The Pike Parents

[Deleted]

ktag said:

There's a real family with 16 kids, all named starting with a J. Talk about crazy.

Oh yes, the Duggars. I considered posting about them but I didn't. I think for some of their kids they had one almost a year after the last, like the Pikes.

# Joshua, March 3, 1988
# Jana and John-David, January 12, 1990
# Jill, May 17, 1991
# Jessa, November 4, 1992
# Jinger, December 21, 1993
# Joseph, January 20, 1995
# Josiah, August 28, 1996
# Joy-Anna, October 28, 1997
# Jedidiah and Jeremiah, December 30, 1998
# Jason, April 21, 2000
# James, July 7, 2001
# Justin, November 15, 2002
# Jackson Levi, May 23, 2004
# Johannah Faith, October 11, 2005

[wanderingfrog]

macca said:

I remember that. Wasn't there one named Woody? ;D

Yes. It was short for Dagwood. Oh, the horror.

[sotypical42483]

I'm reading Claudia and the Mystery at the Museum right now (something like that) and in it, the Pikes friggin hire Mallory and Mary Anne to go with them to take their kids to the mall! Mr. and Mrs. Pike aren't enough to watch their kids at the MALL without hiring sitters to tag along?! I literally rolled my eyes when they called during a meeting and said they needed Mallory and someone else to accompany them and their kids to the MALL.

[ktag]

Ugh. It's their excessive spending on babysitting that causes money management issues. Maybe if they watched their kids themselves, they could afford to buy their kids sneakers.

I guess when you consider Mallory has to take care of 7 kids, you can't complain too much about her being paid. I can also kind of understand paying them to babysit their own siblings if they're forgoing a paid job for someone else. But when they say Mal and Jessi can't babysit at night except at their own houses? That shouldn't be considered an official job. They're not allowed to sit anywhere else, so they're not losing any money. Probably all they do is do homework and go to sleep.

And all this double duty babysitting and mini-mom-Mallory spoils the other kids. In such a big family, you'd think they'd learn to take care of themselves. But no, they're being babied, and the triplets can't even clean up their own spilled milk.

[wanderingfrog]

I was reading Stacey's Problem the other day, and Mallory gets home from Riverbend for the summer and is all bent out of shape because her family can now function without her and she feels left out, especially when the other kids say that Byron's the oldest now that she's gone. (This bugs the other triplets a little bit, but not enough for them to actually try to watch over the younger kids.)

[hitzpink]

sotypical42483 said:

the Pikes friggin hire Mallory and Mary Anne to go with them to take their kids to the mall!

See, that is why I HATE THE PIKE PARENTS! They seriously anger me. They seem completely incapable of taking care of their own children, but yet they just kept popping them out year after year. What did they think was going to happen when they had 7 kids? What would they do if they didn't have the BSC to call on? Take responsibility for your own freaking kids and stop making your 11 year old be a mini-mom! Stupid Dee and John.

[lilafowler]

In Mallory and the Trouble with Twins, all ten Pikes go to the mall in one vehicle, and I feel really nitpicky for noticing this -- but even in a station wagon or a minivan...that doesn't sound particularly safe to me.

[baseballchica03]

Ahahaha, one of the ads I'm seeing is: "Are You a Slacker Mom? 15 fun questions that will tell you what type of parent you are! www.AreYouASlackerMom.com" Very fitting.

The Pikes always confused me, mostly because of what you guys have already mentioned about how the books always SAID that they had "hardly any rules" but there were still plenty of them. I just re-read Jessi's Secret Language, and the triplets got grounded indefinitely until they gave up who broke a window. (It turned out to be an accident.) No going outside, no using the phone... nothing until they caved. That's pretty harsh for parents who don't have rules.

[wanderingfrog]

Aww, that ruins the theory I recently came up with to explain why Mallory isn't allowed to wear sparkle sweatshirts. I thought it might be because the Pike parents don't have rules for any of their kids except for Mallory... because they hate her as much as most other people do.

[Deleted]

They probably assumed the triplets would crack after an hour or so.
That's a good theory though wanderingfrog, haha
The Pike's leniency definitely bugged me at times. When Mrs Pike would cook something for all 8 kids, and then they wouldn't have to eat it because they decided they wanted something else, and there's apparently 'no point in arguing' with 8 kids. Um, hello, isn't that their job as PARENTS? If I had to cook for 8 people, I'd be d**n sure it got eaten!

[inge]

Good point. In an 10 people household you'd expect it to be "eat what's on your plate because you can't always please everyone" not "eat whatever you like because you can't always please everyone"

[digigirl02]

If the kids didn't like what they were having for dinner, couldn't they fix something even if it was a sandwitch?

[gabbie]

I think they could. I was always a little surprised by that because the rule in my house was basically if you don't like it that's tough. Eat it or go hungry. Of course neither my brother nor I were picky.

[lilafowler]

I just looked at the scrapbook part of a Mallory book (I was excited to look at the notebook pages to see if they were filled in), and why are Mallory and Vanessa so busted when Mr. Pike looks pretty dashing? If my husband looked like that, I'd probably be pregnant all the time, too.

[digigirl02]

@eat it or stave-that's how it was at my house too.
I haven't seen that picture for awhile, but yeah I pretty sure that he does look pretty dashing.