~by Lydia Joy Launderville

I did not realize that I was part of the Stay at Home Daughter movement. Much like my entire childhood, teen, and young adult years, I was just simply told I was a Christian. In all actuality, I was a fundamentalist Christian, or rather, my family was, and since I was born into our particular movement, it was all I ever knew. My “normal” was what I was surrounded by, who we associated with and who we didn’t. That separated life from most secular things and people was my everyday experience. I didn’t really question it until I become a much older teen and young adult.

-by Caitlin Mallery

When I was a little girl I had a list of things I wanted to be when I grew up.

● A nurse,

● a teacher,

● a missionary,

● a writer.



Whenever I presented these things to my parents they had a specific response. “You can do all that by being a wife and mom.”

-by Martha Artyomenko

Growing up, I considered my life to be fairly normal. I thought most people had the rules and guidelines that we did, not realizing until later how abnormal it truly was. My mom was amazing. She worked harder than any other person I know to make sure we had food and clothing, but she didn’t, could not, do it from her house all the time.