"Sister Wives" patriarch Kody Brown recently told TODAY.com that he realizes that plural marriage isn't for everyone — and that it might not even be right for all of his kids.
"We are not pushing it on other people," he said. "We don’t even push it on our children."
Still, at least one of the family's 17 children has embraced the lifestyle. Mariah's decision to one day follow that particular tenet of their fundamentalist Mormon faith is part of the focus of the next episode of the TLC series.
"Kody's always said that you should not live plural marriage unless you feel the call to it — you don't just do it just to try it out," first wife Meri, Mariah's mother, explained in sneak peek exclusive to TODAY.com. "I completely agree with him on that. And I think that Mariah has had that calling. She just feels that."
But Mariah wants to make sure no one is confused about what that calling means to her.
"There's a stereotype that polygamous women don't go to college and don't get an education," the 17-year-old said in the clip. "That's not me, because I want an education and I want to become a doctor — but I also want to live plural marriage."
Mariah's sister Mykelti (daughter of Kody and his third wife, Christine) imagines that Mariah will eventually have "four wives and 23 children." Another sister (Aspyn, Christine's oldest child) seemed taken aback by the thought of Mariah having so many kids, but for Madison (Kody's oldest daughter with second wife, Janelle), the problem had more to do with the number of wives.
"Four?!" she exclaimed.
Of course, it's no surprised that would be a sticking point for Madison. Last season, she made it clear that plural marriage wasn't for her.
"I would not be able to share my husband like that," she insisted.
See what else Kody's kids have to say about the subject when "Sister Wives" airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on TLC.