Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn Brown-Becoming Sister Wives

I am totally not going to lie, I am completely addicted to the television series, Sister Wives and now there is another show, based on another polygamist family, The Dargers, called My Three Wives.  I've also read that book and enjoyed it as well.

I've written before about my interest in polygamy in a previous post and even more so in the current, non-fundamentalist version of polygamy.  While the show tends to deal with the more current parts of the Brown life-starting with when they outed themselves to the country on national television and the ensuing chaos that started in their lives-including the investigation that the state of Utah started (then dropped) which forced the family to leave Utah and move to Las Vegas.  I could go into a whole thing about the irony that they moved from Utah, land of Mormon, to Las Vegas, AKA Sin City.

The book, on the other hand, talks more about what brought the family together.  I think reading the book has given me more insight on the family dynamics.  For those who don't know anything about the Brown family, Kody Brown was raised in a non-Fundamentalist Mormon family but embraced the more fundamentalist (but still his own version of it) after his mission and when his parents also embraced it.  He married Meri followed by Janelle and Christine.  More recently he married Robyn (in the last two and half years or so).  Robyn was married previously and came with three kids.  They've since had a child together.

Each woman has such a different story and such a different thing that brought them into this marriage.  Meri, the first wife, is someone I feel a connection to, although I'm really not sure why.  She has one daughter and has struggled with infertility since the beginning of the marriage.  She is also very much a nesting, mothering type.  This was especially a struggle at the beginning when Janelle first became a part of the family and Meri had clearly set her ways in the kitchen and in the relationship with Kody.  It felt that they were further stratified when Janelle got pregnant before Meri did.

Each of the women bring their own strength into the marriage.  Meri is very much the nurturer, Janelle the business savvy woman, Christine the go-getter mom and Robyn has brought a new sense of family to the entire group.

I definitely think reading the book has brought to me a much deeper understanding of this family and what being in a polygamist family.  I still don't think this is a lifestyle choice that I will make in my life but I can definitely see why people may choose this lifestyle for themselves.  I also think that families choosing to "out" themselves to the world is positive as I hope that people will realize that there are a range of these families and a good majority of them are just trying to raise their families in a way that they feel is a healthy, supportive and safe way to do it.