Letters to Hope

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I met a neat lady today; I meet a lot of odd people.  We will call her and her family the “sad polygamists”.  They are sad only because the woman seems lost and confused and overwhelmed by the world.  I did not realize how … different this religion is.  I didn’t realize that it part of their religion is to hoard food.  Part of one of their 7 children’s bedroom is stacked with food. I kept telling her over and over again to please eat the food instead of buying more.  She just kept trying to skirt the conversation.   I went home and did some research and realized that this is part of their upbringing.  They also had this very odd card. Well not odd, but different to me.

17 Rules of Dating

1. Date those with your same standards

2. No necking or Petting

3. No French Kissing

4. Date in Groups

5. Do Not Park

6. No Back Rubs

7. No lying down on top or beside each other

8. Attend wholesome activities

9. No immodest dress

10. Never enter a home alone together

11. Never enter a bedroom together

12. Choose friends carefully

13. No missionary work one on one

14 No late hours

15. Be responsible for your own actions

16. Discuss dating rules with partners

17. You are not the exception to these rules

What I thought both odd and good about these rules was that they were printed out on a little laminated business card.  You could carry it with you and refer back to it if you forgot the rules.   I thought it odd that they wrote them out.  Wouldn’t you tell your children this to there face? Does a card make it more real or more the truth? Some of them I thought funny and others I thought “wow – if I had only listened to these when I was younger”, even at this point in my life I most likely would not have been with so many people.  I wonder at what age they hand out these little cards and explain them to the kids. Do the kids know about sex or do they just prevent it by giving them these cards? I think a better way would be to explain to your kid about sex about how it feels and about how our natural urges are sometimes not so smart. But this is also why I am not a polygamist.  I cleaned there closets (they wear odd under garments) and the woman kept wanting me to throw things away they had such a small amount of stuff for all there kids I felt really guilty for throwing anything away.  6 girls and 1 boy and they want me to get rid of something. Everything was a hand me down, and everything was very old.  The house was too small for such a large family and the parents had no privacy. But I did my job and wished them well.  The last thing the woman wanted me to do was assign her children chores. With ALL of those kids none of them helped around the house.  Hope, YOU help around the house and you are only a baby.  I think a teen and pre- teen should know how to clean up their own room.  I thought about all the  dating rules and all the mess; they can not simply have chores.  I made a chore chart sat them all down and explained how important it was for them to all have chores I am not sure if they get it but I hoped so for the mom’s sake.