Featured Image Credit: TLC
Topics: Film and TV, Sex and Relationships, TLC
Anish Vij
Controversial show Gypsy Brides US has shared an uncomfortable watch between a mother and her young daughter of whom she wants to start looking for potential husbands at her 10th birthday party.
The TLC show gives us an insight into the every-day life of those in the Romanichal traveller community in the US.
In a recent episode of the series, viewers witnessed Mary’s parents argue whether the - then 9-year-old - was ready to be 'looked at' by potential in-laws. Watch below:
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While sitting at a dinner table discussing Mary's 10th birthday plans, mom Lee Ann tells the camera: "I need to talk to Joe about the party. Most likely it's going to end up being a fight."
However, husband Joe believed that Lee was more interested in networking with the community to 'meet future husbands'.
Joe then asks Mary if she's ready to get married at 16, to which she replied: "Maybe."
Her disgruntled father then says he hopes he's got another 'six years' to change her mind.
"You're going to have to talk me out of it too," an angry Lee Ann responded.
"If you had it your way, by the time you think she's ready. She's never going to find a good gypsy boy. If she waits any longer than 18, she's not going to be wanted anymore. That's the way it's done.
"Who's to say that she can't still live her life, get married, have kids and be a Romanichal and still go to school?"
Joe said that his daughter is 'not a piece of meat', adding: "I'm not doing it, you're not pawning her off to somebody.
"It's a party for a little girl, I'll be damned if she's going to be surrounded and hounded by guys all night. Gypsy or gorger I don't care who they are. A guy is a guy and she's a 10-year-old girl."
Mary then had her say on the situation and admitted that her parents 'argue a lot about it'.
"My mom wants me to clean and have children, take care of them. My dad really wants me to become a writer because I love to write," she said.
"I just want to have both, I don't want to just have one."
Lisa Ann also revealed that she did not get 'family's approval' when she married Joe and although the pair have been together for 15 years, her 'father stopped speaking' to her as a result.
"When I went to marry my husband, my father stopped speaking to me," she said.
"I had to make a choice between Joe and my family. It was either marry the man that I love or have my family's approval.
"Marrying outside of the community has affected my life in a big way. I'm trash, I'm no good because of who I am. That's what a lot of people think."