I don’t love to be micromanaged or called upon to publicly praise my church leaders on a monthly basis, sometimes more often. If not for for the blogs non members would know nothing about them besides the 2 year missionary right of passage where they show up at your door or in the public square which in some countries is directly in front of the local Catholic Church. Sometimes I don’t like something I hear was said by the Pope or a priest. Usually I get over it or it was not a big issue for me, but I’d hate to be required to jump anytime something is said. Which is good since the media usually follows up a retraction after printing a story about the current Pope.
I have a child and we get presentations on stuff to help with parenting during family faith formation. While they are in class for religious ed, our son is in public school, we parents listen to a speaker talk about internet safety, saints, anxiety, etc… Still if a Bishop wrote a letter to the faithful expressing the dangers of too much sugar I would not take up the challenge to do a sugar fast for a month.
I used to envy them for seeming to raise their 18 years old to be truly adult and full of life skills that are sent out alone into the world. I have noticed later on the apron strings are still attached. And they just expect too much. I mean we all want kids to be tax paying citizens who go to college or learn a trade and marry and have kids if they want. They are expected to do the mission, pushed into church schools, tuition is great if you tithe, or schools with large LDS populations, marry early and start kids before college graduation. The LDS population growth has made the church schools hard to get into. Their seminary schedule and all the youth activities seem fun yet time consuming and expensive. I can’t understand what they spend 3 hours of church on that they need seminary and only during high school? Maybe if they were not learning to sew and recreating historical events they could study the Old Testament then? They seem to control and overscheduled their kids. Maybe that is best. Even their time as missionaries are micromanaged. No wonder kids marry so young. They are finally free. So now I feel bad for the kids. Particularly hers. Moved to Arizona after the accident. Then Provo, then New Mexico now North Carolina. It’s not for real jobs. They are not military. They were gifted a home in AZ. Close to the burn center which she still has work to do. One of their families is also there. The other Provo. I just don’t get it? They almost lost their parents. They lost the aunt taking care of them since she is suddenly not an active member of their church. I don’t like shunning in any faith. They lost countless extended family in two states they lived.
The Mormon mommy blogs are addictive. I can overthink them though. The same posts I think is why. What seems picturesque after a while seem suspicious. Because they are often living in a different part of the country their parenting decisions can be a little dangerous. No following of rules like seat belts and helmets and life jackets. And the mocromanaging of the kids. Trying to perfect themselves every moment…
