Family Life in the Amish Culture
To the Amish, family is of the utmost importance. It takes a backseat to nothing. Typically the Amish family consists of about 8 to 12 members including the parents.Amish life is dictated by a list of written rules known as the Ordnung. The Ordnung will dictate most every aspect of one's lifestyle. It will determine their dress, hair length, buggy style, and farming techniques. The Ordnung is not specific to the overall Amish culture. It will vary from community to community and order to order.
In most Amish orders, the conveniences that the rest of us enjoy are shunned. Amish society considers these to be temptations that could do irreparable harm to their close knit society. Some communities will allow phones but not in the homes. They are placed in a wooden shanty between farms. In some of the more liberal communities they will allow the use of windmill generated electric power or diesel powered generators. The Amish generally just try and separate themselves from the rest of civilization when it comes to day to day living. They feel that by doing things this way it helps in avoidance of the temptations and sin involved with life. Because of these beliefs the Amish also do not draw social security and due to their passive beliefs they will not join the military.
Chores in an Amish family are largely divided into male and female categories. The father is looked at almost always as the leader of the family. The men of the family take care of the farm chores such as plowing the fields, feeding the animals, and harvesting the crops.The mother of an Amish family will awake very early to begin their chores for the day. They will do the gardening early while it is still cool and then move on to the wash and help in the milking of the cows if they own some. After that she will prepare breakfast. Then it is on to waking the children for school and preparing their lunches. Throughout the day she will clean, iron, bake, can, and cook. The mother of the Amish family is just as busy during her day as the father.
Another aspect that differs in the Amish lifestyle is pregnancy. Having children can be a pricy situation no matter what religion you are. However, for the Amish this particular part of life can be extremely costly. Amish families don't carry commercial insurance, so as you can expect paying for a maternity stay for one child could financially cripple them let alone a maternity stay for 8 children. Because of this reason most Amish women choose to give birth at home or in birthing centers. Home birth is the preferred choice since this gives the woman the highest feeling of comfort. When they choose home birth they will usually call in a midwife that will come and be with the soon to be mother through her birthing process. If they don't do home birthing they will most likely go to a birthing center in which the Amish have constructed. Here they will be taken care of by local doctors that are much more affordable.
This page was created by Ken Highman on November 22, 2011.
This page was modified on December 12, 2011.
For comments or questions you can submit an email to:ken.highman@rasmussen.edu