Welcome to Plathville

[AnneWeber]

Does anyone watch this? It's about a religious homeschooling family in Georgia US with 9 kids.
Lots of tensions and now the older kids have moved away and 3 of them have fallen out with the parents and confronted them about their homeschooling not properly preparing them for adult life.
The parents seem to try and blame everything on the daughter in law Olivia corrupting the others. It's funny how they are going to the opposite extreme doing sexy modelling etc

I can’t help but think this whole separation is for a storyline. Kim and Barry should be taking acting lessons.
I think you may be right. Surely she'd now be stick-thin with a new hair-cut, if it were genuine😄

There was a YouTube reaction video about the first couple of series of the Plath's.
It was called psychology in Seattle (or something) and hosted by Kirk Honda. It was really interesting.
Basically it said that Kim had a terrible childhood (I think it was a mother with alcoholism) and the Terri le trauma of her own child that lead her to be so overprotective.
Also, talking an accepting each other was the way to go to make the family get back together.
His biggest worry was for Lydia, who seems to near the brunt of the angst of the family on her shoulders.
It was really interesting!!!

I think that Kim was the one behind putting the family on TV but putting very damaged adults and children on TV never goes well.

That said, I still really look forward to watching every week!!!!

Kim has deep routed trauma. She ran over and killed 17 months old son on 2008. As much as I dislike the persona she presents, I can't imagine how that feels.

I think the overprotective censorship of the world was 99% Kim. This all feels like a reaction to social media pile in from her actions on the show.

I've just seen the 'Nigel from the Gym ' episode.

The whole scenario seems so incredibly unlikely. Nigel has to be some sort of actor, paid to be the love interest!!!!!

I agree neerg - Nigel is obviously just a polite young man who Kim has latched on to! He probably got paid a handsome fee to appear in the show. When Kim was talking about Berry being jealous.... what planet is she on?

Ewwww latest episode made me cringe all over, Barry and Lydia's picnic. Whole thing was really inappropriate.

It was very awkward.

Am I the only one who can't stand Olivia? I think she's so manipulative with Ethan. He bought a car when they were separated, so what? He loves cars and you can tell they make him happy. Why wouldn't she want him to be happy?

Olivia is very strange, I can't stand her. Almost as bad as Lydia and Amber is certainly looking like she's going along the same lines!!

I don't know why Olivia was upset either. Poor Ethan can't win. If he doesn't think for himself, he is in trouble, if he thinks for himself, he is in trouble.
Olivia seems to want everything her way.
They are not a good match are they☹️☹️☹️☹️

They're a perfect match. Both married to get away from their families. and Ethan has ended up with a new mother. Doesn't have to think for himself. Olivia will find her feet. He might end up living with his dad.

kims dance studio seems totally false

is she going to teach?

her technique is crap

I like Olivia. She has outgrown the manchild Ethan. The cars aren't just about money, it about priorities and time. Ethan wants to spend weeks at a time back in Cairo working on cars. He is focussed solely on his own needs. They are not and probably never have been well suited.

I thinks it's strange that he doesn't know about how parents. It feels like Kim is holding this information as punishment. It's not just about his parents, I am sure he will want to support his younger siblings. I didn't know why Moriah is keeping their secret for them.

Manchilld? He is only 22/23 isn't he? They got married ridiculously young and they're now paying the price. He went from one domineering woman (his mother) to another (his wife). He's never actually had a chance to just be himself without anyone telling him what to do.
Their marriage is never going to last so they may as well go their separate ways now.

At least Ethan & Olivia are using contraception, otherwise there'd be at least 2 babies in the picture.

I just can't believe how sheltered both their upbringings were, Olivia had never been out for an evening with girlfriends.

They must have married at 19/20. One of the first episodes, Kim said Olivia had evil spirits from the devil for encouraging Ethan to drink soda.

I agree with Micah, Kim sees her older children living a full life and wants that for herself.

Anyone know why the latest two episodes (7&8) aren't available on discovery+?

Anyone? I need my fix! 😬

No idea but episode 7 was on TLC if that's any help?

Thanks, it's just been released on discovery+ 🙌

Oh good.

I can't believe Olivia had to go to the strip joint with Ethan, fgs woman give him some time away from you.

As for sneaky little Lydia seeing Max even though she knew he'd cheated on her DSis, well I have no words 😡

Where is Welcome to Plathville shown? I confess I'm intrigued.

Does anyone know the FreeJinger website and forums? (The title is a reference to Jinger from the Duggar Family (* Kids and Counting - which I think was taken off when Josh Duggar (oldest son, now married and producing a new branch of the dynasty) turned out to be more than a bit scandalous.

@elkiedee I've got Sky and watch it on TLC channel.

I followed FreeJinger when poor Jinger was still mid-teens. The whole religious fundamentalist movement fascinates me, in a shock-horror way. I'm glad that Jinger herself now seems to have rejected her upbringing to some extent, she & Jeremy do seem happy.

Delighted that at last that piece of scum Josh is now behind bars. But the whole setup is a child abuser's dream - men in charge, forgiveness granted, pray away the sins etc.

Back to the Plaths, a thought popped into my head the other day - I wonder if they're related to Sylvia Plath?

Thanks @Limer - yes, I find these fundi families weirdly fascinating but very disturbing too. I think I still have TLC as part of my rather expensive Virgin Media package so it would be good to find more excuses, however dubious, to justify keeping it. DS1 (15) only watches Netflix, DS2 sport and manga, and dp watches things on his phone.

I feel a bit sorry for Barry now. I used to find him annoying. Ethan and Olivia should probably just split up. They're obviously not compatible. Ethan spends half the time with a face like a slapped arse while Olivia tells him off.