"Little House in the Hills" blog by quiverfull SAHM

[Viola]

explain the jemima taboo to a clueless non american? i thought its kind of pretty said the right way. (and we do have aunt jemima pancake syrup here)

[Rosa]

"aunt" was an honorific used for slave women and sometimes for black women during Jim Crow too. Since generally white children were taught not to call black adults "ma'am" or "sir" or "Mr" and "Mrs".

Jemima's been stereotyped as a slave name in the US since at least the 19th century and was a blackface minstrel show character. So we have "Aunt Jemima" and "Uncle Ben" branded products - when they were new the advertising featured fake black dialect too. ("Dem sho are good Massa Brown" type stuff).

[MaroonMandy]

I'm trying to blanket train my 1-year-old. Really, I am.

Only he's a 1-year-old puppy, and I'm training him to go to his bed when I tell him to do so. I reward him with treats when he complies. He's doing well. Most of the time he goes to his bed, lies down and will stay for about 30 seconds. Then he gets a treat. We are working on longer stays, hoping eventualy he goes to his bed and stays for long periods of time without complaining. I'm "blanket training," right?

Ha! I realized the other day that I had totally blanked trained my dog as well. He has his own blanket at the foot of my bed and when it's time for him to lay down I just say "Henry, blanket!"

On the upside there was no beating required, just snacks and ear rubs.

[jenny_islander]

To the person who asked about blanket training without deliberately inflicting pain: It is just barely possible to teach some children to associate a particular blanket with toy time. This involves patiently moving the toy back to the blanket whenever the child wants to crawl away with it. Of course, the child must not have a strong desire to just get moving. Also, there can't be anything incredibly interesting just off the blanket. If the blanket is on a green lawn, or indoors with a puppy or kitten, forget keeping the kid on it! However, if you have a baby who doesn't like weird wet tickly stuff on her tummy, you may find yourself spreading a thick blanket on the lawn so that she can keep her body on it and investigate the lawn with her hands and face. We had one like that.

If you have a very active child, you can "couch train" him or her by making it clear that any amount of bouncing, tumbling, roaring, thumping, etc., is allowed, but only on a particular couch or mattress. Of course, you have to be willing to sacrifice that couch or mattress to being jumped on all the time. Before we replaced our queen-sized mattress, we assigned it as the kids' daytime bouncing space because the sagging old thing could hardly get any worse!

And of course there is the old standby, the playpen. There's nothing wrong with gently confining a child with some toys when it would be dangerous to have him/her underfoot or you can't be in the room. Playpens have enabled generations of stay-at-home parents to get chores done. Packing the child around in a wrap is an even older way to keep the kid safe while you handle fire or knives or what have you.

But as far as I know, there is no way to make a toddler(?!) sit still(?!?) for almost an hour(?!?!) without instilling a deep fear of the consequences of moving. That's a horrible thing to do to a kid at the most active period of a human being's entire life!

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Why not just get a playpen, throw some books and toys in there and not beat the kids to make them stay on a small blanket?

THIS!!! Horrible as it sounds to some people, sometimes you need the Baby Cage! Mom is busy, baby wants to be near Mom. Solution? Baby Cage! Put in in the room Mom is working in, put a blanket and some toys in it, Mom can talk to baby while working without worrying baby gets hurt or eats anything weird since baby is CONFINED. Only physical barriers to freedom.

Of course plenty of the people who are adamant about how a baby cage is somehow "cheating" also look down at people who babyproof their houses by putting up the expensive knickknacks or covering outlets. If you're a proper parent you shouldn't need to do any of that because you should train your kids. :roll: Because there's never a happy medium in there...

What freaks me out even more than blanket training though are the parents who then move to training their slightly older kids to be utterly still and quiet for hours on command. They'll line the kids up on the sofa and tell them to sit quietly and not make noise at all because Mom said so, for up to 90 minutes. This is so they can learn to be quiet in church or whatever.

I can't imagine sitting still for NO REASON with nothing to do just to practice obedience. It's crazy. How about giving kids a book and letting them read quietly, or turning on the radio and they can listen to some talk quietly, or something, but nothing to occupy the brain except perhaps mental geometry with the carpet patterns or counting the ceiling tiles for an hour? Torturous and I don't see the parents doing the same thing.

[VooDooChild]

Why not just get a playpen, throw some books and toys in there and not beat the kids to make them stay on a small blanket?

For reals!

It worked for me. That or parking them in a swing or high chair within eyesight of mom while she's doing her wifely chores. No need to abuse your child. FFS. I realized that quiet time was mostly no more except for nap times. So I made my kids' nap time part of my "me time" so I could unwind if I needed . I honestly don't understand what the big deal is with these fundie SAHMs. I've been a housewife for the majority of my marriage. Now, I only have 2 kids, but I never (except for on occasion) felt so with overwhelmed with housework and kids. And I certainly never felt I needed to beat and confine my kids to one square foot of carpet in order maintain my sanity or to make my kids behave. Did I do it wrong? Did I miss the memo?

[infooverload]

Whenever I see unfortunate first names like Jemima I think to myself please please let the child have a normal first name. Also talk about being completely culturally illiterate and not thinking things through.

[TrueRebel1]

Re: the daughter named Jemima. If I remember right, she named the girl that after Daniel Boone's daughter (?) named Jemima. I'm sure it was a great name back in the day, but I don't know that it's the best "old fashioned" name to resurrect!

[NjoyingNsanity]

I was kinda hoping she had pulled Jemima from one of the Beatrix Potter storybooks, but oh well guess I was hoping for too much there. I mostly asked the blanket training question because well I have five kids and none of them ever stayed put when they were that age and it was never an issue since I didn't actually expect them to. The playpen or a highchair works well enough with my daughter and when my back isn't giving me fits she enjoys the Moby Wrap. I really don't understand why these fundie moms feel the need to punish an infant or toddler for being what they are a baby. Sometimes I wonder if they don't take their frustration at not being allowed to have their own fullfilling life outside the home out on their kids. I can't imagine trying to live up to thier perfectionist ideal of a good wife and mother especially if deep down that's not really what I wanted to be.

[freejugar]

. Rachel Anne was born at home, in our laundry room, in a cattle-trough-turned-birthing-tub

:? don't people have normal births anymore?

[Slt]

:? don't people have normal births anymore?

Oh dear God, how did I miss this one? In a CATTLE TROUGH?! Wtf!

[freejugar]

littlehouseinthehills.blogspot.com.ar/2012/11/were-not-having-more-kids-because.html

her reasons are so dumb and shallow

"aah cute clothes and names" "cute family photos"

[singsingsing]

When I was younger I wanted to have like 12 kids just so I could name them all. Then I discovered The Sims.

[wild little fox]

Is there a form of blanket training that doesn't involve hitting the baby? I ask this because I was explaining what FreeJinger is all about to an online friend and he told me he and his siblings had been blanket trained, but that his parents didn't believe in hitting or spanking their children? Is there some other method besides the Pearls that I've never heard of? Not that I'm interested in trying it since I use a playpen for when I need to set my daughter down somewhere safe while I do things around the house. I'm just curious as to how they'd get a curious baby to stay put without beating the curiosity out of them.

Several of my aunts' children sat on a blanket and entertained themselves with out spanking. Me, mom made the room child friendly and let me explore. Of course I know one of those cousins was NEVER hit while I was badly abused. :(

[desertvixen]

Of course plenty of the people who are adamant about how a baby cage is somehow "cheating" also look down at people who babyproof their houses by putting up the expensive knickknacks or covering outlets. If you're a proper parent you shouldn't need to do any of that because you should train your kids.

Sometimes, the baby cage, or the little exersaucer thingy is really a lifesaver (my ex and I used to call ours the Neglectomatic as a joke).

I liked the gates more myself - one on our kitchen, and one to gate off the cats' room, so they would have their own safe space.

[Mustang Sally]

When I was younger I wanted to have like 12 kids just so I could name them all. Then I discovered The Sims.

I'm kind of obsessed with making big families with a ton of babies in The Sims. I once made the Duggar family, including their house, but I only got up through about half the kids born before the mom got too old to keep reproducing. Whoops

[desertvixen]

Check out her feminism tag for some fun...

littlehouseinthehills.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/why-i-didnt-go-to-college-pt-1.html

When I finished highschool, my "dream occupation" was to be a homemaker. If I would've wanted to be a dentist, I would've gone to dental school. If I wanted to be an engineer, I would've majored in mechanical engineering.

But because I didn't want to be a dentist or an engineer, I didn't go to college for those things. That would've been a complete waste of time and money. Instead, I remained in my home, under my father's authority, and "studied" to be a homemaker.

Some people may wonder, “How much training is necessary anyway?†I remember telling a lady once that I was preparing to be a wife and mother, and she responded, “Oh, so you’re learning how to cook?â€

Considering that I’d known how to cook for years, I found her question amusing, but it raises an interesting point. A girl could learn how to sew, wash laundry, manage a household budget, shop for bargains, dust furniture, and bake bread, and then move on to something else in life once she had mastered the homemaking skills, right?

Besides all this, a girl must learn how to be patient and how to rejoice in the everyday tasks of caring for her home and serving her family. If girls are trained for a career outside the home, then that is where they will tend to seek fulfillment and contentment later in life. On the other hand, if girls are prepared to be homemakers, they will find the adjustment to being a manager of their own future home a more natural one.

Translation: if they don't have other options, they'll be happier.

littlehouseinthehills.blogspot.com.ar/2012/03/why-i-didnt-go-to-college-pt-2.html

I would agree with her that college is not the only path to being educated, but other methods require a lot more work.

As my husband says, we live in the "age of Google and Amazon." We are no longer limited to even our local library's resources--or what the current set of encylopedias have to say. An unmeasured set of educational tools are practically beneath our fingers! :)

Am I the only one envisioning her looking at some back in the day materials? I read them, but for entertainment, not actual use.

She states that she assumes most women intend to be homemakers.

If a woman does not have a husband to be her provider and protector, her father as the natural authority from her birth or her brother—as seen above—ought to care for her. A wedding ceremony is the time when a girl moves from being under the care of her father to being under her groom’s care.

This is how God designed men and women to function in a family. Girls should not be trained to “be independent on their own,†but to learn how to follow, to be the helper and encourager and comforter to the man God places in her life.

Excuse me while I gouge my eyes out... nothing new here.

[Free2BeMe]

Check out her feminism tag for some fun...

littlehouseinthehills.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/why-i-didnt-go-to-college-pt-1.html

Translation: if they don't have other options, they'll be happier.

littlehouseinthehills.blogspot.com.ar/2012/03/why-i-didnt-go-to-college-pt-2.html

I would agree with her that college is not the only path to being educated, but other methods require a lot more work.

Am I the only one envisioning her looking at some back in the day materials? I read them, but for entertainment, not actual use.

She states that she assumes most women intend to be homemakers.

If a woman does not have a husband to be her provider and protector, her father as the natural authority from her birth or her brother—as seen above—ought to care for her. A wedding ceremony is the time when a girl moves from being under the care of her father to being under her groom’s care.

This is how God designed men and women to function in a family. Girls should not be trained to “be independent on their own,†but to learn how to follow, to be the helper and encourager and comforter to the man God places in her life. Excuse me while I gouge my eyes out... nothing new here.

That is exactly why I left my SB church, that and I found a bill gothard book in the library.