TLC Welcome to Plathville Spoilers indicate that someone commented on Olivia Plath’s Instagram saying that: “Ethan and his adult siblings appear to be doing very well ao apparently his parents are doing something right. Kim actually appears quite reasonable – she allowed the 16 year old to travel across the country to San Francisco, is open to her going to college, etc. She clearly said as adults she has no control over their decisions. In reality how they raise their kids is none of Olivia’s business.”
TLC Welcome to Plathville Spoilers: To which Ethan himself replied,
“The one and only reason my parents let my sister Moriah go to San Francisco with my wife Olivia was because of the show..If it had not been for the show my parents would have never let her go. If you don’t believe me, go back and watch where Moriah asked for permission. Their faces said it all… but they didn’t want to look bad on TV.”
TLC Welcome to Plathville Spoilers: Smile for the Cameras
It would seem, ladies and gentlemen, that we’ve been duped. I’m not saying the Plaths are liars, well not exactly. It’s rather an old southern phenomenon that we use a lot down here that some might label as ‘southern charm’ when in actuality it isn’t anything of the sort. It’s more along the lines of that one verse in that Miranda Lambert song “run and hide your crazy and start acting like a lady”, yeah, that’s a real thing down south.
It’s a cultural thing, we’re not too big on airing our dirty laundry in public. In this case, the Plaths would have us believe that they’re not nearly as conservative as they actually are and that they are a pretty permissive, normal family that just believe in letting their children have an idealistic childhood, which is cool in theory but it would seem that that is not at all accurate.
But just how conservative are they? There have been sources that say that outside the show, Ethan has not been allowed to see his younger siblings without supervision since the filming of the show. That now, whenever Mama Plath leaves to go somewhere that she takes all the younger Plath siblings with her she is that scared of Ethan and Olivia’s influence. But from what we’ve seen, Ethan couldn’t be a better role model for the kids. He’s not doing anything besides letting them ride around on racing mowers and putting together to train sets.
So what could possibly be wrong with this picture? According to some sources, apparently Mama Plath feels that ‘evil spirits’ have already invaded the older children and that she’s already lost them. She doesn’t want to risk the same thing happening to the younger siblings so she watches them like a hawk. While I could see the alarm if the older kids’ heads had started spinning around or if someone had started vomiting pea soup (even so if that happens, check the expiration date before you go calling in a priest, please.), but from what’s known about their belief system, it doesn’t even seem to stem from anything spiritual.
The Plaths are not big believers in organized religion, which might make some people think that they are much less conservative than they actually are but that wouldn’t be the case. Ethan said himself that they tried ten churches in ten years and none quite fit, and some fundamentalist families (not all, but some) decide that the best way to interpret the bible is through their own lens, which means taking on some pretty unorthodox beliefs. (Like no sugar, at all, ever.) That being said, I do not think this comes from a place of spirituality – I think it comes from a place of control.
In my humble opinion it looks like the Plaths are afraid of losing control, they keep their kids in a very controlled environment and don’t let anyone who has differing views associate with the children and from what it looks like this includes their own family members. Ethan is a grown man who’s married, of course he’s going to forge his own beliefs after he leaves the nest, but that seems to be the wrong thing to do in Ma and Pa Plath’s eyes. They thought that they would be sending out little carbon copies of themselves into the world and that’s just not true. From what we’ve seen, each Plath child has their own special, unique personality and they are not content to just sit back and accept what they’ve been taught all their life, they want to go out there and experience it for themselves.
But will Ma and Pa Plath allow it? From the way it looks, it seems that once the Plath children turn 16 they’re given a little bit of freedom but this could just be for show purposes only, Let’s consider how Moriah acted, she always acted like no matter what she did that she would always get in trouble, whether it be picking out clothes or listening to music or even going online to look at colleges she would always ask permission with much trepidation, like she was fearing a sharp reprimand or some other disapproval. She acted like the opportunities that she was given may come tumbling about her ears at any moment, also look at the anxiety that Lydia had over what seemed to be a simple conversation between her parents and sibling – that’s very telling right there.
So will the Plaths ever let up? I guess we’ll see in season 2 – if there is a season 2. By the way, that’s an excellent question and one that would best be asked to TLC themselves. I would love for there to be a second season of Plathville to see if Plath family Band 2.0 came out, and how Moriah and Micah’s careers would take off, and let’s not forget if Ethan would ever get to see his younger siblings or not – it seems such a shame that they’re so divided over that issue. One would hope that in Season 2, maybe things would progress a little bit. We can all hope! Stay tuned!!! For any other soap opera and entertainment news, please visit Daily Soap Dish. For more royal and celeb baby news, come back to Celeb Baby Laundry.
