What jobs are "non working" Fundy women allowed to do?

[smittykins]

9 hours ago, Bethella said:

Especially if it would mean your precious blessing being contaminated by spending time with the children of nasty heathens, they might start getting worldly ideas like wanting to go to school and stuff.

And in most states, if you care for a certain amount of children(not including your own), you have to obtain a license, which means you have to abide by health and safety standards, and you couldn't use "the rod" to discipline the daycare kids.

[Four is Enough]

If you consider Amish/Mennonite as fundy, consider this. I recently spent a good bit of time in central Pennsylvania, and went to a number of scrapbook/craft/card-making stores. 

The Amish/Mennonite got around their strictures against electricity in the house by not having the stores IN the house... just on the property, steps away from the house. So electric light, cash register, credit card machine, and telephone? Great! just not in the house!

They can choose their merchandise and never have anything insulting or puerile come into their stores. Therefore, their kids can help unpack and put up the merchandise.

It must be lucrative enough because I saw LOTS of inventory, at slightly higher than Michael's prices, but better service and gracious workers.

[Bazile]

1 hour ago, smittykins said:

And in most states, if you care for a certain amount of children(not including your own), you have to obtain a license, which means you have to abide by health and safety standards, and you couldn't use "the rod" to discipline the daycare kids.

I'm not sure on state licensing rules, but since we live on a military base I've looked into the rules for doing in home child care so I could watch a friend's (base regulations require you to be licensed once you hit more than 10 hours) child. There are limits on how many kids, and any children under I think 8 in the home count towards max child numbers, I want to say a max of 2 children under 2. How many quiverful types could stay within regulations one their own children are included. A friend who grew up in a fundie family, and I'd call currently fundie light looked into it a lot more seriously than I did, and she was turned down because she refused to get caught up on her vaccinations and get her kids vaccinated. Her's had to be up to date, and her kids (who are 3 and 1) couldn't be in the house if they weren't. She babysits, but she can't be licensed which would bring in more income they could probably use. And since she just announced she pregnant again with twins this time, she's pushing max kids in the house with four 4 and under once the babies are born. I'd say a decent number of fundie watched on here could easily end up with the same roadblocks to in home childcare.

 

[polecat]

Former fundy here. 

Some jobs that the women could hold back in my fundy days (80s, 90s) included:

• Babysitting for other women in the church (NOT unsaved women -- this could contaminate their special snowflakes)
• Selling stuff (Avon, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Home Interiors, etc.)
• Teaching in the fundy school (usually only for women with older kids, though)
• Working in their husband's business 
• Piano, violin, singing or other music lessons
• Selling homemade stuff (soap, bath bombs, lotion bars, baby clothes, etc.)

Most of it was a lot of work for a pittance (especially the "teaching" jobs, which barely paid minimum wage IF that), and then they still had to do all the usual fundy women stuff.

Disclaimer: This is all just my experience only and certainly does not apply to all flavors of fundydom or even necessarily fundies today. 

 

[Terrie]

The key rule seems to be if it takes out from under the watchful eye of hubby/daddy. So anything that can be done at home, probably okay as long as you don' have to get an actual education to do so.

[lilwriter85]

21 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

Yeah, I'd throw sewing/making clothes in there. See Zsu's modest swimwear line. Plus Erin also teaches piano from home.

I just remembered when Zsu did translation work from home. IIRC, it was for some kind of medical related company. I think some fundie women might do similar work from home jobs.

[FundieFarmer]

Some the people we know in fundie circles do writing, formatting and editing for bible study curriculum. Not like pithy blog stuff (ahem Lori) but actual published books & series.

[FundieWatcher]

I'm not sure about what exactly is legal with regards to in home daycares or after school where I live. I know there are a lot of unlicensed childcare providers though. Some people don't even think about bothering with it.  Parents are some times so desperate for affordable childcare that getting a licensed provider is a luxury. I would imagine to get licensed you need some early childhood education courses too. I can't imagine fundies going to secular classes on childcare. Still, watching kids afterschool or on school breaks can bring in good money. A little surprised it isn't a common side business for fundies. 

[lilwriter85]

I live in New Mexico and knew two women who did in home daycare. Both were licensed and had CPR/First Aid certifications. One of them worked for a government subsidy program and she had to put locks on her cabinets that contained cleaning supplies as part of meeting requirements. These woman were doing home care close to ten years ago and things may have changed since then.

[Lurky]

I love you all!

I know I'm just torturing myself at this point, but I'm trying to parse the logic of these jobs.  There are things where our Fundy SAHM/SAHD is allowed to do anything as long as she's based in the home, and under the watchful eye of her Headship, and there are things where she's allowed to work outside the home - like the photography and wedding planning and shilling MLM...   the MLMing and talking to audiences of women is maybe OK because she's only interacting with other women, but what about the photography and wedding planning and selling at markets, and talking in front of men all includes interacting with men, but is that OK because there's a brother/husband lurking behind her as she works??

ETA and re @Terrie, it's all ok as long as it's self-taught (which makes sense) except for the terrible fake midwifery and giving music lessons...  what makes those two different?  My poor head...

[Granwych]

On ‎10‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 4:34 PM, TeddyBonkers said:

Have you not been drinking your Plexus? I hear that it helps SEVERE forgetfulness!

It also helps you keep a steady hand for applying eyeliner, preferably green---

[Lurky]

4 minutes ago, Granwych said:

It also helps you keep a steady hand for applying troweling on the eyeliner, preferably green---

Fixed that For You

[Granwych]

2 minutes ago, Lurky said:

Fixed that For You

Thanks!

[formergothardite]

Whenever this subject comes up I think of Kristina and the MLM company she got sucked into and tried to sell to us. And, of course, that time she started trying to sell crocheted blankets, got creative with spelling and had the company initials be KKK. 

Very, very few women make these work from home businesses actually work and make them money. 

 

[Lurky]

@formergothardite Maybe that's the golden thread that ties all these jobs together - that none of them can actually make a decent living from it, no matter how hard they work?

[Lostie]

2 hours ago, Lurky said:

@formergothardite Maybe that's the golden thread that ties all these jobs together - that none of them can actually make a decent living from it, no matter how hard they work?

Sadly, I really could see this being part of it. Because if they had jobs where they could actually support themselves there is less reliance on the menfolk and they could conceivably leave. 

[Palimpsest]

2 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Kristina and the MLM company she got sucked into and tried to sell to us. And, of course, that time she started trying to sell crocheted blankets, got creative with spelling and had the company initials be KKK. 

"Krocheted Kreations by Kristina." That was gold!   We were awfully nice to Kristina back then.  We gently corrected her grammar, told her she should charge more for her work,  and offered her some excellent advice about disclaimers and good business practices.  

3 hours ago, Lurky said:

is that OK because there's a brother/husband lurking behind her as she works??

I think that sums it up.  The list above seems pretty comprehensive but some of these SAHM and SAHD also have Real Estate licenses (Michelle Duggar, possibly also Jana, and Meridith Alexander Hammer).  Some also do book keeping and accounting for Daddy and Husband approved other Fundie businesses while keeping under the umbrella of protection.

[formergothardite]

5 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

We were awfully nice to Kristina back then.

We were super nice to her.  I think we realized that she felt like she needed to make money, but had no real skills to so. Looks like she is trying to make money selling Tupperware now. 

https://www.facebook.com/KristinasKitchenDeals

 

[Palimpsest]

@formergothardite Good grief.  She's learned something at least.  It isn't Kristina's Kitchen Kreativity!

And in other employment from home we have My Lady Bibliophile.  She gets paid for her book reviews:  http://ladybibliophile.blogspot.com/   Nice work if you can get it.

[formergothardite]

It seems like a lot of these make money at home ideas are just designed to keep women jumping from one money making scheme to another and none of them would put women in a position to actually support herself. All the people I know who start out with these MLMs make money at first, but it doesn't last and they move on to selling something else. Unless you have a wide circle of friends, you are going to run out of people to sell Tupperware/Plexis/ThirtyOne/PamperedChef to. There is only so much of that stuff a person is going to buy. The only people I know who have done this long term are the two people selling Mary Kay and Avon, and both of them work full time jobs, and just do this on the side. 

I watched one of Kristina's live videos and it made me feel depressed. She sits there waiting for people to start watching, talks about how lonely she is, and then has to deal with a kid talking over her because apparently her husband isn't actually watching them. At the end all you hear are screaming, crying children. I feel sad for her.  And I think that video shows the reality of fundie women trying to make money with MLMs. 

[DutchGirl]

@Lurky I don't think you are going to find some "golden thread" to the rules of SAHM-jobs, because every husband aka holy leader makes his own rules ( and bands them if necessary of course).

[FundieWatcher]

The Crawfords have had a bunch of short lived businesses. Currently they run:

Wood Love by Alexa https://m.facebook.com/Wood-Love-by-Alexa-1808718659376483/ 

I Wood Gift You (seems to be Kelly) https://m.facebook.com/I-Wood-Gift-You-1106204132808627/?tsid=0.24799429710656762&source=typeahead

 

They had a soap selling business. They made greeting cards and calenders. Maybe some photography thing?! A housekeeping business  (that should have worked). Kelly has composed some ebooks from her blog. Kelly had some homeschool advice  book store maybe? Her son drew portraits. They had an Esty store with various  crafts. One Esty store made those decorative garden  stepping stones. I forget the names of all these businesses. These are just what I can recall off the top of my head- probably more.

Wood Love (I know that is probably a porn title) has some nice things. I think the oldest son is very artistic too.

What is Kelly thinking with all her random craft stores?! This type of stuff is for a church bizaar. 

 

[Lurky]

21 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

All the people I know who start out with these MLMs make money at first, but it doesn't last and they move on to selling something else. Unless you have a wide circle of friends, you are going to run out of people to sell Tupperware/Plexis/ThirtyOne/PamperedChef to. There is only so much of that stuff a person is going to buy.

The really shitty thing about MLMs is how the way to make money is to sign up people up under you... but once you've signed them up, they stop buying from you, so your market dwindles by design.  I can see how it could work in the context of eg the woman at my old work who'd pass her Avon catalogue around, or whatever, as a side job - but the issue with these women is their social circles are small and overlapping, so unless they're the Patient Zero for Plexus in their circle, they'll never make cash out of it, as once they've shilled to everyone in church, there's no one else. 

(Hearing about the women who do the "you buy jamberry from me, if I buy scented candles from her, and she buys essential oils from you" makes me so sad)

[FundieWatcher]

Is the essential oil MLM thing still going strong?  I remember Stacy McDonald had done well with it. 

I have a non fundie friend that is all over MLM stuff. She did the Jamberry nails and like a sex toy party thing. Now she is doing Pretty Princess Parties. I feel for her. She does data entry for an insurance company and hates it. This is probably her way of trying to find another source of income. But sometimes there just isn't a short cut in life. She probably needs to go back and finish her Bachelor degree. Unless you are ready to invest a lot of time and money into a small business it probably won't be successful. 

[December]

I'm interested in a related question. What's the justification for doing any work that doesn't involve directly helping out their husband, caring for their children, or keeping house? 

It can't be for personal fulfilment as with many secular women who may opt to work instead of stay at home. It can't be to earn money, since the man is supposed to be the breadwinner. And it can't be much of a ministry if it's just, for instance, selling stuff to other fundy ladies, because that's just preaching to the choir. So what's the logic used to explain it? Is calling a job or other business endeavor a "ministry" just the ultimate "get out of jail free card" to avoid explaining the need/want for paid work?