Amber, Jo, Kari

kris · Guru

Amber, Jo, Kari

Juanita · Guru

Say what??!!!!

I haven't checked on Stellan in forever, I guess since she found out she was preggo again..

Are you telling me that she's lying about stuff???

kris · Guru

Juanita wrote:

Say what??!!!!

I haven't checked on Stellan in forever, I guess since she found out she was preggo again..

Are you telling me that she's lying about stuff???

jenn - I don't want to say that because I don't think that is exactly the case.

There are a few links you can check out -

http://mckmamawithoutpity.blogspot.com/

This blog was started by a group of women who were questioning some things she has said - they found out ALOT about her RE: her financial situation, multiple domestic violence arrests of her husband, etc. Some say they are haters or jealous - I'm not sure what to think honestly. I think like all of us they were extremely invested in Stellan and when things started not adding up they felt she was taking advantage of her situation to drive traffic to her blog to increase her value in the blogosphere. She is reportedly earning $25,000 per month in add revenue. There are reports that she teases with stories or writes just to peak interest and get more clicks b/c more clicks to her blog = more money for her (i.e., giving away an Ipad last week for Compassion International).

Her blog and BlogFrog community are very heavily moderated. Anything negative about her is almost immediately removed. Anything that would require her to explain something questionable is almost always removed.

There was a story done on her by Fox in Minneapolis and the comments section of this story is pretty detailed and out there and she has zero moderating rights so people are getting to compare notes and question her and say things that on her blog or in her community would not see the light of day.

Juanita · Guru

kris wrote:

Juanita wrote:

Say what??!!!!

I haven't checked on Stellan in forever, I guess since she found out she was preggo again..

Are you telling me that she's lying about stuff???

jenn - I don't want to say that because I don't think that is exactly the case.

There are a few links you can check out -

http://mckmamawithoutpity.blogspot.com/

This blog was started by a group of women who were questioning some things she has said - they found out ALOT about her RE: her financial situation, multiple domestic violence arrests of her husband, etc. Some say they are haters or jealous - I'm not sure what to think honestly. I think like all of us they were extremely invested in Stellan and when things started not adding up they felt she was taking advantage of her situation to drive traffic to her blog to increase her value in the blogosphere. She is reportedly earning $25,000 per month in add revenue. There are reports that she teases with stories or writes just to peak interest and get more clicks b/c more clicks to her blog = more money for her (i.e., giving away an Ipad last week for Compassion International).

Her blog and BlogFrog community are very heavily moderated. Anything negative about her is almost immediately removed. Anything that would require her to explain something questionable is almost always removed.

There was a story done on her by Fox in Minneapolis and the comments section of this story is pretty detailed and out there and she has zero moderating rights so people are getting to compare notes and question her and say things that on her blog or in her community would not see the light of day.

wow...I don't know what to say

Tiffany · Senior Member

I dont know what to say either!

I know bloggers or people in general will probably have to come up with things to keep readers interested. So I did expect a few things may not be very accurate to what really happened. But at the same time, it's hard to tell, I mean we weren't there and hard to tell what is true or false.

Like I said, NO idea what to think.

I also wonder htf she has ALL this time to write. I mean sure, there are writers out there that I'm sure do the same thing. Just their passion. BUT really, with 4 kids and how does she find all the time to do all the writing, posting and giveaways. Unless she has a bunch of help. Again, I dont want to bad mouth her. I don't know much either. Just a few things I've thought about too when I've read her blog.

Juni · Guru

So I have a question - everything about Stellan - is that true? I will read into the blog a bit more but I am wondering what has come out about that.

Tiffany · Senior Member

Juni wrote:

So I have a question - everything about Stellan - is that true? I will read into the blog a bit more but I am wondering what has come out about that.

God, I hope so!

I would believe so, she was on the news and he was hooked up to all these wires and such. I would believe they're true. Just that she adds other things NOW that Stellan is better. I'm assuming she is afraid to lose readers now that he is better so she has to keep the readers coming back for more.... That's what I think?? *shrugs*

kris · Guru

Tiffany wrote:

I dont know what to say either!

I know bloggers or people in general will probably have to come up with things to keep readers interested. So I did expect a few things may not be very accurate to what really happened. But at the same time, it's hard to tell, I mean we weren't there and hard to tell what is true or false.

Like I said, NO idea what to think.

I also wonder htf she has ALL this time to write. I mean sure, there are writers out there that I'm sure do the same thing. Just their passion. BUT really, with 4 kids and how does she find all the time to do all the writing, posting and giveaways. Unless she has a bunch of help. Again, I dont want to bad mouth her. I don't know much either. Just a few things I've thought about too when I've read her blog.

right - I thought this as well. Some of her posts are so long I can't even read through them entirely.

The other things that would perk my ears would be that when I first started reading she was very "we do things organic, we cloth diaper, we do not circumcise, etc."

My husband read her little sidebar info about her and said "I don't like her."

At that time it almost made the reader feel as if she were less of a mother if she didn't cloth diaper, organically feed, circumcised their boys, etc.

But then at the same time there were very frequent pictures of them eating Chipotle or McDonalds. Mentions of runs to Target for diapers.

I just think that she wanted to portray an imagine and unfortunately it wasn't a wholy accurate imagine but it was an imagine that made her look like the perfect, earthy mother and made some of us mothers (of less than 4 healthy children!) feel inadequate.

All of this being said, I love following her children. There are posts RE: scripture that she has written that put a lightbulb on over my head and have taught me much.

kris · Guru

Juni wrote:

So I have a question - everything about Stellan - is that true? I will read into the blog a bit more but I am wondering what has come out about that.

Yes I belive it is all true; however, there have been nurses, etc. who have posted in different comments sections of different posts/blogs that some of her posts RE: medical stuff did not add up.

sbucking · Guru

I guess I have to wonder what's the big deal? It's her blog and she had the freedom to write whatever she pleases. No one is being forced to read what she writes, and I think she has been very forthcoming about her family and their issues. I check in a couple of times a week and have no idea what the fuss is about. It's just her talking about her family's life and her opinions on things.

If she can make a bundle off her blog, more power to her. Isn't that what America is all about?

kris · Guru

Tiffany wrote:

Juni wrote:

So I have a question - everything about Stellan - is that true? I will read into the blog a bit more but I am wondering what has come out about that.

God, I hope so!

I would believe so, she was on the news and he was hooked up to all these wires and such. I would believe they're true. Just that she adds other things NOW that Stellan is better. I'm assuming she is afraid to lose readers now that he is better so she has to keep the readers coming back for more.... That's what I think?? *shrugs*

right. the more clicks the more money.

There were even some who were saying that Baby No. 5 was because traffic was dying down.

kris · Guru

sbucking wrote:

I guess I have to wonder what's the big deal? It's her blog and she had the freedom to write whatever she pleases. No one is being forced to read what she writes, and I think she has been very forthcoming about her family and their issues. I check in a couple of times a week and have no idea what the fuss is about. It's just her talking about her family's life and her opinions on things.

If she can make a bundle off her blog, more power to her. Isn't that what America is all about?

I guess the big deal is that she is being less than honest to drive traffic to her blog to up her bundle.

She tweets teases to drive traffic (i.e., "Prince Charming discusses his porn addiction on my blog, post coming soon"). People will click the shiznit out of her blog waiting for a post such as that to be published and it won't be published for a full 24 hours.

Her "forthcoming" nature has come around after her naysayers have dug and published all of the info RE: her family. Up until that stuff started being made public she was still the earthy mother with a perfect marriage.

But you're right. It's a matter of choice and that is what all of her supporters say - if you don't like it don't read.

I personally haven't made a decision whether I will continue to read or not.

mctex · Guru

Having been on the other side of things, I have to beg y'all to think twice before jumping to any conclusions.

I'm not saying that Mckmama isn't a fraud... I haven't read that much of her to have formed my own opinion, although I have read enough to know that the domestic abuse charges don't surprise me... she blames herself for not "submitting" to her husband, which set off huge red flags for me that this is a woman who isn't quite right in the head on her idea of what constitutes a healthy marriage.

But what I can say is this -- it seems like it's an inevitable phenomenon when you're in the internet space that a certain faction of people will turn against you. These are the people who always have to be AGAINST something. Now that Stellan's illness is over and they can no longer be AGAINST that, they now turn AGAINST MckMama herself.

Just like once IV had died and the trolls were gone, some people had to turn against me. And yes, I do blame them 100% for this, because I have the luxury of knowing that neither my intentions nor my MO ever changed at any point during all of that, to where if people were changing, it was because of something within them, not within me.

(In fact, truth be told, it was that whole experience that allowed me to find a new level of authenticity in my faith in God, and in Christ. It was really an eye-opening experience to see how people's brokenness could cause them to totally misread and get paranoid about what were nothing other than good intentions... in a very small way, I had a taste of what life must be like for God, and in me it created a genuine empathy. And, of course, when I realized that one solution would just be to create an alter ego who looked like one of them and talked like one of them but was defending me, suddenly the idea of sending a Christ made beyond perfect sense. Someday, I'm going to write a satirical short story about this, once I can capture strong enough words to describe it.)

So it wouldn't surprise me -- particularly now that she knows she's got this community of haters -- that she is constantly editing herself, afraid that some hater might've been at the sandwich shop and yelled "liar!" when she said her husband was there with her. I mean, seriously, how does that edit change the story?

The whole thing makes me sad. If people don't believe her, fine, stop reading. But to openly trash her? It's kinda gross. (Not your discussion of it here, of course. Just whomever set up a blog with the whole point of disparaging her. If that blog takes off, I bet you dollars to donuts that eventually, ads show up on it...)

Sorry to make this about me... it's just you hit a passionate spot. :)

Tiffany · Senior Member

Mctex

I understand. I am going to try not to get too over defensive here LOL But I was never trying to bad mouth Mckmama but just some things DID come to mind but doesnt mean I believe that is a lie or not. I dont have evidence either so....

I totally thought of the old board when the "haters" came up... I KNOW there are people out there that are either jealous or just have too much time on their hands or just like to point at people. The thing is, I do respect people like you and MckMama and whoever else who has to put up with all that hate. It has to eat you up at times I'm sure but yeah, there are ways to just bypass that feeling. I have to find it.

I mean, I know for a fact I dont care what other people think about me or my life BUT I still cant help but feel emotion about it. (I have to work on it more.... some certain situations I can be black hearted but some situations I'm too sensitive on still) so it depends.

Just kind of sucks that we have to deal with low life people who likes to talk shit. She is just successfull and some people just dont accept that.

kris · Guru

mctex wrote:

Having been on the other side of things, I have to beg y'all to think twice before jumping to any conclusions.

I'm not saying that Mckmama isn't a fraud... I haven't read that much of her to have formed my own opinion, although I have read enough to know that the domestic abuse charges don't surprise me... she blames herself for not "submitting" to her husband, which set off huge red flags for me that this is a woman who isn't quite right in the head on her idea of what constitutes a healthy marriage.

But what I can say is this -- it seems like it's an inevitable phenomenon when you're in the internet space that a certain faction of people will turn against you. These are the people who always have to be AGAINST something. Now that Stellan's illness is over and they can no longer be AGAINST that, they now turn AGAINST MckMama herself.

Just like once IV had died and the trolls were gone, some people had to turn against me. And yes, I do blame them 100% for this, because I have the luxury of knowing that neither my intentions nor my MO ever changed at any point during all of that, to where if people were changing, it was because of something within them, not within me.

(In fact, truth be told, it was that whole experience that allowed me to find a new level of authenticity in my faith in God, and in Christ. It was really an eye-opening experience to see how people's brokenness could cause them to totally misread and get paranoid about what were nothing other than good intentions... in a very small way, I had a taste of what life must be like for God, and in me it created a genuine empathy. And, of course, when I realized that one solution would just be to create an alter ego who looked like one of them and talked like one of them but was defending me, suddenly the idea of sending a Christ made beyond perfect sense. Someday, I'm going to write a satirical short story about this, once I can capture strong enough words to describe it.)

So it wouldn't surprise me -- particularly now that she knows she's got this community of haters -- that she is constantly editing herself, afraid that some hater might've been at the sandwich shop and yelled "liar!" when she said her husband was there with her. I mean, seriously, how does that edit change the story?

The whole thing makes me sad. If people don't believe her, fine, stop reading. But to openly trash her? It's kinda gross. (Not your discussion of it here, of course. Just whomever set up a blog with the whole point of disparaging her. If that blog takes off, I bet you dollars to donuts that eventually, ads show up on it...)

Sorry to make this about me... it's just you hit a passionate spot. :)

RE: the red - that edit was made after someone reminded her readers that she had mentioned in the past that leaves her children unattended in her vehicle while running errands. I think that had something to do with the edit - people were then questioning where were all of her children and why would they have unloaded them to run in and grab chicken from a deli and if they did not unload them why on earth would they go in together and leave them unattended in the vehicle for what, according to the story, seemed like a lengthy amount of time.

RE: the blue - ITA. They take her blog post by post and dissect it to find inconsistencies and then discuss. I just recently started reading it again after someone posted that she was charging $250-$500 per week for a prayer request button to be placed on her sidebar.

I would never partake in that blog - I will simply decide to stop reading hers but honestly, I cannot deny that I've learned things from reading her blog. Personally I don't really have time to dissect that she said "x" back in August, 2009 but is now saying "y" but apparently some people have not much else to do.

I just knew that several girls here read the blog and wondered if they had been hearing any of the rumblings and wanted to her their .02.

mctex · Guru

Tiffany wrote:

Mctex

I understand. I am going to try not to get too over defensive here LOL But I was never trying to bad mouth Mckmama but just some things DID come to mind but doesnt mean I believe that is a lie or not. I dont have evidence either so....

I totally thought of the old board when the "haters" came up... I KNOW there are people out there that are either jealous or just have too much time on their hands or just like to point at people. The thing is, I do respect people like you and MckMama and whoever else who has to put up with all that hate. It has to eat you up at times I'm sure but yeah, there are ways to just bypass that feeling. I have to find it.

I mean, I know for a fact I dont care what other people think about me or my life BUT I still cant help but feel emotion about it. (I have to work on it more.... some certain situations I can be black hearted but some situations I'm too sensitive on still) so it depends.

Just kind of sucks that we have to deal with low life people who likes to talk shit. She is just successfull and some people just dont accept that.

Hey Tiffany ~

I hope I didn't make you in any way feel like you needed to defend yourself -- not at all! I don't think anyone who has posted on this thread should, and if I did, I'm not coming across right. I just wanted to share a different POV.

To be honest, I spent a little more time looking at the MckMama hating blog than I care to admit. It's like a trainwreck... you can't help but look. And I totally agree with what you're saying, both here and in your last post.

I do thank you for your kind thoughts, but at the end of the day I signed on for this. (As did MckMama; although I didn't really realize what exactly it was that I was signing on for, and I'm guessing she didn't, either.) I do feel badly for her, though, in that her story was so much more personal than mine was, so I'm sure the rejection feels that much worse.

Juanita · Guru

kris wrote:

Tiffany wrote:

I dont know what to say either!

I know bloggers or people in general will probably have to come up with things to keep readers interested. So I did expect a few things may not be very accurate to what really happened. But at the same time, it's hard to tell, I mean we weren't there and hard to tell what is true or false.

Like I said, NO idea what to think.

I also wonder htf she has ALL this time to write. I mean sure, there are writers out there that I'm sure do the same thing. Just their passion. BUT really, with 4 kids and how does she find all the time to do all the writing, posting and giveaways. Unless she has a bunch of help. Again, I dont want to bad mouth her. I don't know much either. Just a few things I've thought about too when I've read her blog.

right - I thought this as well. Some of her posts are so long I can't even read through them entirely.

The other things that would perk my ears would be that when I first started reading she was very "we do things organic, we cloth diaper, we do not circumcise, etc."

My husband read her little sidebar info about her and said "I don't like her."

At that time it almost made the reader feel as if she were less of a mother if she didn't cloth diaper, organically feed, circumcised their boys, etc.

But then at the same time there were very frequent pictures of them eating Chipotle or McDonalds. Mentions of runs to Target for diapers.

I just think that she wanted to portray an imagine and unfortunately it wasn't a wholy accurate imagine but it was an imagine that made her look like the perfect, earthy mother and made some of us mothers (of less than 4 healthy children!) feel inadequate.

All of this being said, I love following her children. There are posts RE: scripture that she has written that put a lightbulb on over my head and have taught me much.

Well, then that's all that matters biggrin

mctex · Guru

kris wrote:

mctex wrote:

Having been on the other side of things, I have to beg y'all to think twice before jumping to any conclusions.

I'm not saying that Mckmama isn't a fraud... I haven't read that much of her to have formed my own opinion, although I have read enough to know that the domestic abuse charges don't surprise me... she blames herself for not "submitting" to her husband, which set off huge red flags for me that this is a woman who isn't quite right in the head on her idea of what constitutes a healthy marriage.

But what I can say is this -- it seems like it's an inevitable phenomenon when you're in the internet space that a certain faction of people will turn against you. These are the people who always have to be AGAINST something. Now that Stellan's illness is over and they can no longer be AGAINST that, they now turn AGAINST MckMama herself.

Just like once IV had died and the trolls were gone, some people had to turn against me. And yes, I do blame them 100% for this, because I have the luxury of knowing that neither my intentions nor my MO ever changed at any point during all of that, to where if people were changing, it was because of something within them, not within me.

(In fact, truth be told, it was that whole experience that allowed me to find a new level of authenticity in my faith in God, and in Christ. It was really an eye-opening experience to see how people's brokenness could cause them to totally misread and get paranoid about what were nothing other than good intentions... in a very small way, I had a taste of what life must be like for God, and in me it created a genuine empathy. And, of course, when I realized that one solution would just be to create an alter ego who looked like one of them and talked like one of them but was defending me, suddenly the idea of sending a Christ made beyond perfect sense. Someday, I'm going to write a satirical short story about this, once I can capture strong enough words to describe it.)

So it wouldn't surprise me -- particularly now that she knows she's got this community of haters -- that she is constantly editing herself, afraid that some hater might've been at the sandwich shop and yelled "liar!" when she said her husband was there with her. I mean, seriously, how does that edit change the story?

The whole thing makes me sad. If people don't believe her, fine, stop reading. But to openly trash her? It's kinda gross. (Not your discussion of it here, of course. Just whomever set up a blog with the whole point of disparaging her. If that blog takes off, I bet you dollars to donuts that eventually, ads show up on it...)

Sorry to make this about me... it's just you hit a passionate spot. :)

RE: the red - that edit was made after someone reminded her readers that she had mentioned in the past that leaves her children unattended in her vehicle while running errands. I think that had something to do with the edit - people were then questioning where were all of her children and why would they have unloaded them to run in and grab chicken from a deli and if they did not unload them why on earth would they go in together and leave them unattended in the vehicle for what, according to the story, seemed like a lengthy amount of time.
RE: the blue - ITA. They take her blog post by post and dissect it to find inconsistencies and then discuss. I just recently started reading it again after someone posted that she was charging $250-$500 per week for a prayer request button to be placed on her sidebar.

I would never partake in that blog - I will simply decide to stop reading hers but honestly, I cannot deny that I've learned things from reading her blog. Personally I don't really have time to dissect that she said "x" back in August, 2009 but is now saying "y" but apparently some people have not much else to do.

I just knew that several girls here read the blog and wondered if they had been hearing any of the rumblings and wanted to her their .02.

The $250-500 charge for the prayer request button is definitely unsavory if she's actually doing that. I'm guessing she probably gets so many she has no way to differentiate which ones she should or shouldn't post but if that's how she chooses to handle it, that's really freaking tacky. That alone (if true) would be enough to turn me off to her altogether. (I'm cool with making a buck, but not on a prayer request. That just feels skeezy to me.)

And the deletion of comments on her site probably wasn't a wise move, either... although IDRK how I feel about that. I spent probably days of my life here letting the negative comments stand and trying to explain my POV, but in the end I'm really not sure it did any good. I don't blame her for not wanting to engage in that time suck... it's a bottomless pit when you're ultimately trying to heal hurts that have little to do with you.

Anyway, sorry for giving you my nickel. The list of things that fire me up these days has shortened considerably, but this is one.

kris · Guru

One other thing I wanted to add to my thoughts on her blog - lots of people say she is "using God to her benefit" or bending religion to fit her needs (not quotes but something like that).

As a person still in the very infantile stages of following Jesus this is what I have come to realize - even when you have been a Christian for years and are willing to shout it from the rooftops you are still not perfect, you still go to bed at the end of the day and say to yourself "gee I wish I would have done this or that better or different."

For me, in my walk, I have been hoping, praying that there would be a day that it all clicked, everything fell in line and I could be like Christians with years under their belts b/c those people have it together! They can control themselves when someone cuts them off in traffic, they can control themselves when someone does them wrong at work, they can control their frustration with their extremely hormonal and disrespectful teenagers. WHEN OH LORD WILL I BE LIKE ONE OF THEM I used to ask myself. When will I not say the "f" word under my breath while jamming to Third Day in a traffic jam?! How freaking contridictory is that???

But I've learned, Mckmama is a Christian with years behind her and that does not make her exempt from going to bed at night having spoken a bit too harshly to her preschooler or being frustrated with her husband for not helping more or saying the "f" word under her breath in a frustrating situation.

Tiffany · Senior Member

mctex wrote:

Tiffany wrote:

Mctex

I understand. I am going to try not to get too over defensive here LOL But I was never trying to bad mouth Mckmama but just some things DID come to mind but doesnt mean I believe that is a lie or not. I dont have evidence either so....

I totally thought of the old board when the "haters" came up... I KNOW there are people out there that are either jealous or just have too much time on their hands or just like to point at people. The thing is, I do respect people like you and MckMama and whoever else who has to put up with all that hate. It has to eat you up at times I'm sure but yeah, there are ways to just bypass that feeling. I have to find it.

I mean, I know for a fact I dont care what other people think about me or my life BUT I still cant help but feel emotion about it. (I have to work on it more.... some certain situations I can be black hearted but some situations I'm too sensitive on still) so it depends.

Just kind of sucks that we have to deal with low life people who likes to talk shit. She is just successfull and some people just dont accept that.

Hey Tiffany ~

I hope I didn't make you in any way feel like you needed to defend yourself -- not at all! I don't think anyone who has posted on this thread should, and if I did, I'm not coming across right. I just wanted to share a different POV.

To be honest, I spent a little more time looking at the MckMama hating blog than I care to admit. It's like a trainwreck... you can't help but look. And I totally agree with what you're saying, both here and in your last post.

I do thank you for your kind thoughts, but at the end of the day I signed on for this. (As did MckMama; although I didn't really realize what exactly it was that I was signing on for, and I'm guessing she didn't, either.) I do feel badly for her, though, in that her story was so much more personal than mine was, so I'm sure the rejection feels that much worse.

Oh no not at all! I just wanted to clarify myself before anyone lashed at me that's all LOL It's all good.

Youre right, You cant help it but go and look. Eventhough honestly I havent really looked at the "haters" on there. Just mainly look at her posts and read the story but dont really bother looking at the comments much. But of course, if people bring something up, I can't help but go look LOL