Amish teenagers - take me back with you!

[passionberry]

Does anyone else kind of what to go and live with the Amish watching this? I love their storeroom full of preserves!

The appeal of a very simple life is that we don't have to make tough choices all the time. I'd love to be able to believe that all the answers to life's questions were in one book. But I simply don't.

However I would like to reduce my reliance on outside help - that bit appeals to me

They are from Holmes County, Ohio. This county has the highest concentration of Amish in the world.

I have relatives who used to live there, and they have lots of tales about the Amish, especially boys on Rumspringa.

They seemed really brainwashed to me ..

OK I´m confused now as looked on channel 4 website & Becky isn´t Amish & her family left it years ago??

Thisisyesterday - do you mean you DID live with the Amish? Or have I totally misunderstood? If you did, tell us all about it please!!!!
I always love the idea of the Amish lifestyle when my life gets too complicated or something is going on that feels beyond my control. I am massively envious of the pantry too...

LOL - I think they were gazed at as much as the actual exhibits!

Thank you - there are lots of Amish communities in the MidWest. Some more open to outsiders than others. They sometimes hire buses to come to the cities (to the zoo/ museums etc) but people are often rude and stare at them.

i loved this programme. i would love to see a follow up.

Diddl - I think it was mentioned in the first episode that Becky was raised in one of the strictest Amish communities, but her parents decided to leave to give themselves and their children a bit more freedom. Their decision to leave meant that the community completely disowned them though. Whilst they're not part of an Amish community now they do still live by many of the simple Amish values.

Have recorded the one shown tonight so will catch up on it tomorrow

I loved this programme and I keep coming up with questions. Do they have Amish dr's or do they access healthcare and hospitals the same as non amish people?

What happens if they decide to leave, having only been educated to 14 are they able to access colleges etc?

I liked how Becky was willing to try things like going in the sea, wearing British clothes and surfing!
Leah didn't seem to want to try anything and was a lot more reserved.
The boys all seemed to try everything with almost no second thought.

They said in the programme tonight that Becky's family were part of the strictest amish group and they left them and moved away last year,I'm presuming to where they are now.

I was saying to dh I wonder if you could do a 4 week stay in Amish country to see if you liked it, dh said I wouldn't last a week with no electricity, tv etc.

we have a hutterite community near here that i have visited a few times. there is no education past 14 (a reduced curriculum excluding evolution etc) and no option for college. they are utterly disdainful of western values, but bizarrely are happy to access specialist healthcare provision and sell their wares to westerners for profit.

i am fascinated by their lifestyle, but really struggle with the refusal to provide/ permit anything other than a very basic education, but a willingness to expect to benefit from the education of those you despise...

either you are a self-sufficient community, or you aren't. i see too many contradictions.

we witnessed the setting up of a new colony, where half of the members of the existing colony were chosen by the elders to leave, sometimes breaking up family groups if the children had reached young adulthood. the names were released on the morning of the move.

that said, they are a visible part of the local community - if they have managed to get a ride into town in the one vehicle available for necessary errands. trying to get permission to visit family or friends in other colonies is virtually impossible. some visits occur, but infrequently.

i quite like the idea of being given a job, trained how to do it, taking my part in the community etc. i can see the appeal. but to be prevented from learning about the world, prevented from accessing radio/ tv/ internet etc. it's a bit big brother.

and once you're gone, really, you're gone. there's no running away and then coming back.

i also love the idea that a group of elderly men choose the two patterns of cloth that you are allowed to sew the regulation dress from each year. in fact for me, that's the most appealing part of the lifestyle - no more 'does this suit me?' really. this is what you wear. end of. and get your hair covered. no hairdresser to worry about.

Yes, they do have access to healthcare, but they will not have access to much health insurance so will have to pay their way. If they need to go to hospital, the church community will club together to pay the bill.

In the county that these teenagers were from, the main hospital is in Millersburg - and it has a very busy maternity unit as most Amish women in that area will go to hospital to give birth.

I've just read that link MrsBadger posted and read a little blurb about each of them.

Leah has already been baptised into the Amish faith which was why she didn't try out the things that the others did.

It was very interesting to read about their culture. I didn't know that they were allowed batteries for instance and I didn't realise that some of them have no indoor plumbing, dh might be right in that I might not survive living with them.

NickofTime,

Your attitude towards is the Amish is the main reason why it is so difficult for an outsider to marry into an Amish family. If they do, they have to go on trial for several years to see if they are up for it.

Being born into it, and growing up with this life as normal, is a lot easier.

I don't see it as being a contradiction that they use modern equipment, western services, or that they make things for sale. They are just very good at picking and choosing what they need to maintain their plain lifestyle.

They do need to trade with outsiders because they need a certain amount of cash to provide them with things they need from outside.

can you marry into the Amish community? can you just turn up and ask them to take you?

on thinking about their faith, i think its easier to have faith in that culture and more of a test for the rest of us, so ...i don't admire them on that front

No, they won't just take you. You have to try out the life for a few years to get used to it and see if you are up to it. After that you can be baptised and are then eligible to marry.

As for faith, I think that is what enables them to life that lifestyle. It would be very difficult to shun worldly values without faith.

I can´t help thinking that if you grow up there, then you are almost stuck there tbh.

If they want to leave after "Rumspringa" for example, where do they go?

And how long can they live in the community & not be baptised into the church?

I do wonder how much longer it is sustainable- as the population grows, how do they support more members.

I also see NickofTimes point about accessing certain parts of Western life when it suits them, but on the whole having a disdain for it.

Seems quite hypocritical to me.

A small % do leave the Amish community after rumspringa.

They are US citizens and have the same opportunities as everyone else. They can go to a community college, for example, to get their high school diploma and put themselves back on track with their education.

There are unskilled jobs available, and jobs using traditional amish skills.

Supporting their rapidly growing population is a problem, and they have done this by moving literally spreading out (buying new farms), and also by taking paid employment in their local area. They basically support a growing family the same way as anyone else - by moving to a bigger place and getting a job!

I don't think they are being hypocritical at all. Their practices are tradition based. They are not like orthodox jews, for example, where salvation is by obedience. They will use modern technology for a particular purpose, not just for self gratification. For example, because their land is more and more spread out, a horse and buggy will not enable them to visit relatives (it can only travel max 12 miles in one day), so they will use a telephone to pass on a specific message (eg if someone is ill), and they will use taxis when they need to get somewhere far away.

I understand what some people mean about hypocrisy but I think that modern society has forced those hypocricies upon them IYSWIM? The western world and Amish community were far less divided in the 1800s for example, whereas the divide now is so huge, that there are bound to be some hypocracies to how they live and survive.

The Church of England for example has evolved huge amounts in the last 50 years; otherwise it would have found it harder and harder to survive and the Amish community I believe is much the same. Sometimes, people have to move forward, whether they like it or not.

mme - just wanted to make it clear that my post referred to the hutterite community, rather the amish. they do not accept outsiders marrying into the colony (and there would be no opportunity for any hutterite young adult/ teen to meet and form a relationship with a non-hutterite in any case, as they are not allowed to leave the colony/ work in the local community etc). marriages are strictly within the hutterite community as a whole (ie between colonies).

the colony has a number of farm vehicles, but only two passenger vehicles, which are only allowed to be used for specific colony business (ie to go to walmart to purchase supplies etc). there is no taxi use.

there is no education past 14 for hutterites. no hutterites attend any external education. (at the local colony, the dairy manager - obviously a man - is the only one allowed to access the dairy computer. he was given special dispensation to attend the computer course he needed to manage the spreadsheets required. no-one else is allowed to access the computer.) it's the education thing i find problematic - i don't have any problem at all with their lifestyle choices, or their beliefs, but i find it odd that a parent who accesses specialist medical knowledge for the benefit of their child would want to prevent that child from gaining the knowledge to improve the lives of other children in turn... i know that's a particularly western model of thought, i'm not daft. but i find it interesting. no hutterites are employed outside the colony. they have their own specific job within the colony and receive the same monthly allowance as everyone else. they eat in a dining hall together at set times. the women rotate through the kitchen rota and cleaning the communal areas. the children are responsible for looking after the vegetable gardens after school.

the amish are not as strict as the hutterites - i don't know enough about the amish culture to make any particularly worthwhile comparison, but wanted to mention another group of people with a similar ethos that i have wider experience of.

i'm sorry if i offended anyone - there was no prejudice intended, i was laying out the facts, and explaining where i felt a contradiction existed. i'm interested that some posters don't see a contradiction, and i'd love to discuss that further -

to make it clear - i don't see any problem with anyone making/ baking/ selling to raise money for what they need - whether as an individual or a community. i buy hutterite bread, eggs, chickens when i get the opportunity. the money goes straight to the colony, not to individuals or families. (interestingly, because individuals are not allowed to earn their own money, if you visit, some members of the colony will make attempts to offer some other things for sale privately - very privately lol - in an attempt to have personal funds. often this is young people who are trying to leave. one young girl was attempting to get us to buy stuff from her by telling us she was pregnant and it was her only chance of earning enough money to leave as she was unmarried.)

the only thing i struggle with is the education thing. i'm not asking anyone to change their beliefs or their faith, i'm just curious why a hutterite who wanted to be a doctor wouldn't be allowed to study to become one.

sorry if this is totally off the amish path.