A Teenager With Her Guidance Counselor
Susan, a 16 year old, is at an appointment with her high school guidance counselor. The counselor asks Susan, “So, Susan, what would you like to do with your life?”
“I would like nothing more than to be a wife and mother,” Susan answers.
“Well, Susan, there’s so much more you can do with your life than just being a wife and mother. How will you be able to support yourself? What if you never marry and what will you do after high school? What if you marry and your husband dies? What are your goals and ambitions? Surely, its’ more than just being a wife and mother? You must make something out of yourself!”
“No, it’s all I really want to do with my life. I have dreamed of being a wife and mother since I was a child. Until I got married, I could study ways to keep my future family as healthy as possible. I would research nutrition and natural ways of building up the immune system and staying well. I could study herbs and natural healing methods.
“I could be a nanny for a family and care for the children as if they were my own.
“I could learn to sew and make things for people: clothes, curtains, bedspreads, and maybe even sell them online.
“I would learn how to be a great cook and make healthy food taste great. I could even learn to bake some gluten free things and take them to the elderly in the old folks’ homes. I would love to bring some joy and encouragement into their lives.
“I could clean homes for busy mothers and learn all of the best techniques for keeping a home clean and tidy.
“I would read all of the books I could on being a great and godly wife and mother. I would search out godly women in our church and ask if they would mentor me. I would love to see them in action in their homes.
“I could help in the nursery during church services and care for those precious babies and toddlers. I love children and if the Lord wills, I would love a quiver full of them! I would even love to teach Sunday School to some of the young children and tell them all about the great God that we serve.
“I would probably take some courses by Dave Ramsey so I could learn to live simply and frugally on whatever income my future husband would provide and would even learn to manage the money I make from my earnings from home.”
So, how do you think the guidance counselor would respond to Susan?
Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.
Acts 9:36
35 thoughts on “A Teenager With Her Guidance Counselor”
About the same way as most church members unfortunately. I have the best job in the world and I tell my kids all the time that my worst day at home (there have been a few:) is still better than my best day at work ever was! I am so thankful.
“So, how do you think the guidance counselor would respond to Susan?”
The counselor would probably alert CPS (or equivalent) to the abhorrent child abuse that has clearly twisted this budding progressive mind. Susan and her entire family would probably need to be Cancelled to keep this pathogenic thought process from spreading.
All aboard, and all in line for the express to the End Times.
(I crafted this as a father who has lost two daughters to this world. Mixed in my years of battle were sessions with their guidance counselor – so this hits very close to home)
“So, how do you think the guidance counselor would respond to Susan?”
I don’t think Susan or any other child should be in a public school where a “guidance counselor” would have access to (corrupt them) them in the first place.
They would think she was totally brainwashed. ?
And they would be right,
The guidance counselor would probably say that is noble but go into this whole tirade about what if this or that and probably tell her that women can be more than a wife and mother. She would convince the poor girl that she is being “brainwashed” by in her eyes primitive ideology. I think Susan should run away from that guidance counselor as fast as she could.
Oh Lori. If you understood scripture even a little bit, you would have never used that verse.
But thanks for a shout out to a female apostle and church leader and business owner.
Before I was married, and shortly afterwards, but before we had any children, I taught piano a music conservatory. When a conversation about future plans for children came up among co-workers, I stated that I planned on working until I had children and then becoming a stay-at-home-mom for the rest of my “career.” A supervisor later asked if he could have a candid conversation with me and told me he sincerely felt that that choice was a grave mistake and a massive waste of talent. I have had the same reaction from well meaning church ladies and friends. What a sad world we live in when mothers and fathers believe that devoting your life to raising your OWN children is a “massive waste of talent.”
“So, how do you think the guidance counselor would respond to Susan?”
The guidance counselor would alert her superiors that this child has slipped through the indoctrination/ brainwashing cracks. The child also, by being truthful about her hearts desire, just made herself a target for the rest of high school
It is very sad how being a wife and mother is looked down upon in our society now. People just don’t attach any value to keeping a happy home and family, which is absolutely heartbreaking. I’m from the UK and feminism is forced down girls’ throats at every opportunity in schools and elsewhere. Your worth is attached to how much you earn and what you do it seems. When I was at school, I was pushed into applying to study to become a pharmacist because I had good grades. I am now 5 years post university and am desperate to leave and come back home. People think I’m crazy for wanting this (apart from my husband and some of my church) but having a full time professional career comes at a massive cost. I have no time to care for my husband or home and come home exhausted most days. I can’t wait until I can be at home and truly believe that the Lord designed us this way!
Hello,
I am desperate for guidance and what to do in my situation!
I am a 17 year old female and I am going to community college this fall. My parents want me to get a bachelor’s degree and initially wanted me to go to university, but they let me go to college after I suggested it. However, they are not willing to let me not go to post secondary school so I have no choice but to pursue a degree.
I also got a significant scholarship from an external organization to fund my college costs. However, I had no idea until now that the organization is very leftist. I initially thought it could be more conservative due to the founder, hence partly why I applied for it.
The scholarship organization requires the recipients like me to attend events it holds and to be virtually active on a social media platform it uses. Recently, I found out something awful! The scholarship organization has started an activist group that all its recipients really have no choice but to join. All this activist group currently consists of is a social media platform which I unwillingly joined.
I am really scared of the future though. It is very likely that the scholarship organization will make the recipients basically become active social justice warriors! ? I mean do this like attend BLM protests, women’s marches, pro choice protests etc and be vocal about supporting such disgusting movements going on, like showing support on social media and such.
I obviously don’t want to do this! But if I don’t, the consequences will be horrible. I will lose the scholarship and consequently my parents’ support. I have to go to college as they want me to get a bachelor’s degree no matter what. If I lose the scholarship, I have no way to pay for college without massive debt! Obviously, I don’t even need to explain how this debt will affect my future. Again, I’m not going on my own free will. I’m simply going to college because my parents are telling me to do so. They refuse to let me look for a husband, so getting married right now (which I would pursue in the future anyway, not just to get out of college of course) is not a viable option for not going to college. I’m trapped in a very tight situation and I don’t know what to do. I really need some advice about this!
Thank you,
Fae
My sister is a guidance counselor, and she has had a few of these conversations with young girls. She says that she tells them that’s a good choice and offers some resources (cookbooks, sewing, budgeting etc.) and then says that if she changes her mind to come back and talk about it again. Then she offers some resources for jobs and post secondary programs in areas/subjects that the child excels.
Sadly, they would think she had lost the plot. And I would strongly disagree.
I grew up in a household with a mother who was a ‘christian feminist.’ however if you insinuated she was a feminist she would firmly deny it. She was at home for most of my childhood but was lazy. I remember her cooking for guests one night a week and doing occasional baking. But not a lot. She had the skills to be a great homemaker. But she was bitter, angry, Nd on at least two different types of antidepressants. As soon as she could she defied my dad and got herself a job. But soon after it bought her a divorce. My grandmother was also a ‘christian feminist.’ as we speak, my mother is remarried, extremely bitter,still depressed and overweight and suffers from multiple health concerns. As a teen ager I became borderline suicidal and searched the scripture for answers. I had a terrible attitude. Eventually I got a job. But it never satisfied. Depression was still there. But it was buried. I met my now husband just before my 18th birthday and by the age of 20 I was married and living interstate. Crippling depression set in again. I eventually found a job and to cut a long story short, I ended up working two jobs. My first job would start at 9pm and my second job would end at 11am. I was exhausted. And my husband and home were neglected. We fought constantly. I was miserable. This led into an affair and I almost completely destroyed my marriage. Then my marriage was reconciled and I became a stay at home mum. But I still had a bad attitude. It’s not until a very tomultuous marriage and 10 kids later that I finally dove into God’s word again after ignoring it for the most part. And I am now connected into a doctrinally sound church. And I am so much happier and I love being at home. My marriage is improving and I am a lot less stressed. I wish I had Susan’s mindset when I was younger. I look at women who are still in the ratrace and they are either miserable, nasty, divorced or on the brink of, bitter or devoid of real friends. They only have superficial ones. I’ve also been around ‘susans’. And they are the most peaceful,confident,likeable, intelligent,caring and fun loving people I’ve ever met. So comments such as Alexa’s break my heart. She can’t see how misguided she is. I’m not against women working. But I don’t believe it’s God’s best. Her comment is full of pride and arrogance. If you hate being home I will garuntee it isn’t being home that’s the problem. It’s your attitude regarding it.I pray people like Alexa will have their eyes opened tothe truth and beauty of the gospel and God’s design for women.
You took the words right off of my fingertips.
The sad thing is that this would probably be the reaction of a “Christian” school as well as a public one.
This was pretty much me, 25 years ago. The careers counsellor helped me enrol in a nanny course that I did straight out of school. I went on to become a nanny and loved it!
I continued nannying after I had my own children and when I just had one baby, I took him with me to work. It was great! I learned a lot of techniques that I was able to use in my own parenting, and because I worked with so many different families, I learned heaps of different home management techniques – including how to fold immaculate fitted sheets!
The skills I learnt straight out of school have blessed my family immensely.
I would not call it brainwashed but washed in the Blood of the Lamb, living out a calling that was created from the beginning of time.
I wish I had been taught like Susan. I had to learn the hard way. I’m just grateful I made it without incurring further damage.
This is what I do! I have literally done most of these things, except selling things online. I have read Dave Ramsey books, studied nutrition and natural medicine, learned to sew and garden, clean our home for my mom because she is busy with my father, worked in child care, volunteered in the church nursery (though I don’t do that anymore) and a lot more. I still struggle with making healthy food taste good. I am trying, but it is very difficult. I have a few go-to recipes that are good, but I find it difficult not to be discouraged because I think good cooking is an art form and should be very enjoyable to all. I don’t consider my life to be wasted at all. I do also want to get more involved in my church by organizing outreaches, etc. I intend to fill my single life with teaching (I pray that I can teach high school science at a Christian school because I don’t want to be involved in public school indoctrination, though of course God’s will be done) and ministering to people in need (including, of course, my family). My mom has said that maybe I should do a mission trip after I graduate college (debt free, praise the Lord), which I would be willing to do. As for the guidance counselor, they would probably tell her what I was told, that she is too smart to be “only” a wife and mother. I believed it for a short while, though even then, a big career was really not what I wanted. I am in college, though, and next year, Lord willing I will graduate a licensed teacher. I look forward to the practice I will get teaching because I want to homeschool someday (yes, having been homeschooled myself for a few years, I do realize that teaching your own children is different from teaching a classroom). I don’t believe singleness is a time to be ashamed of or to consider it as awkward or in limbo in any way. The Bible says what single women should do, that is, be concerned about the things of the Lord, and that is what I want to do. This is a high and noble calling. I do want very much to be married, but I do not want to waste these years God has given me to use undividedly in His service. I do struggle with contentment, but I am trying to overcome this. It is important to trust in the Lord.
Here in the UK, there are many courses that she could do, eg, child care, cooking. They would be good jobs to have until she got married.
I would like to think that the guidance counselor would see that Susan is not just a shy teen lacking confidence in her abilities and needing encouragement. I would like to think they would have helped her make a plan that would make her dream come true like they would for any other teen expressing their (reasonable) wishes and expectations. I would like to think they would have respected her and her choices, even if her path in life was different from theirs.
Unfortunately, I have too much experience with our school system to think all that.
Odds are a conversation with her youth pastor would go about the same.
Sadly, we receive this negative feedback from our CHRISTIAN grandparents – “What? You want to just get married and have babies? What about becoming a doctor? University?”
Hmmm.
I guess they missed that part in the Bible about women be blessed to be mothers …. sad… my 16 year old is getting tired of the negative responses and feels badly when relatives pin-point her for “What are you going to do with your life?” questions.
Well, this was my exact experience with my guidance counselor in high school, only I didn’t have the clear vision of learning homemaking skills as “Susan.” I only knew I wanted to get married, stay home and have babies. My counselor told me, “that’s not a career!” Haha. Thankfully I did not have parents who forced me into college. But my father recommended a trade school so I could be skilled at something worthwhile. I completed a year of Beauty School and earned my Cosmetology license. As I worked full time in a salon, and lived alone supporting myself, I was lonely and begged God for a husband. After 6 years in the beauty industry, and after getting married and having my first baby, I left everything I had built in those six years to finally be home. Everyone told me I’d miss it, but I never did. I’ve never been back. I now have 4 kids and homeschool them, and it is a far more satisfying and rewarding life than anything I ever did in the salon. I’m so glad I didn’t listen. I’m so glad I didn’t waste my time and money on college. I only wish I had used those lonely single years to practice my homemaking skills, like this post suggests. That would have been wise. BUT, while all the salons were closed during quarantine, I was able to keep my family’s haircuts going at home. Plus doing my Mother’s and friend’s hair when they couldn’t get appointments. So maybe I did learn a worthwhile skill for homemaking after all. ?
I think Susan has a mind of her own which is a good thing. She has structured in her mind her future and not many people know exactly what they will be doing in the next 20 to 30 years. I think we should take note of Susan because it is not a bad thing she is encountering. It is something that every young person should apply themselves to. How to be a good mother/father, how to handle finances, how to keep a clean house, how to be good parents, and on and on and on. What is bad about that? wake up world let’s make ourselves like little Susan‘s and think about the future
Or just about anyone, sadly.
That’s a joke, Tandy! She was a disciple of Jesus Christ as all of us who love Him should be and she was known for good works and her generosity. ONLY men were apostles and are church leaders. It said NOTHING about her being a business owner but nice try. It’s amazing how feminists twist God’s Word in order to justify their lifestyles.
I’d also like to how much much student loan (and other) debt the counselor has… But that was probably covered in the Dave Ramsey section ?
Not sure why Lori won’t field this question for you, Fae. I believe if the comment is put through, then the “teacher” should finish what she started.
I’d take a stab at it, as a mother of an 18-year-old, but the tone you took with another commenter a couple days ago leads me to believe that you’ve got it all figured out.
Your path and attitude are my prayer for my girls, Sarah. You are using your singleness very wisely. Your future husband and children will be blessed.
It was a Christian school. Guess the joke was on me…
This is so true. The grandparents you would expect to encourage our girls to be godly wives and mothers, but that is not the case with us either. My mother in law thinks college is very important. She is a retired registered nurse and thinks she has accomplished much while neglecting her children while they grew up. I fear my husband may have a little of this mindset from her, but I pray that he will not be bent that way. I wish grandparents would be an encouragement. Our daughter is 17 and she has heard questions such as this as well.
Thank you, anonymous! God bless.
Sadly this mindset is nothing new. My mom was a teenager in the fifties and was discouraged from being a stay at home mom and wife by her school and even by her parents. Her dream was to be home, but even back then, she was told she needed to pursue a career.
PragerU and later some wise mentors gave me some excellent advice on my dilemma. I have realized that I legally actually do have the ground in my country to express my viewpoint and I can’t lose my scholarship for it, especially if I make it clear that these are my religious beliefs. Lol guess I’m using the left’s love of discriminated groups against them! Someone even suggested becoming a professor eventually. I will have to pretend to be leftist until I get tenure, but then I can show my true colors against the sea of red in academia and have a significant influence on the students! ?
PragerU and later some wise mentors gave me some excellent advice on my dilemma. I have realized that I legally actually do have the ground in my country to express my viewpoint and I can’t lose my scholarship for it, especially if I make it clear that these are my religious beliefs. Lol guess I’m using the left’s love of discriminated groups against them! Someone even suggested becoming a professor eventually. I will have to pretend to be leftist until I get tenure, but then I can show my true colors against the sea of red in academia and have a significant influence on the students! ?