#mandrae collins

[wtffundiefamilies]

[spurgie-cousin]

I just thought this comment made such a good point. Mandrae spends a few minutes of this video talking about how he doesn't worry anymore about having enough money for all his kids because he trusts god to provide, right after Karissa finishes talking about how they keep their kids out of schools or public churches for fear of exposing them to the outside world. Which is pretty standard Collins rhetoric, but it's interesting that they don't connect those dots.

Also they've changed the story about Mandrae's vasectomy/vasectomies at least 3 times now 🙃

[fundamental-cactus]

When I was a teen we called this ‘Jesus junk.’ I know the Duggars have sported these types of shirts before, but they are usually harder to see as they don’t advertise them/sell them.

[spurgie-cousin]

I am guessing Karissa never wanted to be quiverfull from the offset as she has mentioned Mandrae not wanting loads of kids but she felt compelled to because of God. Do we know which kid she felt like this at?

I found a post that Karissa wrote for the Transformed Housewife's blog that actually had a lot of interesting bits of info about this topic (esp regarding Mandrae), so I'll try to summarize it below to avoid giving TTH any more online traffic:

Per her own testimony, Karissa went into marriage with the plan to be on birth control for at least 5 years, pursue a singing career (snort), and just spend alone time with her husband, but after hearing a sermon on trusting god with your family planning they both decided that that was what "god was calling them to do".

So Karissa ditches the BC, they discover how freakishly fertile she is, and after baby number 3 Mandrae starts to question this decision. Per Karissa he worried about money, being able to be emotionally present for each of his kids, the quality of life for each of his kids, being thought of as irresponsible by family and friends, all things any decent parent would have anxiety about. Karissa, who is somehow free of these incredibly basic worries, insists that this is what god wants them to do and refuses to use any form of birth control or family planning.

She becomes more and more insistent and Mandrae's anxieties increase until he actually threatens to get a vasectomy without Karissa's approval multiple times. He starts getting counseling from multiple pastors who support his feelings and agree with him that they should stop, but Karissa is *certain* that she knows better than everyone else and refuses to stop. So like at this point in the post I'm like, holy fuck, I don't know what kind of abuse I'd call this but all of my 'spousal abuse' alarm bells are ringing at once right now.

On top of all this, Karissa is experiencing a lot of health issues due to being constantly pregnant and her doctors are also urging her to stop. To prevent Mandrae from getting a vasectomy, she decides to get back on birth control which she takes for a max of 2 weeks before quitting because her health issues get worse. She's eventually diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis which she blames on the birth control (I looked into this and for women who are at risk of developing MS, there is a chance of birth control exacerbating those symptoms and increasing your chances of getting diagnosed).

Karissa's diagnosis only strengthens Mandrae's belief that they should be done having kids so, out of fear of him getting a vasectomy, Karissa decides to stop trying to convince him for the time being and just pray about it ('spend time in her prayer closet' as she puts it).

It was during this time that Karissa gets pregnant with baby 4 (Mandrae what are you dooiiiinnnnnn) and of course, she has a ton of health issues. Mandrae loses his job after they've just upgraded their house and car and Karissa also feels that god is calling her to quit some job where she's working evenings (of course she does) and, per Karissa, somehow they still get every bill paid on time and money is magically just coming into their accounts (this is literally how Karissa describes it so I am screaming at the screen at this point). Karissa also points out that after quitting her job and ditching doctors, she is magically 100% healed (*shoves my head through the wall*).

Pregnancy 4 ends up in a miscarriage (actually a blighted ovum, which per Karissa is basically when a pregnancy develops with literally everything but a fetus) despite Karissa being magically, totally healed. She gets pregnant again soon after and during this pregnancy, she notices that when people ask Mandrae if this is their last baby he starts to respond with "We're leaving it up to God". Karissa is filled with joy and happy tears knowing her abuse has finally yielded the results she's been looking for all this time!!!

She ends by saying life has been peachy and magical ever since, god has not only saved her life multiple times but has given her pain-free births and many other magical blessings, which she knows is proof she's doing the right thing. She encourages women reading this to also ignore any advice given to them by family, friends, doctors, or pastors, if they feel the same calling as her, and urges them to just get pregnant and let god figure out the rest.

If you're still here after all that I'll end with my main takeaways from Karissa's 'testimony', which is I really, genuinely believe this woman is mentally ill. As a relative of someone with paranoid schizophrenia, all of my related alarms are going off here, I really think with how extreme her feelings and actions are it's the only explanation to me. I would thing that if she were just lying the threat of losing her own life would've been enough to make her take a step back, and the fact that it didn't says a lot to me (disclaimer: these are just my personal feelings, I am not a doctor).

[spurgie-cousin]

Do u think Mandrae is equally as nuts as Karissa?

I don't know enough about him to say tbh. But he seems to support Karissa's delusions at the very least, which makes him just as complicit in the crazy shit that she does.

Personally I think it'd be near impossible to raise kids (and keep having more) with someone who you thought was crazy or extreme, so I think he probably shares her world views. But I can't prove that.

[spurgie-cousin]

My personal fave (horrible) Karissa & Mandrae Q&A highlights:

1. Where did you meet?

Mandrae: "In college, at the club" (Karissa looks down and around like she's embarrassed for a significant amount of time).

2. Who is most sensitive?

Mandrae: "You."

Karissa challenges this answer by saying Mandrae didn't want to sit by her during the Q&A because "we're not close to each other so why would we sit close to each other" which?? I think is the most kindergarten shit I've ever heard

Mandrae counters with: "There's a difference between sensitive and facts.... you were sensitive because you didn't like the truth that I gave" which makes me feel like light the fucking lanterns, gaslighter

3. (I truly thought I'd only be doing a few of these but man do these 2 people hate each other) Who falls asleep first?

Mandrae immediately: "You!!" *goes on to describe how she sleeps a lot*

Karissa, to her credit, describes how yeah she sleeps a lot with a newborn (which for her is literally all the time) but he technically falls asleep first at night. He says something about how she always wants to watch movies too late and that makes him fall asleep (I mean with 70 kids I'd assume your free time starts at 4:30am).

4. Where was your first kiss?

Mandrae goes on to explain that it was at a club and it was Karissa's first kiss ever (which really makes me wonder why any nerd like her is at the club in the first place).

Karissa asks if it was good and Mandrae mentions that she "struggled a little bit" (if I were Karissa this is where the video would have ended). Karissa combats that by saying she didn't want "tongues down her throat".

5. Who spends the most money?

They both immediately say the other one. Mandrae adds that he "makes the most money" and Karissa spends it all which if I were in Karissa's position (relying only on my husband's income) would hurt my feelings a lot.

She mentions some of the things he spends a lot of money on ("guns, shoes") and the what she spends the most money on (groceries, clothes, diaper bags) which he counters with "You always gotta use the babies as your excuse".

6. When Karissa runs out of questions, she starts asking things like "who changes the most diapers" or "who dresses the kids the most" which logically is her because Mandrae works but I can't help but think it's just out of spite due to all the shit he gave her over the other questions. Personally if my partner publicly shat on me this much, we would have pretty big issues that include me not being with them anymore.

In conclusion, Karissa and Mandrae seem to have that weird tense energy you find with couples who are like one fight away from breaking up but they can’t because they have 50 kids so all social situations are very uncomfortable. If I ever did this Q&A with a partner and it came out like that I'd never post it unless i wanted everyone to participate in our mutual despair.

[wtffundiefamilies]

Oooohhhh, so close, babe.

No, see, we don't hate you because you have a million kids.

We hate you because you have a million kids you treat like objects, toys to be ignored when you get a new one. Because you deny them education, are strangely racist about them, beat them, and neglect them to the point of one's near death. (And you gave them all names that sound like something you'd call a horse, not a child.)

We don't hate you because you claim to be Christian.

We hate you because it's clear that while you may have looked at all the pages of the Bible, you didn't hear a single thing Jesus said.

(It's also interesting that you talk about why you "chose to have 'eleven' kids" in a post right before this one. Yet you oppose abortion because it's killing a child. You're saying you didn't choose to have one of them? Or you don't consider that a child after all?)

[fundieshaderoom]

Karissa Collins Answers Assumptions About her Family