M ~ Money

     Being a single woman when you're Amish is a life of hardship, especially when it comes to earning money.
    The options available to earn money are limited.
    Being a teacher was your best option, but there weren't that many positions available and even if you were able to get one, the money you could earn was pitiful. Nine dollars a day was what you could earn at the time when I was a substitute teacher. They have since raised it to eleven dollars a day, but that is still nowhere near enough.
    If you weren't fortunate enough to be able to secure a teaching job another popular option was to be a mother's helper for the six weeks after a baby was born. Taking care of the house, meals, garden, canning, children, and often any other accumulated tasks the mother put off until this time. The mother got to rest and enjoy her newborn for those six weeks while the girl worked from early morning to late night for the paltry sum of five dollars a day.
    Quilting was an option for some if their living quarters had room for a quilt frame.
    Some were able to work at greenhouses in the spring.
    But nothing ever paid well. Girls simply didn't "need" money.

    Not all Amish communities are the same. This was how it was in the community we lived in.