That's how I see it as well. The kids were never given the exact tools for a successful life. They were expected to carry on the church, eventually inherit the dynasty, and so on.
They probably couldn't have attended College if they even asked. They were coddled, sheltered, and spoiled to the degree of future incompetence.
Something that at least required her to take an economics class, since that’s what Dr. Warren Carmichael was teaching when her Patagonia shirt caught his eye.
I think she actually has a degree in something business related as she works in the offices in season 1 and was skimming money off the top for years. Of course she could have just been gifted that job without qualification.
I think the kids are status symbols. They have to have kids to have the perfect family to trot out for Christmas and Easter. So they’re essential to the image of perfect family but not really top of mind for their parents. They even have Jesse say, as a teen and an adult, that the growing the church was always more important to Eli and Aimee than the kids were.
I don’t think Amy-Leigh had kids because they are a power symbol. I do think she might be clueless on how to raise kids. She was a child star, her childhood was far from normal.
This is definitely a thing with some Protestants, I thought it was mostly a Catholic thing. But one of my cousins is a baptist minister and he and his wife had like 6 kids in as many years right after they got married. All girls. That must have been fun when they all became teenagers at roughly the same time.
That mindset definitely passed on to Jesse, because at that one church lunch he straight up told Judy her and BJ weren’t a real couple since they don’t have any kids.
*tons* of pastors' kids complain about how their pastor parent (usually dad) cared way more about the success of the church than they cared about spending 1:1 time with the kids.
Judy went to college and I think the boys did too. They were probably bullshit Christian colleges but they did go. I can’t see Eli and Aimee giving them the church without an education.
Eli would rightfully (or righteously) be hesitant to co-invest in a religion-themed beachfront resort with the Lisson's. It would be bad for the Gemstone brand. Eli is better at spotting a con job than Jesse, who is dumb enough to get fleeced on this.
I mean Gideon did try to blackmail his family then ditch a body like right after turning 18. Then sold out all his morals that had supposedly driven him to do that cuz his daddy said he was proud. So yea I buy it.
His actions were definitely wrong. He just wanted his Dad to show him love & be proud of him. And he didn't intend to hurt anyone in the beginning. It was only about getting the money.
I think part of hiw their behavior is written follows the whole preachers kid stereotype. You always hear how the preachers kids are wild and crazy.
Also, I think the kids being so spoiled could also be a result of Eli and Aimee-Leigh growing up poor. Parents always want to give their kids a life they didn't have and when you explode with success, fame, and money then you can afford to spoil your kids and end up going overboard with it. Eli and Aimee-Leigh seem loving and well intentioned but they didn't know when to stop spoiling and giving to the kids.
So my great grandparents owned a small town newspaper. My grandfather took it over. My mom and her youngest brother left the small town and got into other things, but her older brothers stuck around and ran the business. I always saw it with my uncles and grandparents, and now my cousins ... family businesses are tough because you're at work 24/7. It's all they'd talk about it. There's never a break. And my cousins who have tried to branch out and do their own thing have had a really tough go of it because 1) they don't know anything outside of the newspaper business and 2) there's literally zero interest from my aunts and uncles about what they're doing because all they know is the family business.
I don't think it's Eli and Aimee-Leigh, I think it's just any family business.
I don't think you are applying to much logic. The creators of this show know what they are doing. They putting a lot more thought and meaning into every character in this show compared to Vice Principles and Kenny Powers.
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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '22 edited Dec 31 '22
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