Sunday, October 19, 2008

I was brought up Amish...

except without the buggies, the lack of electricity and the whole Amish atmosphere.

Ok, what I meant to say was I was raised without TV.

I mean, we had a TV, but we lived on a ranch and my parents chose not to have it hooked up.
We could rent movies and watch them occasionally.

So, I spent a lot of time playing with my imaginary friends,
tormenting my little sister, The Bug,
and reading books.



We also had animals.
I got to milk cows,
mess with chickens,
name a donkey,
hear pigs neutered,
hear rabbits skinned,
pick apples in our orchard,
swim in a creek,
help plant vegetables,
hunt deer,
fear the dark,
and ride horses.



That's kind of like growing up Amish, right?

Ok, maybe not.


44 comments:

Suzann said...

The question really is - do you feel you missed out on something and do you have t.v. at home now?

Rhea said...

Great question, Suzann!

I don't feel like I missed out on anything, although it did take me a while to acclimate when we moved to the city and got cable TV. Kids would talk about stuff I had no idea.

We do have TVs at home now. I don't watch it a ton though. I'd rather read or get online. :o)

Susie said...

That is worlds away from where I grew up. I am a city girl through and through and TV trivia is my forte:-) I guess that is one thing we don't have in common:-)

Ash said...

Well, besides the photo documentation, it does sound remotely Amish.

And quite delightful, to tell you the truth.

Em

Anonymous said...

Sounds like an awesome way to grow up!

sassy stephanie said...

Amish enough!

PAPATV said...

I always wanted a horse. We had a stupid poodle and I say stoopid because when I tried to saddle her, she just laid there. My poodle had no tricks at all. Stoopid poodle.

Gretchen said...

(((SIGH)))

Sounds absoultely delightful to me.

If I could, I would move in a MINUTE to a place like that.

Until 6 months ago, we lived in the country in the midwest. In our "town" cows outnumbered people 2 to 1. The only things in the town were the grain mill and the church (my husband was the pastor). Our time there is a happy memory for me and I still miss it terribly!

Marrdy said...

I would have totally loved to grow up like this! Lucky you. TV is way overrated!

Insane Mama said...

TV stinks! I don't let my kids watch very much,I think all kids should be climbing trees and playing with animals

Skeller said...

Welllll, no. Not exactly Amish. Tho certainly far more meaningful, wholesome, and REAL somehow than a childhood filled with tv.

Anonymous said...

Did you ever raise any barns? Think that's a deal breaker...

Anonymous said...

Isn't it weird that our kids will know people that say, 'We grew up with a computer?', and their friends will say, 'Without a computer?! What did you DO?!?!'

All Things BD said...

I've completely romanticized the notion of ranch life, and this post doesn't help. Please tell me all about cleaning out stalls and dodging rattlesnakes before I go buy 10 acres.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

I love it. I wish we didn't own a tv. Except for maybe one in a secret hatch like room so that I could watch lost (just a little over a hundred days). But my husband refuses to get on board for this notion.

J'Ollie Primitives said...

That's close enough to Amish. But they don't do books either, unless it's the Bible.

Shannon said...

How funny... I posted about goats today!

I did not grow up on a ranch... but when I was little, we really didn't watch much TV. I guess maybe my TV addiction started when I got in high school and had my own TV in my room...

Ritch in Love said...

When I was 4 or 5 my dad had a college football addiction. We lived in a huge house and my mom was a clean freak. But that meant everyone else had to clean right along with her. So one Saturday during a BYU football game, my mom walked into the family room with a pair of sewing shears. She flipped off the t.v., unplugged it, and cut the cord at the base right by the body of the t.v.. Needless to say my dad flipped out! But after that we didn't have a t.v. for years. They finally bought a small one that could be put up in the closet when we weren't watching it. Cable was out of the question. And when we wanted to rent a movie we had to rent the VCR, too.
Thanks to my parents I was ahead in school by 2 years. I also entered high school when I was in 7th grade. I went to college, and now I'm a flight attendant that watches t.v. in her hotel room every night...go figure. :)

Ritch in Love said...

OH! But I have to tell you, now that I have kids (step) when they are home, the t.v. armoir is closed. They go for books before they go for the t.v.. In fact, the only time they watch t.v. is when I have the morning news on, or when we have family movie night twice a week.

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

Ummm...sort of Amish...that might be a stretch.

We didn't have cable growing up...just the local channels...does that make me part Amish, too?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's Amish. I think Cristin and I grew up slightly Amish, no remote for the T.V., no VCR-except on special occassions, and my Mom took me to Amish country far too many times!

Jen said...

not really but maybe close?

steenky bee said...

I betting you had zippers. You probabably weren't Ahmish. (did you just see how I spelled "probably"?) Apparently I was brought up without proper schooling.

Keeper of the Skies Wife said...

I think thats the best way to grow up.
We let our girls watch TV but insisted they play outside with friends and use their imagination. I had a limit of 2 hours of TV a day.

You were such a cute little girl. Those are great photos.

Anonymous said...

Not sure why but my dream was to grow up on a ranch in Texas and own cowboy boots - except that I grew up in Rome Italy in the middle of chaos and traffic and only saw the sickly pony at our local park...
Not a lot of tv but it was right there ....
I love the picture on the horse!

Linda said...

For the first 10 years of my life we lived in town, albeit a small rural town. Then we moved to the country. I went from a kid who watched way too much TV to a kid who could care less about TV. Country life afforded me a chance to run, ride, work and play. I'm not knocking town living, heck I'm raising my kids in town, but I do know my own kids love the freedom of country life when we visit grandma and grandpa. There they can "go outside and play" and I really don't worry. In town, I won't let them venture more than 2 houses down the street. I guess that's why I still pine for country life ... if only we could find something affordable. Sigh.

Justine said...

Oh man, you are SO lucky to have grown up in that environment. I'm such an animal lover I would be in 7th heaven if I lived on a ranch. Just as long as I didn't have to do any of the manual labor. Or scooping poop. Or hunting anything. Or doing the neutering. Blechhhhhhhhh.
Those are pics of you as a kid? Man, you were sooooooooo cute!

Justine :o )

jill jill bo bill said...

As long as you didn't wear your hair in a cow patty bun and wear long skirts, I envy you!

Leslie said...

My husband and I are the same kind of cruel parents that you had. We are depriving our children from the joys of Direct TV. They have a handful of stations to select from instead of 350. They are forced to play outside, read books, play games, and dress up the dog. We are mean parents.

Cristin said...

I could handle no TV. We weren't allowed much as children. I didn't have it for a couple years before I met hubby...

I could totally be Amish. They allow the internet and wine right??

the mama bird diaries said...

oh, those pictures are so adorable. I love them.

So do you have a TV now?

Beth said...

Too funny.
Sounds like the perfect childhood, though! Especially the riding horses, bit. I always wished I grew up around horses. I just love them.

WheresMyAngels said...

Did you have a flush toilet? Cause if you did, then it is nothing like being Amish!

I'm probably closer to being Amish than you. For some reason the Amish community around us have alot of children born with the same type of down syndrome my girls have, which is rarer (and can be inherited), our geneticist told me this. Which explains why everytime I run into an Amish woman she says "My niece also has down syndrome"

Unknown said...

It's called growing up healthy !! :-)

We didn't have a TV until I was around 11 or so, as TV didn't start broadcasting in NZ until about then.

I think, that in many ways, we were richer for that..

Valarie Lea said...

Oh thats totally like growing up amish :)

Claremont First Ward said...

I'm like you.......I'd rather read or get on line, but it is nice having a TV just cuz! :)

CUTE pictures!

Mom said...

Sometimes I wish my kids could grow up Amish ... LOL sounds like a pretty cool childhood if you ask me.

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

It's interesting, that's for sure! We could definitely watch less tv in our house.

Live.Love.Eat said...

You are soo cute!!!! I grew up in the city but I always had a love in my heart for the more simpler ways. I would have embraced growing up in the country or the South. More in touch with nature that way.

Mama Dawg said...

I totally would have loved to grow up like you. Instead, I was raised in a suburb. It had its moments and I had a wonderful childhood, but I would have loved to live in the country on a farm.

Angie's Spot said...

I am a t.v. addict. I'm sure it's in no small part, a result of being a t.v. addict as a little kid. Some of my best memories are based around watching some show with a family member. I also did typical outdoor kid stuff. I wasn't a total shut in. LOL!

Unknown said...

Not really Amish... but I think it is a blessing to be without TV. We were without TV for 4-5 months when we moved into the new house...(Norwegian Cable...) & the kids did great without it... I wish I had never had it hooked up now.

Misty DawnS said...

I had imaginary friends too - three of them - I still remember their names, but I'll spare you. Oh, I even had imaginary pets - I know, you're shocked.

CrystalChick said...

No t.v.?? Then you didn't get Gilligan's Island and the Munsters and the Brady Bunch and.and.and......

I still watch the old re-runs. LOL