One of th 7fgsisters went to Guatemala and brought her germs

[Triplet3]

Um OK, I'm going to confess, I do too. It's quite normal in the UK, honest.

Yep. I called my parents Mummy and Daddy until I was years older than Anna. Admittedly I didn't call them that when talking about them to other people (except when talking to my sisters), but still. I still do call Mum 'Mummy' occasionally when talking to her in fact, and I'm in my late 20s. Dad died over Christmas so I can't call him anything to his face now. :(

[ILoveJellybeans]

Yep. I called my parents Mummy and Daddy until I was years older than Anna. Admittedly I didn't call them that when talking about them to other people (except when talking to my sisters), but still. I still do call Mum 'Mummy' occasionally when talking to her in fact, and I'm in my late 20s. Dad died over Christmas so I can't call him anything to his face now. :(

It must depend where in the UK youre from-I live near Manchester and I have never heard anyone under 10 call their parents that.

[Triplet3]

It must depend where in the UK youre from-I live near Manchester and I have never heard anyone under 10 call their parents that.

Yes, I imagine it's a regional thing. I'm in Hertfordshire. Also, after the age of 12 or so I only called my parents that within the family, not when talking to other people - it may well be the same for others, therefore giving the impression that fewer people over 10 use those terms than actually do.

[Jesse911]

I just have to say I live less than 10 minutes from these girls and it is most certainly not a regional thing to call your parents mommy and daddy. This family is by far a stand out from the rest of the community in almost all ways and seem to pride themselves in that.

[formergothardite]

I don't think it's unreasonable that a set of parents would want their 16-year old to be with a family for a month when going abroad for the first time, particularly if without any of her own family members. In fact it seems pretty sensible to me. I'm pretty sure my parents would have wanted similar for me if I'd announced at 16 that I wanted to go to another country without any of my family members, and they're not fundie in the slightest. I do of course disagree with the 'no shots' thing, but I can't say I'm surprised seeing as the Seven Sisters' mother posts anti-vax stuff on the T-Tapp forum.

If my 16 year old wanted to go do some sort of work to assist others in another country my first requirements would be that it would not be poverty tourism, that she has actual skills to assist the people she would be going to help, that by her going and doing the job for free it wouldn't be harming the local economy and community, and that she would be working with a reputable organization. I don't get why going with a family would be any safer than going with a reputable organization.

[Triplet3]

If my 16 year old wanted to go do some sort of work to assist others in another country my first requirements would be that it would not be poverty tourism, that she has actual skills to assist the people she would be going to help, that by her going and doing the job for free it wouldn't be harming the local economy and community, and that she would be working with a reputable organization. I don't get why going with a family would be any safer than going with a reputable organization.

I don't think that a family would be safer than a reputable organisation, but I guess Anna's parents thought that she personally would cope better with being away from her family abroad if in a family environment? Meh. Now you mention it, if my 16-year old self had specifically wanted to do humanitarian work abroad, my parents would have wanted it to be through a proper organisation. They probably would have wanted me to stay/travel with family acquaintances, though, so that I still had some familiarity in my life. I don't think that in itself it's a bad thing that Anna's parents wanted her to be with a family; I'd be interested to know more about the orphanage she was 'working' at, though. Is that a reputable organisation? I tried looking it up online but couldn't find out much about it.

[formergothardite]

I'm not a big fan of untrained, unskilled workers going on short term mission trips at all so I would probably discourage my daughter from doing anything like that anyway. What would be her reasons for wanting to go to another country(or even another place in America) to help when there is tons of work needing to be done in our own community? Is it because she wants to go see another place? That isn't a good enough reason for me. Save up money and go on a vacation and support the country by being a tourist, but going and doing something that they could hire locals to do? Not going to support that and I hope my kids could understand it.

The money sent to ship Anna down there could have gone a long way to hire local workers to do whatever she was doing. If it was a made up job and she wasn't even needed then this was nothing but poverty tourism.

[Mama Mia]

Yes, I imagine it's a regional thing. I'm in Hertfordshire. Also, after the age of 12 or so I only called my parents that within the family, not when talking to other people - it may well be the same for others, therefore giving the impression that fewer people over 10 use those terms than actually do.

I'm in California, and several of our adult children call their father Daddy, I get called different forms of "mom" by each of my kids, and one of them is " mommy". They all call us by their favorite names for us in public, but I assume when talking about us when we aren't around they use the more common mom and dad. I have no idea how common or unusual this is.

[freejugar]

did she even do anything at the orphanage?

[DGayle]

If my 16 year old wanted to go do some sort of work to assist others in another country my first requirements would be that it would not be poverty tourism, that she has actual skills to assist the people she would be going to help, that by her going and doing the job for free it wouldn't be harming the local economy and community, and that she would be working with a reputable organization. I don't get why going with a family would be any safer than going with a reputable organization.

Triplet, I think some of us here thought she was over 18. So many fundies sound like pre-teens.

But I agree with Gothardite. What skills does this teenager have that makes her reason for being there anything other than poverty-tourism? Watching other people do work, or trying to play with locals like they're pets isn't work. Good point too about making sure the legit work wouldn't be harmful. I've been very worried about some missionary trips I've heard about that result in local jobs lost to people who do the work for free, and sometimes even making businesses that the people say are to help the locals, but really create dependence since the so-called missionaries are the business-owners and it's for profit.

[formergothardite]

did she even do anything at the orphanage?

Could a sheltered, unskilled 16 year old actually do much? I think she wanted to travel and missions was the only way she was going to get to go. No way she would have been allowed to go vacation in another country for a month. So she had to act like she wasn't going for herself and was going to be doing something useful.

I'm the family bitch that refuses to donate money to all the relatives that are going on trips like this. They wouldn't help pay for my vacation and I'm not going to pay for their glorified vacations where they might be taking jobs from locals.

[16strong]

I'm going to take a different opinion on all of this. The girl is a fundie, and she's out of the house. That alone makes me happy. Maybe she is poverty touring, but whatever. She's not the first nor the last, especially not in an increasingly global society. Perhaps she will see something on her trip that causes her to really 'get' the harsh realities of third-world nations. The only thing I vehemently disagree with is her potentially contracting and spreading diseases. That's definitely not cool.

[Freed]

About the mommy and daddy thing:

I do still call my parents that, but they both know that if I do, it means I'm either very sick or hurt. Otherwise, it's mom and dad.

[divadivine]

I just have to say I live less than 10 minutes from these girls and it is most certainly not a regional thing to call your parents mommy and daddy. This family is by far a stand out from the rest of the community in almost all ways and seem to pride themselves in that.

Do you know them? Or have you met them/run into them in town? It's always fun to hear stories about fundies in the wild. Tee hee!

[socalrules]

I don't get the big deal about the mommy and daddy thing. I wasn't aware that if you were a certain age you can only address your parents by an age appropriate name. This goes back to the discussion on the other thread about "I did this at blah age and so something is wrong if they are doing it another way." It's just stupid. They are your parents, call them what you want. There is no shame in calling your parents mommy and daddy when you are sixty. All that matters is that your parents aren't bothered by it and I highly doubt they will be. I worry that we are starting to criticize fundies for normal everyday things just because it is easy to find fault with their ways or beliefs.

As for the trip, if this type of trip gets the girls out of the house and allows them to see a little of the world, however sheltered, I am all for it. Besides, I think everyone deserves the right to go somewhere without it always being a family affair. It requires a little bit of self-sufficiency, even if you are staying with another family. Plus, maybe they come away realizing that the world is not scary away from family.

[salsa]

I'm going to take a different opinion on all of this. The girl is a fundie, and she's out of the house. That alone makes me happy. Maybe she is poverty touring, but whatever. She's not the first nor the last, especially not in an increasingly global society. Perhaps she will see something on her trip that causes her to really 'get' the harsh realities of third-world nations. The only thing I vehemently disagree with is her potentially contracting and spreading diseases. That's definitely not cool.

I agree.

One thing I absolutely cannot stand to see when I fly in the Summer are the groups of white Christians with matching t-shirts on their church's mission trip. Ugh. It's entirely possible that some of these groups really are helpful, but the whole matching t-shirt thing just seems to say, "Look at us; we're going on a trip to save poor souls in South America (most popular because it's cheaper, closer, and less of a time change than Africa or Asia) and to teach them how to be real Americans." It makes me wonder if they are truly interested in helping and being empathetic with the people they're going to serve or if their primary motivation is to be seen doing it.

I'm glad Anna got to go - even if she was partly motivated by her own curiosity. It had to have broadened her horizons and it didn't look like she wore matching frumpers with the family she went with emblazoned with "HolierThanThou Fellowship Mission Trip 2014."

- and ditto with the anti-vax.

[RosyDaisy]

Mommy and Daddy? Is this a grown woman or a 6 year old?

This is not as uncommon as you might think, and not just among fundies. Just sayin'

[Jenny]

Someone asked if they were anti-vaxers.

This was her answer:

Just cautious about them :) I had an autoimmune disorder when I was younger where my body was destroying it’s own platelets (ITP) and had to have a blood transfusion, so there are some vaccines that I cannot have.

[Reply]

[Jesse911]

Part two is up on their blog. To the person asking if I know them (sorry I didn't see your post earlier) no I don't know them but apparently we overlap in our lives quite a bit. For example I went to preschool in the church they have pictures of from the wedding post and used to work in the bar that's across the parking lot. I hope to have a sighting of them sometime soon and will def post about it.

[HereticHick]

The 7fgsisters fascinate me. They dress like Amish or Mennonites--but they aren't--and I get the feeling that most of their church doesn't wear frumpers and headcoverings. They have--what-- 4 daughters over age 20? Yet they all write as if they were 13 year old giggly schoolgirls. They seem extremely naive and sheltered and it seems like "mommy" and "daddy" (I'm one of those who feel that those terms are inappropriate to use in public if you are over 18 years old) want to keep them that way. I can't imagine any of them being emotionally mature enough to court--or even look at a grown man without dissolving into blushing and giggles.

My point is, I don't see how "Daddy" is going to get these girls married off. Earnest Amish or Mennonite farmboys are going to marry someone of their own denomination.

They don't seem to often go to conference, camps or other events where they might meet eligible young men of compatible theology.

I can cynically see "mommy" and "daddy" wanting to keep a couple of them around to take care of them in their old age, but not all 7. Do they really want to financially support all these young women until the end of time?

[lilah]

So what exactly are these people doing at the orphanage? Sounds like they paid a ton of money to go out and play with some orphans. (there's a great blog post about how short term mission trips to orphanages is bad news http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/20 ... t-may.html)