Life of the Amish Girl
The fascination that people have about how the Amish live their lives is understandable because it seems to be such a rebellious and alternative way of life that is hard for many people to understand. This is not lost on the typical Amish person either. They understand the strange fascination that outsiders seem to have with their chosen way of life and most are happy to discuss their beliefs and lifestyle. While some of their beliefs and activities may seem strange, such as their use of buggies rather than cars, desire to dress in dark and similar colors, and their refusal to use electricity, they are not so different that they don’t have the same feelings, hopes, and dreams that other non-Amish people do. This is particularly true for young Amish girls who just want to grow up to live a happy and meaningful life. They feel joy and pain just like other young girls. They hope for a good, successful life that has meaning just like other girls. And they dream of getting married, having children, starting a career, and all the other things that young girls around the world dream of. What makes these young Amish girls different from non-Amish girls are the ways they are brought up and the things that they learn as children without the usual distractions that confront non-Amish girls.
Amish girls grow up much like most people used to grow up just a hundred years or so ago. They are raised on farms and learn to do chores and other tasks around the home in order to help the family get through their daily lives. Amish families have purposely separated themselves from the advancing modern society that surrounds them and refuse to depend on outside help in order to survive. Therefore, Amish communities must rely on themselves if they are going to succeed in the world. Because of this, Amish girls learn to do a variety of tasks that most modern non-Amish girls have long forgotten.
Cooking for the family is the responsibility of the women in the Amish family, so young Amish girls learn to prepare and cook the family meals from a very early age. While it’s true that many non-Amish girls learn to cook for them families as well, Amish girls must do so without the use of electricity. This includes no electric stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, or microwaves. Every meal is prepared totally by hand and cooked over an open fire or through the use of a gas stove.
Not only do Amish girls have to learn how to prepare meals by hand without the use of electricity or other modern technologies, they also have to grow and harvest much of the food that is used for the family’s meals. Amish women are usually in charge of feeding and tending to the family’s livestock. As young Amish girls, their morning duties often include feeding the pigs, milking the cows, and collecting the eggs from the chickens for use in their daily meals. A modern city girl just needs to go to the local supermarket to pick up the milk, meat, vegetables, and eggs for weekly meals, if even that much.
Amish woman are also responsible for the family’s garden. While the Amish men are out plowing the fields and tending to the farm to produce products that will be sold to the outside community at large, the Amish women grow many of the fruits and vegetables that are going to be consumed by the family. The typical Amish garden is quite large and usually contains cucumbers, celery, red beets, green beans, potatoes, broccoli, strawberries, apples, and any other local fruit that might grow in the area. Young Amish girls learn how to tend to these gardens by their mothers and are often taught how to can these goods for sale at the local markets.
In addition to the cooking, Amish girls learn how to sew at an early age because they are solely responsible for making the clothing that they and their future families will wear. The Amish do not generally go to stores to buy their clothing because they wear very specific colors and styles of dress. So, the Amish must learn to sew their own clothes and this is always done by the women of the house. Some Amish girls also learn the art of Amish quilting. The traditional Amish quilt has a very specific look and style to it that an Amish mother will teach to her Amish daughters. Learning how to design these Amish quilts in the traditional Amish ways is handed down from generation to generation. Amish quilts are known for their geometric designs and eye for detail. The best quilters within the Amish community learn to make stitches that are precisely the same size and spaced the exact same distances from each other consistently throughout the Amish quilt. If young Amish girls become adept at quilting, they may produce Amish quilts as adults that can be sold to tourists and help bring additional money to the family.
Probably the one thing that distinguishes Amish girls from non-Amish girls is the fact that they are all bilingual. All Amish children learn Pennsylvania Dutch, a type of German, in the home as toddlers, but when they go to school they are taught to speak and read English. The traditional language of the Pennsylvania Dutch is mainly used within the Amish community itself, but they also learn English in order to read books, newspapers, and to be able to communicate with the non-Amish community that surrounds them. While many non-Amish girls also speak two languages, it is not as common in the United States as a whole.
In the end, the Amish girl learns the value of hard work, tradition, working together for a greater good, and the meaning of discipline. Many children today are thought to be wild, spoiled, and out of control due to the fact that discipline within the modern home has become more lax and children no longer learn the value of working for what they want. Today, many children expect to be handed everything and really don’t even understand where basic things like clothes and food even come from. While it’s much easier for young girls to live in the modern, technologically advanced society of today, perhaps some of the old ways that the Amish still embrace should be reintroduced into the non-Amish girl’s home and upbringing.
