"I left the Amish at 17 - we weren't allowed phones, makeup, or boardgames"
Credit: SWNS / Naomi Swartzentruber
A mum has revealed what it was like to grow up in a strict Amish family which banned make up and TV - and why she left and never returned.
Naomi Swartzentruber, 43, said she was expected to wake up at 5am and help on the farm from the age of five.
She left school at 14 - to cook, clean and help with chores full-time.
In her teens, she began to rebel in “small” ways like wearing lingerie under her gowns, listening to the radio through her neighbours’ window and secretly dating non-Amish boys.
But at 17, she met a man who offered to let her stay with him - so she ran away and hasn’t been back since - and visits her family yearly.
A mum has revealed what it was like to grow up in a strict Amish family which banned make up and TV - and why she left and never returned.
Naomi Swartzentruber, 43, said she was expected to wake up at 5am and help on the farm from the age of five.
She left school at 14 - to cook, clean and help with chores full-time.
In her teens, she began to rebel in “small” ways like wearing lingerie under her gowns, listening to the radio through her neighbours’ window and secretly dating non-Amish boys.
But at 17, she met a man who offered to let her stay with him - so she ran away and hasn’t been back since - and visits her family yearly.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 One of the biggest culture shocks I experienced after I left, going to Walmart.
00:05 Because I grew up Amish in a small town, there were no big stores. The only stores I'd ever
00:15 gone to were the two grocery stores in town, the dollar store, the bulk food store, the Ace
00:22 Hardware, and the second-hand store. And after I left, the people that took me in, the lady,
00:30 said she was going to take me shopping and she took me to Walmart. I couldn't believe it. It blew my mind.
00:37 [Music]
00:47 [Music]
01:13 She was so excited to take me there, but I just kind of froze because I had never seen anything like it.
01:19 And she's like, "Go ahead, start picking out clothes. What do you like?" And I was literally frozen and I just
01:26 stood there and stared. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was like, "I don't know what I like or
01:32 what style or what to do." She's like, "You can touch the clothes." I was scared to touch the clothes
01:38 because I was never around anything like that. So that was a really, really big culture shock. And
01:44 still to this day, I don't like to go shopping.
01:49 [Music]
02:02 I'm going to share some of the things that meant so much to me when I was a little Amish girl
02:09 and that I saved and my parents actually saved and held on to them. I got two little lamps.
02:15 I know, it's interesting to me too now. It meant so much to me when I was a little Amish girl.
02:23 These are like little crayons and chiclets, little soap bags. I know, weird, right?
02:31 These little soda bottles, hearts, flags.
02:34 And then also stuff like these, like beads. I know I don't have any, like little necklace things to
02:44 make necklaces. But all these things meant so much to me. I'm grateful that my parents
02:50 kept all these things and they allowed me to have them.
02:53 [Music]