Tag: reality TV drama

Mormon Renegade

My polygamous family has had a few opportunities to be on reality TV shows. Kody Brown even tried persuading us to have our own show, and listening to his reasons got me excited, but when we considered the drama and divisiveness that TV producers require (or create), we ultimately decided against it. 

Because of this blog I’ve also received invitations to be on various shows and podcasts, but I’ve declined all of them. I don’t agree with or know the agendas of the creators and I don’t want to give up the power to tell my own story. 

But there’s a relatively new podcast that Melissa and I (and some others) were recently invited to be on and we actually agreed to do it. The episode was released today, and in it we spent over 3 hours discussing plural marriage, our religious journeys, and other topics. 

If you’d like to hear the interview, you can find it here. You can find The Mormon Renegade Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Castbox, etc. Today’s episode is #60 and it’s called “Dave Goes to Relief Society”. 😄

Joshua has several full-length interviews on the podcast as well.  Those episodes are #15, #27, #28, #30, #40, and #56, totalling over 12 hours of audio, and a couple more episodes will be released soon.  In those episodes Joshua tells some of our story, why we find it extremely important to keep the Biblical holidays, and what each of the holidays is about.  If you’re curious why Mormons are sometimes interested in Jewish stuff (a few of my readers have recently wondered that), then this is the series for you. 

The Couch – Sister Wives S17E1 reaction

Everything I write is based on the show. I have no inside information as to how it went down otherwise.
I’m going to establish my reality on plural marriage first.

Our family has 2 wives. Joshua sets his own schedule. This is usually every other night barring other events. (Those events include, but are not limited to childbirth, illness, vacation, work trips, and other trips.) He works very hard to be fair with his time. Yes, that’s usually a 50/50 split. My husband makes time for me wherever he is.

On a regular week on my off nights, he either calls me on his way home from work (he has a very long commute), or spends at least 15 minutes in a face-to-face to check in.

We also have a nightly family gathering time that we call “Shofar and Tell”. This is a time that each family member tells a bit about their day. It can be something they learned that they want to share or an interesting experience, or a performance of some kind. I love this time of connection each evening. I don’t like scheduling things in the evenings because even the idea of missing Shofar and Tell makes me sad.

That is my framework. A very connected husband managing 2 households in the same house, with equal time given to his wives, and trying to bring the entire family together nightly.

Ok. Now to episode 1.

In the 5th minute, Kody says he doesn’t want to spend the nights on Christine’s couch.

I’m assuming that if Kody didn’t go to Christine’s, he stayed with Robyn and she welcomed him into her bed.  

He complained about it being a game. I don’t think that not wanting to sleep in the same bed or “throwing him out” is a game. This is a husband-wife relationship and for that relationship to break down to that degree is a very serious thing.  It’s not a game and should not be treated as such. It’s frightening to me that his belief of it being a game makes him not “play” instead of evaluating why the relationship is in the state that it’s in and taking immediate corrective action.

What Robyn told him had no teeth.

Robyn claimed having no power, but she could have had power and supported her sisterwife in refusing to have him in her bed if he was not going to spend equal time with her sisterwife.

My response for Kody not wanting to spend the nights on Christine’s couch would have been “You can spend your nights at Christine’s house on her couch. If you stay here, either you will be on the couch or I will. I will not sleep in the same bed with you on nights you should be at her home. Period.”

My husband was genuinely surprised when I told him of my stance. He didn’t believe that I would actually tell him he could not favor me with his time or that I would push to the degree thr I would plan to.

I’m pretty convicted about this issue and here is why: The only way to protect my own interests is to protect my sisterwife’s interests.

I have to be unequivocally fair in my dealings to expect fairness in return.

I never want to be blamed that I had part in the dissolution of a marriage because I enabled my husband to not have to deal with his other wife when things were hard.

Monogamy has its own difficulties. I don’t want plural marriage to have those difficulties plus the option to strengthen one marriage and sacrifice another if I can at all help it.

My vested interest is in having our family be successful. That means that each marriage is successful on its own and our family is unbreakable. This means I love my sisterwife as myself. There is no room for being a favorite over another (I have to be the best version of myself so I can be a favorite Melissa) or any desire for my husband to be monogamous. That idea is repulsive to me because it does mean failure and there would be a lot of pain and suffering, most of it avoidable.