The ideal mental picture of the amish culture may be people living with no electricity, wearing very conservative clothing and riding around in a horse and buggy. Underage drinking and using drugs wouldn’t normally come to mind in such a strict culture. These children have always lived such a strict life that when they get one little chance of freedom, they act out in such ways that go against everything they have been taught.
The children are born into this community and have to live by strict rules from the day they’re born until they turn sixteen and have the chance of freedom during a “coming of age” period called Rumspringa. Until this period, these children have had no chance to live their life because they are taught that being amish is the only way of life and everything outside their community is hell. These children are unaware of what the real world is like and are brainwashed to view everything a certain way. These parents set rules for their children that keep them away from the normal teenage experience and once they get a chance of freedom, the children act out in rebellious behaviors.
Robert Stevick describes how the children are scared of the hard consequences of disobeying their parents and they know they are always being watched. After years of observation in the amish community, Stevick only witnessed one fight between a parent and their child (Stevick).
The kids are taught under an authoritative parenting style and are expected to meet high demands yet receive no independence or say in what they want in their life. Also under this parenting style, failure to follow the rules can result in harsh punishments. Their lives revolve around a schedule that everyone follows. Stevick also explained how school isn’t a main priority in the children’s lives so they go until 8th grade and their education focuses on more vocational education so after 8th grade they can immediately start working (Stevick).
All of their childhood leads up to the moment they turn 16 and participate in Rumspringa. For around a year, the children are let off their leashes and have the complete freedom to explore the real world. Samantha Wender of ABC News, explains how Rumspringa is loosely translated in the Amish Pennsylvania Dutch language as running around. “This time period gives Amish teens the chance to explore the usually forbidden modern world before deciding whether they will forever commit themselves to the Amish way of life” (Wender).
Some of the people choose to get an education, travel or even just experience the life as a normal teenager such as experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Author, Tom Shachtman, explained how the parenting style is so strict with not telling their children about the outside world that when they see the outside world, they view it as a place of drunkenness. And as a result, they do exactly what they’re expected to do, which is experience it and find some way to find it unsatisfactory so they return to the church (Shachtman).
Researching the children’s growing years with rumspringa, there seems to be a correlation that the parents raise their children to succeed in the amish way of life but not average american lifestyle. Their lack of education or ability to socialize plays a role in not necessary being able to “fit in” or being prepared for the outside world so they decide to live the life they were taught growing up.
But during this time of rumspringa, the children do try to live a normal by going out to parties with other amish and non-amish kids. “They participate in forbidden actions such as drinking, smoking cigarettes, listening to explicit music, changing clothes from long skirts to jeans and they also participate in posting pictures and statuses on social media” Stevick wrote (Stevick).
The author of The Attached Family, Sadaf Rauf, explains that these children may be very easily influenced by peers into rebellious activities in order to gain positive validation. This peer pressure is a major factor in this “coming of age” period to socialize and try to fit into the regular world (Rauf). Fox news producer, Kylee Wierks, reported five amish teenagers getting pulled over going 110mph in a 60mph zone and when pulled over, the car had a strong odor of alcohol with all the teenagers having a very high BAC (Wierks).
These teenagers are testing their limits and are influenced by the outside culture. Having to live in such strict rules all of their life, I can see why the children would want to go out and live their life during rumspringa. As a teenager, I couldn’t imagine being physically separated from the real world and once I had that little freedom, I would want to do what every other amish teenager does, have fun without the guilt of disobeying my parents.
Both genders participate in these activities and follow after the actions of their peers to blend in and seem “cool”. Most of the time, boys are more willing to test out the different kinds of drugs such as marijuana or cocaine. According to Stevick, Crank or also known as Methamphetamine is usually the drug of choice because it is incredibly and instantly addictive and simple yet cheap to make. The kids are usually able to make the drug out of ingredients stolen from tanks on the farm (Stevick).
Crank is a very addictive drug that quickly produces euphoria and an increased amount of energy. This can lead to risky behaviors and rebellious activities, these side effects mimic the absence of behavior growing up. According to Sadaf Rauf, children under authoritarian parents constantly desire validation from parents and peers but often are left feeling unfulfilled so they are easily influenced by peer pressure in order to gain positive validation. In addition, Rauf’s research stresses the importance of early drug education for children for them to understand and learn the consequences. The amish briefly inform their young about the outside world and use scare tactics to prevent their kids from using alcohol and drugs but this is counterproductive into making their kids curious and unaware (Rauf).
Male amish teenagers have significantly been more reported for engaging in alcohol and drug activities that lead to trouble involving the law. Through this research, I conclude that males have more of a urge to be apart of the normal world and want to rebel against their parents that they can make their own decisions. This leads to more males wanting to stay in the american community rather than the amish community.
Around 80% of the teens return to the Amish Culture after Rumspringa but out of the 20% that don’t return, many outside factors contribute to this decision. From my research, it seems that the amish teenagers who don’t go back want to stay in world where they don’t feel fenced in and can live their life without restrictions or strict rules. Using drugs and alcohol during the Rumspringa years could highly influence a person to not want to go back because of the rush or excitement it brings to their life. Also, some teenagers may not think they could give up this certain life style because they couldn’t stop drinking or withdrawal from the drugs especially highly addictive ones such as Crank.
In his novel, Schachtman wrote how “the ones who decide not to come back, these are the best and brightest of some of them. And then there are others who have other reasons for not coming back, a lot of them very materialistic reasons; that they’d like to have more stuff on the outside then they think they’re going to be permitted to have in the inside” (Schachtman).
Many people return because of the fear of their community and family. Stevick explains how parent have tough rules about not coming back such as in some communities, the child has to return all the money they made while being amish back to their family. Also, they will forever be shunned by the Amish community including their own family and will not be allowed contact with them (Stevick).
Between the ages of 16 and 18, the children of the amish community have to make the biggest decision of their life while everyone else in the real world take their whole life to figure it out.