Ballerina Farm

[JermajestyDuggar]

This article really makes Hannah Neeleman’s husband look like a controlling asshole. He seems to interrupt her or try to counter everything she says to the interviewer. She had to give up ballet for him. She wanted to wait to get married but he didn’t. So they got married quickly. If he wants to move to the country and have a farm she goes along. Hannah is EXTREMELY privileged. But it’s obvious her husband rules this family. Hell the only time she got an epidural is when her husband wasn’t there with her for the birth. And she loved it. But no more of that for Hannah. They don’t have a nanny because her husband says no. But they have a teacher who teaches the children in their school house barn and they have a babysitter once a week because husband says they must have a date night. It’s all so weird to read. Here’s the link:

 

https://www.thetimes.com/magazines/the-sunday-times-magazine/article/meet-the-queen-of-the-trad-wives-and-her-eight-children-plfr50cgk

[Xan]

Ugh.  The husband gives me the creeps.

[Becky]

That’s some next-level manipulation going on, at the very least. Creepy does not begin to describe it. 

[Howl]

Immediately I was wondering, "Where did all the money come from to get Ballerina Farm going?"

Daniel also grew up in a Mormon family, one of nine, in Connecticut, the son of David Neeleman, billionaire founder of a number of commercial airlines, including JetBlue. His upbringing was moneyed and suburban.

Subtext to her statements: I'm so f**king ready to stop having kids. 

[Bluebirdbluebell]

Yes, I've started following Alyssa Grenfell and she was talking about them. Grenfell is an ex-mormon, who talks about why she left Mormonism.  Some of her videos are long, but I recommend the full length videos if you have time.

Anyway, here is a short she made about content posted by them on her youtube channel (link).

[JermajestyDuggar]

10 hours ago, Howl said:

Immediately I was wondering, "Where did all the money come from to get Ballerina Farm going?"

Daniel also grew up in a Mormon family, one of nine, in Connecticut, the son of David Neeleman, billionaire founder of a number of commercial airlines, including JetBlue. His upbringing was moneyed and suburban.

Subtext to her statements: I'm so f**king ready to stop having kids. 

I know Hannah didn’t come from poverty or anything. But I can’t help but focus on the fact that he inherently has more power than her in the relationship because he comes from billionaire money. And part of me can’t help but feel a little empathy for a very privileged woman who may not have much say in her life. 

[Howl]

8 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

And part of me can’t help but feel a little empathy for a very privileged woman who may not have much say in her life. 

Boom! 

And who is allowed very little time between pregnancies and absolutely knows that she has to maintain her perfect figure and weight during her pregnancies and after each baby is born. 

That thing about the Mrs. America contest TWO WEEKS post partum makes me incredibly uncomfortable.  And ice baths? 

It's not mentioned, but nutritional consultants/trainers on staff for her or it may be that she is an incredibly driven woman or both.  

Eeeesh. 

And also, these influencers with followers in the hundreds of thousands of even millions? 

A Mormon momfluencer reminds me that I need to check in on Freckled Fox. 

 

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

From The Times article I notice she has the Mormon mom blogger figure -- skinny body and a bolt-on chest, See Rachel Parcell (Pink Peonies) as another example.

I've read that Utah leads the country in plastic surgery, particularly breast augmentation for young women.

Her husband seems like a controlling jerk, who is manipulative to the max and doesn't allow Hannah any say in her life-- even in the smallest things. The lunch the writer describes sounds like absolute overwhelming chaos. 

Adding:   The article mentions 2 other Mormon bloggers -- one caught my eye -- Nara Smith. She is 22, a model, married to another model Lucky Blue Smith (also Mormon) and has 3 children -- Rumble Honey, Slim Easy, and Whimsy Lou -- and stepmom to hubby's child from a previous relationship, Gravity Blue. 

What the heck is with Mormon's and weird names

Edited July 25 by Red Hair, Black Dress

[Howl]

So Emily Meyers,  thefreckledfox on Instagram with 217,000 followers, is still cranking along, raising her six kids solo.  I don't think it's been easy, and she says it hasn't been.  My understanding is she had a DUI awhile back and she mentions something about struggles, isn't specific, but that may be related. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

5 minutes ago, Howl said:

So Emily Meyers,  thefreckledfox on Instagram with 217,000 followers, is still cranking along, raising her six kids solo.  I don't think it's been easy, and she says it hasn't been.  My understanding is she had a DUI awhile back and she mentions something about struggles, isn't specific, but that may be related. 

I think she’s doing a little better now that she is divorced from the guy who shot her. I get the impression she’s slowly rebuilding her life as a single mom. 

[Xan]

58 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I know Hannah didn’t come from poverty or anything. But I can’t help but focus on the fact that he inherently has more power than her in the relationship because he comes from billionaire money. And part of me can’t help but feel a little empathy for a very privileged woman who may not have much say in her life. 

When I was younger, we referred to that as wearing "golden handcuffs".  You might be trapped at a higher income level but you're still trapped if he controls the money and has all the power.  If she ever tried to leave, he'd have several teams of lawyers making sure that the kids stayed with him and that she got nothing.

[Howl]

15 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I get the impression she’s slowly rebuilding her life as a single mom. 

Yes, very much this. It's crazy to think that she's only in her very early 30s. 

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

When you marry money, you earn every penny.

[Coconut Flan]

5 minutes ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

When you marry money, you earn every penny.

So the saying goes.  Maybe not all wealthy guys are power/control freaks, but too many of them are.

[BensAllergies]

I noticed the controlling behavior too. In addition, I noticed that Hannah was struggling with the image she portrays as a member of the LDS church. They are taught that they are ambassadors by having a public image, and I could tell that she wanted to tread carefully and not say anything too controversial, which would put the Church in a bad light. Her husband kept snidely saying that she’s ready to give birth exactly 9 months after the last one, and she protested by saying that it was always a matter of prayer. I don’t think she appreciated the dismissiveness of Daniel’s attitude when she was sharing the only thing about her personal, spiritual faith in that entire interview.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, Coconut Flan said:

So the saying goes.  Maybe not all wealthy guys are power/control freaks, but too many of them are.

It actually makes sense when looking at how being wealthy works in the US. If you are wealthy, you don’t have the same consequences as everyone else when breaking the law. You basically have a very different Justice system if you are rich. You can also get away with treating people like shit and having no consequences due to NDAs and paying people off in civil cases. You can also pay people to do all of the things you don’t feel like doing. Therefore you focus on the things you enjoy and are good at. Which will make you think you are quite a great person because if it. It’s very rare to find a decent, down to earth, non self centered,  non controlling rich person in the US. 

[Howl]

3 hours ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

Nara Smith. She is 22, a model, married to another model Lucky Blue Smith (also Mormon) and has 3 children -- Rumble Honey, Slim Easy, and Whimsy Lou -- and stepmom to hubby's child from a previous relationship, Gravity Blue. 

What the heck is with Mormon's and weird names

Those are weird, even for Mormons.  Also,  3 kids by 22?  

30 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

It’s very rare to find a decent, down to earth, non self centered,  non controlling rich person in the US. 

I'd say Warren Buffet seems to be a one in a million in this regard. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

36 minutes ago, Howl said:

Those are weird, even for Mormons.  Also,  3 kids by 22?  

I'd say Warren Buffet seems to be a one in a million in this regard. 

Warren Buffet is different from a lot of other billionaires in the US. But I guarantee he’s got rich man quirks just like the rest. His might just be less disgusting or egregious. 

[BensAllergies]

I will say what I’ve said before which is that my husband and I spent a short time a decade ago hanging out with people like the Neelemans. An hour east of NYC is an enclave of rich Mormons, mostly entrepreneurs. They mostly live in New Canaan but they’re all over Fairfield County. The two big billionaire families are the Neelemans and the Checketts. All the millionaire families didn’t see themselves as wealthy because they weren’t as wealthy as the billionaires.

One of the billionaire adult kids that we knew better than the others is genuinely a very good person. He, like the others, became an entrepreneur and co-founded his own business which has done well. But when we moved he came to help us load the furniture into the moving pod and gave us big hugs. He just genuinely cared about other people and wanted to help.

Spoiler

At the same time, from that same group of twenty and thirty something old couples with young kids, came Shanna Gardner. She didn’t grow up in CT, and was a temporary transplant there like we were, but her parents are millionaires in Utah. She is now sitting in jail in Florida for hiring someone to kill her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. Her parents hired Casey Anthony’s lawyer for her upcoming trial, and he is very expensive. 

So, yes, an obscene amount of wealth can certainly breed the attitude that you are above the law, but there are also good apples in the bunch.

[JermajestyDuggar]

15 minutes ago, BensAllergies said:

I will say what I’ve said before which is that my husband and I spent a short time a decade ago hanging out with people like the Neelemans. An hour east of NYC is an enclave of rich Mormons, mostly entrepreneurs. They mostly live in New Canaan but they’re all over Fairfield County. The two big billionaire families are the Neelemans and the Checketts. All the millionaire families didn’t see themselves as wealthy because they weren’t as wealthy as the billionaires.

One of the billionaire adult kids that we knew better than the others is genuinely a very good person. He, like the others, became an entrepreneur and co-founded his own business which has done well. But when we moved he came to help us load the furniture into the moving pod and gave us big hugs. He just genuinely cared about other people and wanted to help.

  Hide contents

At the same time, from that same group of twenty and thirty something old couples with young kids, came Shanna Gardner. She didn’t grow up in CT, and was a temporary transplant there like we were, but her parents are millionaires in Utah. She is now sitting in jail in Florida for hiring someone to kill her ex-husband, Jared Bridegan. Her parents hired Casey Anthony’s lawyer for her upcoming trial, and he is very expensive. 

So, yes, an obscene amount of wealth can certainly breed the attitude that you are above the law, but there are also good apples in the bunch.

I totally agree there are good apples. Just like in any family there will always be outliers that aren’t like everyone else. I’m the weird one in my family 😏

[NachosFlandersStyle]

30 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Warren Buffet is different from a lot of other billionaires in the US. But I guarantee he’s got rich man quirks just like the rest. His might just be less disgusting or egregious. 

I think living in Omaha will tone it down a little. I had an elderly neighbor who grew up with him. My neighbor had a comfortable upbringing but didn't come from crazy wealth or anything. It's just not possible to surround yourself with other rich freaks in a small midwestern city.

[FilleMondaine]

@Howl thanks for the update on Freckled Fox. I have been thinking about her, oddly. Didn’t her former in-laws Sue to get the kids?

Poor her, she was set up to fail from the beginning, but got lucky enough to find ‘a good one.’ And then he died. She likely had been too poisoned by Mormonism to believe that she could thrive without a man, and too sheltered to build skills like noticing red flags.

[FilleMondaine]

The Guardian, by the way, ran a story about these women just a couple of days ago. While they leave no doubt of it's grossness, they don't detail the creepy husband and isolation tactics. Still, it is an excellent read.

My favorite quote is to show the hypocrisy of conservative fantasies of The Family, and the lefty social programs that supported a stay-at-home wife. 

Quote

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could choose to live on one income? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could choose to stay home and raise children, rather than be forced into it because childcare is so damn expensive?

In reality, that past was only made possible through extensive government intervention – the kind to which modern Republicans are fiercely opposed.

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

31 minutes ago, FilleMondaine said:

The Guardian, by the way, ran a story about these women just a couple of days ago. While they leave no doubt of it's grossness, they don't detail the creepy husband and isolation tactics. Still, it is an excellent read.

My favorite quote is to show the hypocrisy of conservative fantasies of The Family, and the lefty social programs that supported a stay-at-home wife. 

 

I’ve pointed that out before but republicans don’t want to hear it. Because punishment is what is always deserved in these types of situations. No help to anyone. They glorify struggle. As if it always leads to wonderful better lives. When really most of the time struggle leads to childhood trauma for many children.

[BensAllergies]

I just saw a video where she is opening up her birthday present from him while saying that she hopes it is tickets to Greece. Nope, it’s an egg apron! So she can gather eggs from the chickens.

Not only that, but he says he’s had it for awhile. He could’ve given it to her as a “just because” gift, considering it’s for doing farm chores, but no, he saved it specifically for her bday. 

I don’t mind the fact that it was still in the original packaging that it arrived in. I know people my age - which is the same as their age - who don’t do cards or special bags or wrapping paper due to their impact on the environment. If that is also Hannah’s and Daniel’s arrangement then that is just fine.

The kicker is that he says, “you’re welcome” to remind her to thank him while she is struggling to find words what to say.