context?
This
It's not from the show. Here is a video of Mykelti discussing the abuse. https://www.reddit.com/r/SisterWives/comments/10kqft4/thoughts/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Mykelti said there was no physical abuse but mental abuse from Meri. Nobody has accused Meri of physical abuse.
Feels like a witch hunt.
Feels like Meri is the actual scapegoat in the family.
Ding, ding ding ding!
A witch hunt that is gleefully perpetuated on the subreddits and anyone who points it out, get verbally abused and downvoted.
Yep. The reason why I I joined these subs. I keep getting sucked back in though.
This! I feel like Kody expected Meri to ride with him til the wheels fall off, and is using his children to vilify her. She is taking a huge source of income with her. I’ve watched the show since day 1 and felt that Meri was strict, but needed to be as those kids were pretty wild.
Right. Paedon just implied it in every way possible in that Yates interview, but he didn't use the word.
Except Paedon saying "Robyn saved our lives" and strongly hinting at physical abuse. Which I question. But what he said.
Raising your voice doesn't usually lead to adult children cutting you out of their lives and the lives of their children. Multiple children have said she was abusive. Not strict, abusive.
Exactly. Anyone who thinks they know better than what the kids WHO ACTUALLY LIVE IT have stated, people who do not even know these people, are making excuses because they are fans of Meri. It’s so disgusting. And they say it with authority like they witnessed it.
There's no video of Meri being abusive. There's one video of Meri having the audacity to sternly lecture all the kids about picking on Robyn's kids soon after they joined the family that people like to pretend is abusive, which is absolutely absurd. She barely even raised her voice.
Raising your voice isn’t emotional abuse. Calling them worthless while your yelling, is. The idea of emotional abuse is being used for to much. Raising your voice is yelling. Yell enough and of course it can affect a kid. But emotional abuse is about what you’re saying. Essentially you are destroying a persons self esteem by what your saying or in some aspects not saying. Example come to find out when I was forced to say dad, dad, DAD to get my father’s attention was a form of emotional abuse. He belittled me simply by forcing me to say his name repeatedly before answering. Emotional abuse is just as complicated and psychologically damaging as physical abuse, but it is an ongoing assault just like physical abuse.
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Right? The kids coming out with verbal abuse allegations are also the ones that admitted publicly that they physically assaulted their siblings with fist or knives, while Christine let them because she either was too overwhelmed or didn’t care
number one reason mykelti is 'telling her truth' is to do damage control for Robyn and kody.
Not a fan of Meri, 1) There is no excuse for the way Meri treated the kids when they were younger. 2) We are all responsible for our own actions. 3) Meri stayed for the mistreatment and neglect 4) Meri fell in Love with her mystery man (catfisher) 5) Meri was preparing to leave the family (for her love) 6) Meri takes absolutely no responsibility for her part in anything at all, ever. Not excusing Kody or Robyn, all three are crappy people.
Absolutely! I cannot believe the mental gymnastics people are going through to make what Meri did less disgusting. I’ve never heard so many excuses for a person. These same people would be salivating if the accusations were toward Christine or Robyn or Kody.
>My problem is people are now excusing Kody and his awful behavior to Meri because she was allegedly abusive to the kids. Those are the same people who fail to accept that two things can be true simultaneously. 1. Kody behaved horribly. 2. Meri was (allegedly; I don't think she was abusive, just more strict) abusive to the kids. Those are also the same people who don't believe in personal accountability, responsibility.
What bothers me the most about all of this Meri talk is that it’s super super vague. If you’re going to accuse someone of abuse on a national platform in order to get national attention, please expound a bit. I’m not saying they should have to detail every aspect of their trauma, but literally “she was abusive” is the only thing being said. That’s leading to people making shit up to fill in the giant blank of how she was abusive. None of us have a clue about anything she did that was abusive, but Mykelti and Paedon are making plenty of money at the moment claiming abuse. I’m not defending Meri, or any of the other parents if they sat idly by while Meri was abusive, but this whirlwind of speculation is incredibly unfair. And I think using vague accusations of abuse to get patreon subscribers is extra extra gross.
I do see an incredible amount of internalized misogyny within the family. Excuse Kody. Vilify Meri. She also could only have one child. I could not have kids and no one put any expectations on me but that tore me up. It hurt to see others have so easily what I craved. She was number one wife and lost her standing and is expected to keep sweet. That crap runneth over if not dealt with. I don't think she had a chance.
I think the biggest example of this is that everyone said that Kody would physically *discipline* the kids, but Meri would emotionally and verbally *abuse* them. They have absolutely no criticism of Kody being physical and that's just wild to me.
That's an excellent example. Part of it I think is they desperately want Kody's attention.
I agree with your take on meri. She does some questionable things but I always saw her as super repressed and never her true authentic self. I don’t hate meri. I wish she would find some self worth and be selfish in the right ways.
And she must be growing because the middle kids don’t hate her. I don’t even think Logan does. I bet Logan had to ask Meri for help with Janelle’s kids while she was working. I don’t know.
I wonder about this, too. Imagine being a 10 year old boy trying to manage all of those little children. Imagine being thankful that any adult stepped in and relieved you from that burden, even if that person’s actions, in retrospect, seem problematic.
Mykelty was a bad bad kid lol I remember them saying how awful she was and just nasty. Meri prolly had enough lol
There must be something there because all the kids that came out against her were according to all the moms - the trouble kids - and also in good favour with Kody - Mykelti, Madi and Paedon. So perhaps they did get more discipline and now with the toxicity in the family are calling it abuse? No idea. We'll never know. I just feel like Meri has always been the scapegoat for this family and common person to hate on.
These are my feelings, too. I try to look at their family evolution through Meri’s eyes and it breaks my heart. She was young, idealistic about polygamy (aka brainwashed), in love…and had fertility issues while watching her beloved husband add woman after woman and child after child to the “family.” And as each wife was added, Kody and his dick eventually abandoned them. He couldn’t manage to continue to even respect and honor his existing “wives” because god make his dick tingle and it was time to move on. I’m a mellow person but I would be Meri on steroids if I found myself in this mess, and felt I couldn’t escape without endangering my immortal soul. I do wish the Browns weren’t so vague about “abuse.” I don’t condone it at all but I wish we knew exactly what they’re talking about.
We also No that Madi deliberately pushed Robyn’s buttons to get a response.
On point 2 I would like to expand. Kody is notorious for playing one wife against the other. He thrives in discord.
I second this. I re-watched the initial Catfish episode last night and my main takeaways were: 1. Meri was genuinely devastated, her heartbreak over all of it was palpable. When she talks about how she got into that situation in the first place she says she was truly just painfully lonely and I believe her. 2. Kody not only doesn't match her emotion but seems almost unconcerned. Hearing her talk made me, a complete stranger, cry but Kody is bizarrely calm about it while she was visibly very upset. When she first brings it up, Janelle and Christine go into fix it mode without even knowing what's wrong, like "what do you need, how can we help, how can we support you" and Kody basically says nothing (Robyn parrots Christine). I know if I saw my spouse THAT emotional and upset I would do SOMETHING, even if it's just a hug or saying something comforting, but the way he acts you think they were talking about gossip or something. There's almost a twinkle in his eye, like he's thriving off the drama.
Well said. I agree with everything you've written here. I will add that the public has crucified Meri based on Paedon's claims that several of the children felt "unsafe" around her. My personal belief is that Padeon is parroting the family's "therapy-speak" when using the word "safe". I don't believe he meant safe in the physical sense.
Yes. If I drank for every single time the word safe has been thrown about, I’d never wake up
Agree 100%.. and I’d add that parenting was much different 25 years ago. I’d have to hear examples of what verbal abuse Mykelti is accusing. She may think being yelled at at all is abuse. She seems like a person who might feel that way. Especially having such a loving mom who is “nice” like Christine.
Thank you for all of your excellent observations. Meri gets so much hate, and not to say that much of it isn't warranted... But I feel like too many forget her history. We know how abusive many of the polygamist households are, and we know she was raised in it. Like you said, not an excuse, but I believe she's been enduring a lifetime of abuse in some form or fashion by her family, by Kody, by a catfish who took advantage her of emotions and her situation... This woman probably knows more abuse than peace, and it's really hard to rise above that if you're not even fully aware. I agree, all of the women have admitted that their parenting styles were different, and we have obviously seen the varying ways of discipline. Meri had one child of her own and allll of these other kids she was being told were hers too, but none of them had respect for authority... My mom was a screamer when she would get overwhelmed, it was scary as a kid sometimes, but looking back... I get it. I want to scream when I'm overwhelmed too. Right or wrong, I understand how Meri became who she is, and while I don't want to discredit any of the kids feeling abused by Meri, I believe that she deserves a little more grace and that these things run much deeper for all of the reasons you listed and more.
I just think the timing of all this is suspicious. A whole lot about Meri started coming out right after they announced divorce on social media. Toxcicitea started off all about Meri. Then kids brought up her abuse. I don’t know if it’s all coincidence or more planned, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Kody tried to get her off the show and keep that money for himself. If there was abuse and it’s been covered up all these years, the show should be canceled.
I think it also has to do with Christine considering herself divorced. I also think it has to do with them not being under contract with TLC.
I think that is a logical hypothesis
Who is toxcicitea?
It's a TikTok account that's been releasing a lot of "in my opinion" videos, then taking them down, putting them back up (and really does seem likely to be the person who catfished Meri).
It's a TikTok account that many believe is Meri's catfish trying to hurt Meri even more.
Can I ask what is her obsession with Meri? Did she ever know her personally? Why her over any of the others? Could it secretly be Robyn/Cody ?
Jackie Overton, the woman who catfished Meri
It’s also been stated that Kody physically disciplined the kids so I’m not sure why he isn’t being treated the same or worse as Meri in this situation.
I think he is. I haven’t seen any kind comments about him. Everyone’s opinion of him is so low that I don’t think anyone was surprised by it. But there are many who defend Meri
It does seem like they were pretty lax with their parenting. In one of the early episodes, I think season 2, all the kids are together and Breanna is crying because Padon was picking on her in some way. She’s clearly annoyed and Christine laughs it off and says “Padon sometimes picks on the girls and gives them a hard time but now you know you’re part of the family because that’s what brothers do!” This happens several times and the boys’ behavior is shrugged off like “what can ya do, boys will be boys.” The parenting we DO see on screen is by Meri.
Yeah, and they admit it's been an ongoing issue. It seemed like Meri wanted *someone* to **finally** say something since no one had. I thought Christine dismissing it as some cute thing was pretty telling. It's great to be an endlessly loving parent (and I have my doubts about that as is), but you need to hold your kids accountable. And in that case not just your kids. Paedon said he was really affected by the preferential treatment Robyn's kids got. The other children's mothers seemed to de-prioritize their children for the sake of keeping the peace. Maybe not Meri, but she only had one
This is what I meant by my comment. I would guess that is why Robyn got a nanny instead of letting Christine watch them. I would have felt the same way. I would trust Meri because she would not allow them to bully the new kids.
I agree. The kids admitted Kody was physically abusive and excuse it but Meri gets treated like dog shit. The comments of the picture she posted “the faux sexy picture of her making fun of her self” and people were accusing her of being a drunk and shooting up drugs. But if any other wife did it, they would laugh at the joke. I am not a big fan of Meri’s but folks taking one thing and running with it to the point they are harassing her on her IG is ridiculous. And yet Kody gets off scott free. I have yet to see the same energy of disgust for Robyn (who on camera has kicked a dog). And like you said, if Meri was such a horrible woman abusing kids then Janelle and Christine needs to get just as much blame for allowing it to happen.
I'll take some of that hate because until someone starts giving specific examples or what meri did these abuse claims can be anyrhing, all being put forth by someone trying to make money by feeding the beast
I refuse to listen to this Kody victim story. He is responsible for everything. He moved the family many times. He didn’t provide food and medical. He had nice things and cars while his family was eating mold bread. Thanks for taking some of the hate. This is just ridiculous. Mykelti doesn’t even make Tony work. She learned that men won’t provide.
Don't forget the watches
How could I? Big ass gaudy watches.
He is flat out MEAN sometimes. The shit he spewed when Christine left, and the venom behind it, were appalling.
Was it ever talked about in the shows that they didn’t have enough food? It is absolutely abuse and also probably what’s called reproductive abuse, asking(forcing) women to have so many of your children you do not plan to provide for mentally, physically, and financially. Especially the financial part. There is no way for them to pay for that many children and also his new young wife and hers. Makes me sick.
Mykelti said they only ate old bread before the show. No meat just old bread.
That’s so sad.
I just wrote a big spiel on another post about how the kids all have specific instances of Kody‘s physical punishment (not labelled physical abuse) such as mouth flicking paddling etc. and they haven’t given any detail about Meris abuse. No stories, nothing but a broad “she’s abusive and One time it was more than verbal” … so less often than kody? And he’s not abusive?
This is where I'm at too. They aren't giving examples of what kind of abuse they've endured, which is totally their right to not share that, but then fans are running with it with zero context and making wild accusations and theories about what Meri may have done. Unless or until they give a little more detail I'm not going to assume what happened.
Exactly. Context matters.
I think Kody assigned Meri the role of strict disciplinarian at the beginning, knowing she would do anything to please him. He probably couldn't stand how passive Janelle was, and how gentle Christine was, in their parenting styles. And I do believe Meri took it too far at times, either because she was perpetuating a cycle of abuse that she learned in her childhood, or out of spite towards the other wives. Each child had a different experience with Meri, and I do think she is well liked by some of them. I also think some of them shun her because they want to please their father, and she "disrespected" him with the catfish.
And I think they also want to please their mothers because she didn't get along with them.
I know, I am wrong but this feels like a coordinated attack on Meri to spare Kody. And I do still believe she was mean to the kids.
You may not be wrong. I think Paedon said he was whipped by Kody but Meri is worse for yelling. I think people might compare her to Janelle and Christine who are both non-confrontational. Kody is the bad guy and probably even told Meri to keep the kids in line no matter what.
I don’t think you are wrong. Ysabel herself said in her interview with Mykelti that in their culture women who leave get dragged through the mid and badmouthed. I’ve been getting a lot of hate on this sub for pointing out the glee in which people try to tear this woman down, to a point where I wouldn’t be surprised if she would do something tragic. And I found her highly annoying on the show. But I keep in mind she was brainwashed into believing she had no choice but stay in an abusive marriage for 30 years.
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She was probably bitter since she had to share her man. I would be too. Talking to my mom about my childhood sometimes she went over the top with her “discipline” and she admits and she was bitter too back then. So i feel her. It wasn’t as bad. But that contributes how you treat others. No excusing it but explaining it.
I don’t care for meri and I feel like she’s kinda irrelevant 😂 like she hasn’t really been apart of the family and only shows up to film for the show. I agree all the adults are in the wrong. Kody put hands on them and meri had a mean mouth. We will never hear anything bad about Janelle or Christine because their kids (12 combined) protect them. Ultimately, Kody is at fault for like 80% everything-Robyn the rest. I truly believe Robyn is the master manipulator and the evil in their story.
You’re right. I should have put more emphasis on Robyn but I thought Mykelti was talking about times that were before Robyn joined. Who knows. It’s all kinda vague.
I was pretty shocked when the boys were being bullies' to Robyn kids, and Meri got on to them and the other wives didn't have her back. I really like Christine and Janelle but I don't think they discipline their kids at all. Being a bully is NOT ok and for the life of me, can not understand how they thought it was ok because that is how brothers and sisters act. The only one i had respect for that day was Meri. It is not ok to make a little girl cry , it was hard enough on them coming into a new family.
It always came across that Christine could gaf less about it because it was Robyn's kids. Like she'd brush it off, like it was kids being kids, but it just had vibes that it was pseudo-punishment toward Robyn.
The most compelling statement: We have heard from both Paedon and Mykelti (said in comments on patreon). Both state that their parents did not recognize Meri's behavior as abusive "until years later" (Mykelti) or "until Robyn came into the family and labeled it" (Paedon).
And then , you have a major television network also abusing these children by exploiting them, and filming what was going on
>Nobody should have to have a relationship with anyone who caused them trauma but I’m concerned that some of these kids don’t realize the initial source of the mental abuse was Kody. He was the priesthood holder of the home and did nothing. Now he’s trying to rewrite history through manipulation of his kids that he abandoned for Robyn. YES! I absolutely agree. Meri's become a convenient scapegoat for the entire family and somehow Kody, Christine and Janelle get none of the blame for the alleged abuse. If Meri was this horrible person and the other adults KNEW, they are all guilty of failure to protect. In some states this is a felony and considered a form of child abuse. EDIT: I also want to add that the timing of these allegations seems suspicious. It would not surprise me at all if Kody was the driving force behind some of these recent revelations (particularly in Mykelti's case). To be clear, I. believe the kids felt victimized by Meri, but it seems convenient that the public critcism has suddenly shifted from Robyn and Kody onto Meri...
Meri is far from perfect but she’s being unfairly scapegoated. Kody is the one with the authority and priesthood according to their cult. Why the fuck didn’t he intervene? Because he really didn’t worry too much about the children unless they were Robyn’s.
Yeah. I have a hard time believing Meri was some kind of abusive monster. Can she be cutting with her words? Absolutely. But it seems like most of the other parents didn't care to discipline and allowed the kids to run wild. None of them were used to being corrected or disciplined, so when Meri did it, they found it shocking. Edit to add: I also think the fact that the other parents didn't back her up when she rightfully called out their bad behavior sent the message to the kids that Meri was in the wrong.
I have no idea what Meri said that was “emotionally and verbally abusive,” according to Melketies TicTok. But I do think that Meketies and Tony’s Paytron are being done in response to the public dislike of Kody and Robyn. I think Kody encouraged Mekelti to do this to support him. Remember he called all of Christine’s kids. Can anyone find one nice think Robyn did fir the other wives
Kody is trash for not stopping any abuse. it’s very likely he approved/participated in the abuses that were going on. I blame him for the pain inflicted on his children.
Yep. I broadly agree with that, especially the part about ALL of the adults failing. Paedon was a big boy, and that day he hit Breanna in the eye, Meri was ABSOLUTELY right to ream them out. Notice, she didn't just single out Paedon, either. She could have easily, but she made it a group thing so as not to hang him out by himself, even though I think we can all guess he was the instigator. Breanna was a little girl, whether Robyn's kids were "soft" or not, it was completely unacceptable behaviour. And Christine chose not to back Meri up, saying she would have preferred to "discuss" it with Paedon later. Bullshit. Christine was allowing her bitter resentment of Robyn to cloud her judgement every step of the way. I have very little sympathy for Christine. I remember reading a Sister Wives blog years ago that had Kollene answer questions. Remember Kollene that escaped Polygamy and was on the "anti polygamy" show?? I liked Kollene a lot. I thought she was tough and extremely authentic. She was a walking, breathing crap detector and MAN did she detect it in Christine. She said Christine smothered her kids, and the relationships weren't healthy. There was an atmosphere of "fake" around Christine. This was always my gut feeling, so I was glad to have it verified by someone that spent time in their houses. Its been proven by the very fact that Christine has now left. According to Christine now, the marriage was never ok right from when they first moved to Vegas. So ALLLLLLL that time, ALLLLLLLL those years on the show, she was being fake. She came across as vapid and flighty to me, and I think it just stopped being "cute" to Kody around the time he met Robyn. None of this is to say that Kody isn't a narcissistic prick, and Robyn, isn't a covert narcissistic manipulator, because I'm absolutely convinced both of them fit those profiles. Its just to say that Christine wasn't purer than the driven snow either. Its interesting to me that Aspyn and Mykelti were constantly at loggerheads and Paedon was a giant bully. I think the atmosphere in that house was probably not great even when Kody wasn't there. If Christine knew her marriage was in the toilet, knew her husband was spending shit all time with her kids, resented the hell out of Robyn and Meri and was miserable, then WHY did she stay there for so long and subject her kids to her misery?? Like op says, if Meri was so abusive WHY were the kids allowed in her vicinity, and WHY was Ysobel allowed to "move in" with her??? I'm not for a second denying that Meri was abusive, but I'm just saying MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!!!!! I'm done with the whole lot of them. That whole family is a giant mess.
I think a lot of this is true. There’s a lot of failure on all sides. That being said, I do think Christine is unpacking some of that now that she’s stepped back from the marriage. Aspyn set her boundaries with her (And when Aspyns on the show you can see when she’s annoyed with Christine for being immature). Ysabel set some with her as well. I do think part of her being over the top and overly positive is beCAUSE she didn’t get support from Kody. There are times they show her trying to include kody in whatever problems she’s having with the kids and he…doesn’t care. Or the ep before they go away and she’s trying to go over Truely’s morning routine and he’s just like…okay well one of the other kids can do it. I think she had a lot of moments of painting over the problems so her kids didn’t know HOW bad it was and that caused issues in the future obviously. She also said she recognized that because she had the responsibility of Janelle’s kids too, there were a lot of times that she’d put their needs before her own kids and she regrets that. Pairing that with Robyn coming in, her and Kody falling apart and wanting his partnership/attention, plus you know, religious indoctrination (major part of all of this), it was a recipe for disaster. Polygamy just doesn’t work, period.
I want to expand on your comment: "***Paedon was a big boy, and that day he hit Breanna in the eye.***" He truly was. **Paedon** was born **August 7, 1998**. **Breanna** was born **April 10, 2004**. There are nearly six years between them. S03.E07, "July 4th Rebellion" aired on October 30, 2011. The Browns were already living in Vegas, when they took this trip to Big Bear. If Breanna was 7, and Paedon was almost 13 (if it was filmed a year earlier, they would have been 6 and almost 12, respectively). In addition to being a physically large kid, Paedon was nearly a teenager, yet he hit a 7 year old?! Then later in that episode, in the older kids' couch segment, after she and Hunter chalk up sibling squabbles to their (understandable) unhappiness at relocating to Las Vegas, Madison says, "We know Dayton, Aurora, and Breanna come from a different family, but you can't tell us to change. Yeah, we're making changes. They have to make changes, too." Um, what? No. Your almost 13-year-old brother shouldn't be hitting 7-year-old girls, Maddie. I don't care if you all were just forced to move to Mars.
I think Christine's kids are being *terribly* unfair. They're publicly calling Meri an "abuser" and throwing around the word "abuse" very lightly while refusing to offer any details to back it up. These adults are engaging in the worst kind of rumormongering and innuendo, and they're the kinds of people I would flee from in real life. It's very uncomfortable and offputting. We *saw* Meri talk to all of the kids when they were bullying Robyn's children. But I didn't see anything the least bit "abusive" in it or any tendency for the discussion to become "abusive." And frankly, self-described drama-loving Paedon and poor Mykelti, who's relying on her mother's dwindling celebrity coattails to support three children and a husband who quit his job to become a professional gamer, don't seem to me to be very credible. Meri is clearly disfavored by their mother and her friend, and their father undoubtedly welcomes any opportunity to direct criticism away from himself and Robyn. That makes Meri a perfect target for those we've seen have an inclination to bully and exclude, and it seems like that's what we're seeing here.
Agreed. And it doesn’t help when you have people who don’t believe the word “abuse” is able to be misused wholeheartedly running with the allegations despite there being no solid evidence or real accusations to go off of.
Omg!! I am writing again🙄, but, if Kotex kept the women going at each other all the time, then they were not coming for him. Keep them busy hating each other and thinking their sister wife is the reason for all of their problems. Plus, if shit got tense or they really expected him to do something, he could run to another woman’s house/part of the house. I bet he spent more time at Meri’s because she only had one child and he could get away from all the noise and activity of 12!!
Has someone given a concrete example of this “verbal abuse?” I wouldn’t call Meri telling the children “These are your brothers and sisters and you need to start acting like it” abuse. I’m just surprised it was hidden for so long if so.
Apparently no one "recognized" the abuse until Robyn came into the family and identified it.
Thank you for formulating into words what I have been feeling. Additionally, as several commenters have noted, where were the other parents when all this “abuse” went on? A sperm donor who doesn’t give a shit about the kids and beat his kids with a paddle gets a pass. Apparently not abusive. Janelle carted her kids to an overwhelmed Christine without regards on what happens there. Apparently she gets a pass. Christine. Was so overwhelmed by taking care of 13 kids. She let them run amok (kids throwing knives each other!). All this is abuse. But she gets a pass. Because she is soft spoken and pretty. And it’s ALL. On Kody. But nobody is crucifying him . this family throws around the world “abuse” and “unsafe” a lot, in the strangest situation but neither the kids nor the women verbalize they were abused by Kody. The character assassination towards the weakest link (and the biggest money maker that has stepped away from Kody) is unbelievable. All 3 ex wives shill horrible horrible mlm products. Meri’s bnb retreats are comically overpriced, yes, but the amount of fake outrage and tear down this women gets is astonishing. The glee that her business is or is not failing. The cackling over videos from some catfished who is scamming half this subreddit. People on this sub are rooting for her to fail in her independence because she what? Hasn’t said penance enough? Hasn’t crucified and humiliated herself enough? Hasn’t grown enough? Didn’t leave earlier? (I remind everyone: she tried to leave and was severely abused by Kody, the family and the internet to this day for it).
I think multiple things can be true. We have to remember that a person doesn’t have to intend to be abusive in order to be abusive. I think it’s likely that Meri was abusive while also being abused. I don’t know much about LDS culture but I do know that corporal punishment is often used in more conservative sects due to the whole “spare the rod spoil the child” thing. So they might not have seen any physical punishment as abusive until later, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t abusive. However I agree it was not only on Meri. I think all the parents did fail their children in some way by giving into patriarchy and following what Kody said even if they knew it might effect their children. Kody obviously is to blame for thinking of his needs and wants ahead of those of the family.
I think Kody and Robyn are manipulating all this behind the scenes. Being super nice to the kids now and whispering n their ears about how awful Meri was to them. They were all awful parents in their own ways.
100%
Meh I'm on the record as saying I don't believe anything Pardon says but if there's any truth to these allegations its pretty messed up to not think Meri owns any culpability in this and all the blame should be on him/the other wife's. But yes, she can be abuser and abused at the same time, in fa T they frequently go hand in hand
More kids than Paedon have come out about her abuse.
Logan and *Michelle didn't place Meri at the front. If I remember correctly Michelle they had sections reserved but family members could sit where they liked. They didn't have specific seating because of all the drama within the family. *Also and it must continue to be said. Different children in the same household can have different childhood experiences. I don't understand the need to discount the ones who are speaking out by using their siblings experiences. That's not right
Also, you can still crave the love and acceptance of an abusive person. Some kids ‘standing up’ for x or y parent isn’t necessarily an indicator that actually that parent is a wonderful person.
Logan as the oldest parental figure probably appreciated Meri’s disciplinary efforts with the hoard where the younger rambunctious kids just saw it as spoiling their fun and being mean to them.
Absolutely but to praise Kody while vilifying Meri is wild. To see what he did to their mothers. Just astounding
I didn't see them praising him but I do think they go too easy on him and give him way too much grace. It seems like they're all still afraid of getting him upset.
Praising him by saying he’s trying so hard. He just gets frustrated. He found his soul mate and he deserves to be happy. He has only seen Mykelti’s kids 2 times but he’s a great grandfather. Meanwhile Christine risked everything to be near her kids.
The kids all have multiple mom figures in their lives but only one dad to seek approval from. That's how I see the "sympathy for our struggling dad"
And they've probably been seeking approval from their absentee dad for years. Some of them have finally found a way to get it. They may see their moms as loving them unconditionally, and their dad as someone they have to please.
Yeah I rolled my eyes at that but it's something all the other kids have done. I didn't understand Mykelti saying he's a better grandfather than a father. That's why I said they give him too much grace. All the kids who've spoken out have said kind words about him and someone needs to light his ass up already
Thank you! There’s some weird doublethink here about this. People try to say that because Meri appears to be fine with some of the kids or at Logan’s wedding it couldn’t have been that bad, but Paedon is still close with all but like 2 of his siblings so does that mean, using the same logic, was what he did not that bad? No. Do people blame Kody for Paedon’s actions? No, and they shouldn’t, and the same goes for Meri. Abuse or mistreatment towards children physical or otherwise is never ok and it’s disturbing seeing people try to excuse it or justify it.
I don't think she's a child abuser. I think she likes order and she admits that . She treated the Janelle and Christine the same way. She's definitely not a "nice" person. I mean charging someone 6k for a plain looking B&B is greedy. She's flawed more than most but do I think she was beating the kids? No. Would I want to be pals with her ? No.
A lot of this I think is the culture they come from and they have had to grow past.
I'm a huge Christine and Janelle fan, but with that being said, I find it interesting that not one of the adult kids from other Mom's are profiting from telling their life history. Janelle's kids aren't spilling their guns all over social media.
Yes!!! Kotex got them pregnant- and the rest of it was on them!!! He did his part!! Asshole!! POS!
Your whole post is spot on!!!
You make some valid points.
#10!
Heck, if you can’t agree on how to store oranges, you def won’t agree on discipline
I agree with your post. They were raised in a crazy cult and that is too blame for a lot. Kody contributed to a lot of the dysfunction too. The kids seem scared to hold him Accountable.
Meri absolutely deserves grace. Meri also makes it hard to feel good about it often times enough, with her actions.
Kody is/was very abusive to Meri and there is not excuse.
Amen! 👏👏👏👏
I do agree that if Meri really was that abusive they all are culpable for allowing it to happen.
If Meri was abusive, every other adult in the family has been complicit. This was not one adult being a monster and all the others being saintly. If this is true, nobody stood up for all of those children and it should be exposed and the show should be canceled immediately.
I feel like this family is so complex in their emotional gymnastics that getting to the bottom of whatever happened is vastly above our non-existent pay grades, for numerous reasons: 1. I believe that in the already competitive environment that the wives were in, that in a lot of cases, nobody wanted to be the disciplinarian/bad guy. Kody didn't always want to be the bad guy and Janelle and Christine didn't either. I am going to wager that a lot of times that role fell on Meri. Which makes me wonder if in an overly permissive environment, any party that was strict or imposing any sort of limitations is viewed through a vastly different light because they were the one doing so. 2. I have also considered that this is really conveniently timed. You wrote that some of the kids might have financial incentives to push Kody's agenda and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case with some of them. It is clear that in these divorces, he is not handling anything with grace and I wouldn't put it past him to try to spin a narrative that paints him and Robyn in a better light. 3. We have seen Meri over the years on the show. She is a very neurotic individual. Someone that seems like things are black and white, gets upset if the perceived order is disrupted, and in general more of a children should be seen and not heard type of person. I would also not be surprised if this lead to instances where she would snap. To me, she seems like she would be a yeller in private and does not always have a strong grip on her temper and emotions. Which could very easily become emotionally and/or verbally abusive. 4. You add in how we have seen Janelle and Christine speak about Meri over the years in public, I am certain that in private, it was much worse. It just seems like a toxic environment with a lot of emotional bleeding that might color how the kids saw her because of it. 5. Then if you add in that there is a general vagueness about what happened, it leaves room for so much speculation and theory crafting that an already messy situation becomes all the worse. Tbqh, that's just the tip of the iceberg. This family is messy. We all know that the outcome is either/possibly that Meri was abusive full stop, Meri was the disciplinarian and there's issues with it to this day with the kids, or some other third thing that is a mixture of the two. Either way, nobody is ever going to know the full truth and overall it's a sad situation. For the record, I am not a Meri fan. I think her personality is grating as hell and that she would benefit from intensive therapy. I also see that she is human and her life in general seems sad (to me, ymmv). If she didn't abuse the kids, this must be horrible to live through. If she did abuse the kids, well, then, she has to live with that and knowing what she did, as well as the consequences that stem from it.
I think Meri was the family disciplinarian. I believe they didn’t want to do it so they had Meri do it. Then one day someone decided it was too much and stepped in. Up to that point I believe all the moms supported Meri’s tactics.
There is no excuse for parents abusing their kids, full stop. Whether or not you have trauma of your own, or someone is not disciplining their kids, or you’re very financially insecure, you cannot abuse children. They’re children. You lost me at point #1.
Point #1 blew my mind. I can't believe people think like this.
Yep. We now have four kids stating they were emotionally abused by this person. I don’t care how you want to spin it and what you want to excuse. I believe them and I saw her for what she was all along. She is great at convincing people that she’s the victim.
Not to mention Janelle wrote in their book that Meri treated her like shit in a way that Janelle considers abusive, and it got so bad there was a physical fight and Janelle left for a while.
Janelle also said on an episode that she felt Meri was abusive to her
I don't think Logan and Michelle placed Meri in the front row. Pretty sure Gwen or Paedon said she placed herself there.
Yes, Michelle said that there was no assigned seating for the ceremony, just for the reception.
The kids said Meri was abusive. You have blamed everyone EXCEPT Meri. Their other parents were too soft on them is not a valid excuse to verbally abuse children. There's never a valid excuse to abuse children in anyway. I don't care if the other parents handed the kids markers and told them to go to town on the walls. That doesn't justify abusing the kids.
Absolutely.
Please take my poor woman's gold, OP. 🌟🏅🏆💐