Meet Lydia Plath — The 'Responsible' Plath Daughter On 'Welcome To Plathville'
She does all the housework.
TLC / YouTube TLC audiences have been watching all kinds of drama unfold on Welcome to Plathville. The show debuted in 2019 and fans got to learn about the 11-member Plath family of Georgia.
Kim and Barry Plath have nine kids ranging in age from six to 22 years old, and they're doing their best to shelter them all from the mainstream society.
They brag that they are disconnected from technology, saying on the show that it lets their kids have a better childhood.
However, with some of their children moving out of their house in the past year, the Plath family can always count on the "responsible" one: Lydia Plath.
Who is Lydia Plath?
Read on for what we know about the middle, responsible Plath child.
What can we expect from Welcome to Plathville season 2?
The main focus of the show has been on the ways the oldest children are growing up and moving in their own directions in life. Their 21-year-old daughter, Hosanna, is married and lives in Ohio with her husband.
Son Ethan, the oldest of the kids at 22, is also married, but he and his wife live right down the road from his family.
His more worldly spouse, Olivia, has been expanding his world and teaching him about things like drinking soda and alcohol.
The next two siblings, 17-year-old Moriah and 19-year-old Micah, want to spend more and more time having adventures with Ethan and Olivia, and all of it is causing stress between the parents and the kids.
But left behind at home is 16-year-old Lydia Plath.
The middle child describes herself as the responsible one in the family and is frequently seen in the kitchen, preparing food for her siblings or listening as her family deals with a problem that she didn't cause.
What religion does the Plath family follow?
Parents Kim and Barry explained to the TLC cameras that they have a deep faith in Christianity and that drives how they raise their family.
Like a lot of extremely religious families, the Plaths steer clear of things they don't think align with their religious path.
They homeschool their kids, and strictly limit television and the internet. Micah, their 19-year-old son even said, “I've grown up without a TV. I don’t think I need one.”
On the show, 16-year-old Lydia shares that she has enjoyed being homeschooled and is grateful for it. She also seems to enjoy living on a farm that she says is 10 miles from the nearest town.
Lydia Plath calls herself "the responsible one."
In the first episode of the show, Kim and Barry walk audiences through their life and talk a little bit about each of their children.
They describe Lydia as being the most responsible, sentiments Lydia echos when she talks about herself as well.
She and sister Moriah describe one another, and Moriah says that Lydia is the sweetest person she knows.
Although Lydia is not the oldest child, she seems to be taking a bigger share of the work around the house — moreso than older brother Micah or older sister Moriah when they were living at home.
Micah explained that he works off the farm, but Moriah doesn't have that excuse.
In one scene, Lydia is literally in the kitchen cooking a meal for the nine family members who still live at home and Moriah walks right on by.
She compliments her sister on how good the meal smells, but doesn't so much as offer to help with cooking or with clean-up later.
What is Lydia Plath's zodiac sign?
It's unclear as to what Lydia Plath's zodiac sign is; however, we do know she was born sometime in 2004.
There is a lot of drama with Lydia's sister, Moriah.
One of the reasons that Lydia has to work harder at home is that her sister Moriah really isn't working at all.
Moriah is clearly ready to grow up and find her own path.
She tells TLC that she doesn't completely agree with her parents on some things and she wants to travel and go to college.
Though mother Kim discouraged it, Moriah took a trip to San Francisco with her sister-in-law, Olivia.
Kim faced the cameras and said that her big worries in letting her daughter visit California were drugs and human trafficking, fears not shared by Moriah who probably wasn't planning a drug binge and was just hoping to help Olivia with a wedding photography job she was going there to do.
As Moriah negotiated a dream trip to visit the iconic California city, Lydia stood by silently and listened.
She hadn't been invited on the trip so maybe she didn't feel like she had any right to weigh in.
Although, having Moriah gone for a while would have meant she had fewer meals to cook, so maybe she was rooting for her sister to get to go.
Lydia's parents rely on her to be in charge...kind of.
In another episode of the show during the first season, Kim and Barry plan a child-free trip to celebrate their anniversary.
They leave the kids at home and put Micah in charge since he's the oldest.
But as an aside, they say that they expect that Lydia will really keep everything going while they're gone.
Micah jokes that Lydia will be in charge for real while he'll be in charge of the silliness.
Later, he and Moriah wonder aloud if their parents would ever leave them if Lydia wasn't there to keep the family fed and cared for while they were gone.
They don't offer to help her out, however, and seem content to let their little sister be the full replacement for Kim while she's away.
They also don't thank her for everything she does, at least not while cameras are rolling.
Conflict in her family breaks Lydia's heart.
RELATED: Is 'Welcome To Plathville' Star Olivia Plath Separating From Ethan Plath?
While Lydia is left in charge, something happens with the kids that really upset their parents.
No, they don't throw a big party. Ethan and Olivia come over to play outdoors and eat junk food with their siblings.
This might not sound like a big deal for most kids, but as you recall, Kim and Barry are extremely strict parents and had told Ethan and Olivia they weren't allowed around the younger kids without the parents around.
When Kim and Barry found out what happened, they confronted Ethan and Olivia, while the younger siblings looked on.
The family tension bothered all the Plath kids — but Lydia's dismay was noticeably different.
During the conflict, she stood behind her mother with her arms crossed, clearly wishing the argument would end. She even needed to take a walk to calm herself down afterward.
She could be seen walking through the woods crying and praying for her family to settle their differences.
Moriah, Micah, and Isaac realized that their sensitive sister was really hurting.
They found her and comforted her and they all promised to stick together no matter what the rest of the family was going through.
With Moriah gone, Lydia has to do even more.
Back in August, Olivia posted a selfie of her and Moriah and explained that Moriah was in Minnesota.
"I left part of my heart in Minnesota this morning," she wrote. "Moriah has been such a close sister and friend to me, and we’ve walked through more life crap together in the past few years then some friendships do in a lifetime."
Olivia went on to say that she had purchased Moriah's ticket and it was a one-way flight and said that she was excited for her sister-in-law's next chapter in life.
Is Moriah Plath emancipated?
It sure looks like it!
Moriah has her own Instagram as well, something her parents didn't allow when she was at home.
In October, she posted a selfie and said, "i asked to be independent, i got that one for sure. i asked life to make me stronger. i’m learning a lot and i hope i always will."
People who know the family, however, have commented that Moriah becoming emancipated from her parents is a long-standing joke and her trip to Minnesota may have just been a family visit.
Regardless of how long she plans to be gone, having Moriah away means that even more responsibility is likely to fall on Lydia back on the farm.
When does Welcome to Plathville season 2 premiere?
We'll get a chance to see what the Plath family has been up to since the first season of their show wrapped in December of 2019, and judging from the looks of things, there's gonna be a whole lotta drama to catch up on.
Season 2 of Welcome to Plathville premieres on TLC on Nov. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.