Let's take it from the top

(after seeing them around the internet for several years and being concerned for the kids for at least the last three of them. wrote these bits and bobs in 2023)

I wasn’t treated the way the Franke kids were, but when I was locked in the prayer room for a while on a regular basis on Thursdays that one school year, I hated it and it felt like I was such a problem to be contained and such a failure for needing them to resort to that. I already believed I was a liar and a failure and it was in the middle of my descent into believing that I really must have fucked up enough that one of the times I exposed myself to the near occasion of sin I DID get a devil attached to me (etc etc)

for it to be as hard as it was for me to consider running from a much tamer situation (and while I was the healthiest athlete point of mylife, not starved and literally tortured and ill) I am so. so amazed. more and more each day. that R Franke escaped that house TWICE. even when he believed he’d be put in JAIL by outsiders and the police. that took so much strength along with the desperation! what bravery he conjured to be able to risk the known consequences of being caught a second time!

rereading journals is bad sometimes. i hated being taught to zip tie the kids into car seats or lock them in rooms or lock them in the top of the basement stair landing as a punishment and time out

that was bad (and dangerous) and I knew it, but no one listened to me or gave me other options. I had to spend weeks and months finding ways to just get the kids to never misbehave while I babysat. I wanted to keep ALL of us out of trouble. it’s heartbreaking to reread my notes on what I’m trying back then, and how hard some nights were, etc etc

Basically the mom, Ruby Franke (who ran the 2 million+ subscriber 8passengers family vlogging channel for years violating her kids privacy all the time), and her current business partner Jodi Hildebrandt got arrested after Ruby’s 2nd youngest kid climbed out of Jodi’s house and ran to a neighbor to ask for water and food. The neighbor called the authorities after seeing how malnourished the kid looked and that he had duct tape on his ankles and wrists and lacerations from being restrained. Ultimately the two youngest kids were at Jodi’s house restrained and so malnourished they needed immediate medical treatment, the middle two
were in the city Ruby lived in, and the oldest two are adults.

The family was reported for years by viewers, and then by the oldest daughter, and neighbors, and some other relatives, but nothing came of it till it all went down this past week. Jodi has a long history of horribly unethical and abusive counseling and Ruby has a long history of bullying her kids on camera. so the whole country is seeing all the receipts and going OH MY GOD HOW DID THIS HAPPEN

and I’m sitting over here like. it’s quite simply the obvious end result of taking “nothing is too far when it’s your eternal soul at stake” to its logical extreme