What will all the SAHDs do long term?

[mlady]

It's doomed anyway. You can keep a family down on the farm and away from "the world" but as those numbers grow (the 200 year plan) it will be impossible. There are only so many preachers needed, only so many used car dealers, untrained photographers, web designers, candle makers, and ebooks that can earn enough to eat. All while the world is getting smaller and we are all being exposed and adapting to things at a breakneck speed.

What you would see are people forced to move into "the world" just to survive, then flounder, then it's game over. With arranged marriage we would have some spectacular blow ups and rebellion and, of course, a bunch of divorces mid life.

[anjulibai]

The difference being that the nunnery will always be there. Daddy will not.

As for the Duggars, the baby production line is effectively shut down. Josh and Anna are apparently leaving town, so unless one is sent to be a nanny for them the services of the older daughters won't be needed. The youngest girls will turn 4, 5, and 6 this year. Michelle is turning 47 in a few months, so unless they adopt (I don't see it happening, but you never know) there will be no more babies or toddlers for the older daughters to tend to.

The housework is probably getting much worse, though, what with the howlers moving into their teens and no one moving out, and I don't even want to think about that dynamic. Can you imagine Jessa's attitude towards picking up after her teenage brothers? The TTH is likely to become a more and more unpleasant place to live as the years roll on. Boob will need to start marrying off his older daughters once the show ends or a few of them may find ways to leave on their own. They aren’t naive little fundie girls in frumpers anymore.

I hope you are right, but I don't know. I see the Howlers entering their teens as more reason to keep the girls home. Can't have the boys doing girly things like cook and do the laundry - which the younger girls aren't completely ready for, even if the oldest girls were doing those chores at super early ages.

I also think at least one girl will go with Josh and Anna - my bet is on Jinger. The 4 older girls left home (including Joy here) will have to pick Jinger's slack. Then, whenever John-David marries, a girl will be farmed out - probably Joy, because by that time she'll be done with school and the youngest girls will be able to take over the laundry.

The 3 other girls I can't see going anywhere because they will, no matter what, be needed at home. There is still years left of schooling for all the kids, and that's still Jessa's jurisdiction (which, off topic, is illegal in Arkansas). Jill is doing her midwife stuff, and that will take years to finish, and she needs Jana at home to chaperone her. All three need to be around to cook until the youngest girls can take it over, which is still a ways away.

It might get more and more crowded as the Howlers grow, but they aren't going to have boys picking up the extra work in the house.

By the time the youngest boys have graduated high school, the oldest girls will be in their early 30s, and unlikely, I think to marry at that point. Most of those boys will stay at home into their early 20s, if not longer, and will still need people around to cook for them and do their laundry. The youngest girls will be around for that, of course, but I would be some of them will be farmed out to the older brothers that have married, if they do marry.

Though, I think if any of them are likely to marry, it's the youngest girls. The oldest girls I think might just be a lost cause.

I hope I'm wrong, though.

[nokidsmom]

:agree:

Exactly. Life isn't always fair for any of us, but if their parent's hubris and evagelical zeal turns into a huge failure, that slows or prevents these people from actually taking over and forcing their bullshit on the rest of us.

A few young beauties drying up and whithering on the vine is better than hundreds of girls in the next generation being forced into religious slavery to husbands.

Thank you (takes a bow) :)

Yep, from my prospective the SAHD phenomenon is a good thing. They won't get the numbers expand their nonsense to the rest of us. And not everyone who is in the movement will necessarily stay.

Remember from sociology classes that a society's success in increasing is dependent on the women, not the men. Yet many societies practiced female infanticide, something that would limit their numbers. The insistence on young women be SAHDs, worshipping and following Daddy, until some Prince Charming materializes, is doing a similar thing.

[OkToBeTakei]

Bring back that lovely old phrase 'Spinster of this Parish.'

Before you know it, they will all be on match.com :lol:

[JesusFightClub]

I'll finally download it as an ebook and sit it through after your recommendation. Thank you JFC! (I always read your name as Jesus * Christ but no offense, that's just my dirty brains.)

Cool! I hope you like it :)

(and I read my name that way too sometimes...)

[mrs]

Bring back that lovely old phrase 'Spinster of this Parish.'

Before you know it, they will all be on match.com :lol:

Or Christain Mingle!

[yoyo926]

Christian Mingle would be much too liberal for them. A friend of mine met a guy there(she has a PhD). Trust me fundies would not mix well there.

[Hane]

Cynic here: I think that all these poor spinsters dying on the vine will have ZIP effect on the growth of this movement.

Plenty of young women in the US really want to get married, to be housewives and SAHMs, but aren't part of the fundy core demographic--just fairly religious and conservative-leaning. I see Fundie Princes like JT Phillips being able to swoop in, take their pick, charm the socks off them, marry them, and then guide them into a more and more fundie way of life.

In Fundieland, all choices rest with the men. I doubt many of them will say this out loud, but I bet the going attitude is, "The Certified Christian girls I've met aren't cutting it in the looks department, Dad--I'm sure I have your OK to search farther afield."

[Rescinded and Mended]

Christian Mingle would be much too liberal for them. A friend of mine met a guy there(she has a PhD). Trust me fundies would not mix well there.

I'm amazed that more mainstream Christian women are able to find a match on Christian Mingle. A good friend of mine was registered there. All the guys she met and dated had two main concerns:

1) Was she a virgin? (If so, extry-speshul snowflake bonus points!)

2) Was she willing to stop working, accept patriarchy, and embrace his potential as her future headship?

My friend is a bright, beautiful, college-educated woman. She dropped her subscription to the site after about 6 months.

YMMV - there might be some good ones on the site, but it seems like she just didn't find 'em.

[teachergirl]

I just wanted to say I FOUND a FB Quiverfull "dating" page (if you will) through the Full Quiver Society page. Sadly there are only 53 members so not much to snark on but it makes me sad they are all just sitting around waiting for Prince Charming/broodmare/

[yoyo926]

I'm amazed that more mainstream Christian women are able to find a match on Christian Mingle. A good friend of mine was registered there. All the guys she met and dated had two main concerns:

1) Was she a virgin? (If so, extry-speshul snowflake bonus points!)

2) Was she willing to stop working, accept patriarchy, and embrace his potential as her future headship?

My friend is a bright, beautiful, college-educated woman. She dropped her subscription to the site after about 6 months.

YMMV - there might be some good ones on the site, but it seems like she just didn't find 'em.

My friend is black just like me and I hate to say it but I think I think that makes a HUGE difference. The whole fundie thing generally doesn't sit well with most (American) black people. Since she was only looking at black men our definition of Christian is very different culturally. If you go to church on most Sundays, and believe in Jesus, and try to be a good person then you are a Christian. None of that patriarchy headship stuff. Most Christian black men I know would think it strange for a woman to be past a certain age and still a be a virgin, and would run the other way if you said you planned to stop working after marriage and wouldn't be using any birth control EVER.