Re-post from August 2011 – Enjoy!
The PBS reality show “Frontier House” (watch here) features 3 modern day families as they journey together back into 1883 Montana.
I’m not much for movies, much less reality shows. Yet, while at the library last week, this DVD caught my eye. I’ve been watching it, 15 minutes at a time, all weekend long. Fascinating stuff.
Actually, this would be something I would be interested in participating in! However, until the producers call and ask me, I’ll settle with just reviewing the film.
So many thoughts and observations came to my mind as I watched the “Frontier House“. What I want to focus on today is relationships.
The three families who participated in “Frontier House” had every intention of working in the spirit of community. Besides this, there were three marriages that felt they were strong enough to withstand the stress of this endevour. However, relational expectations didn’t pan out as these families thought they would.
Families argue and spouses become impatient as the stress of the frontier mounts. Feeling as though they had unity for this project when they left their modern day homes for 5 months on a Montana homestead, heated tempers from unmet expectations soon revealed their worst side.
Neighbors, who thought they would be there for each other, found themselves arguing and becoming isolated from one another. When they needed each other the most, they couldn’t find a way to see past their differences. What a shame!
I found the relational strife to be a very interesting factor in “Frontier House” and yet it wasn’t dealt with in a way that taught any lessons to the viewer.
I had to wonder why, that in light of the fact that these families had good intentions, time to prepare and plan, they couldn’t get along. Why?
Frontier life in 1883 was hard…many decisions made would determine life or death for the family. The stakes were high and so was the stress.
The work was 24/7. One couple discussed the complete lack of romance due to fatigue and worries. Another couple insinuates that their marriage may not last much longer than the reality show itself. Back then, there were no “date nights” and in-laws coming over to babysit. It was all about survival.
Only 30% of the families stayed on their homesteads for the five years required to acquire ownership of their 160-acre plot of land, as promised in the ‘Homestead Act‘ of 1862. It’s no wonder.
Life expectancy at this time in history was 40 years old. In other words, the father and/or the mother may not be around to finish raising the children and to provide income…more stress.
All of this brings me to my point today….how would the Morristribe fare in a highly stressful lifestyle like this? How would YOUR family do? When the stakes are high and you’re watching your kids go hungry because of decisions you made, how would you cope? Could you stay together and work through these types of trials?
Having a plan for how your family would handle an emergency is critical. Just take a look at the headlines this weekend with hurricane Irene. I want to be a family who knows what the emergency plan is, for us, and how to snap into action if need be! Only then could we be able to help other families.
Not having a plan or the proper supplies would absolutely create a lot of stress! Having the basics of food, water and proper clothing would make all of the difference in the world if it was suddenly necessary to evacuate an area.
I find it a little amusing to see people rush to the store for food when a snow storm is predicted or worse yet, when severe conditions loom. What’s the point of that? It only emphasizes poor planning. Further, you’re subject to what’s left on the shelves, which may or may not meet your family’s needs.
One lesson I took from “Frontier House” is that despite the best preparations for an emergency situation, sometimes we as humans fall far below the proper code of conduct with each other. However, taking the time to make some kind of emergency preparation kit and plan (here as well), then rehearsing it, will allow all family members to know how to respond when, not if, an emergency occurs.
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Does YOUR family have an emergency kit? How about an emergency plan of action?
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Hi i found your blog through the blog hop, this is an area we continue to work on. Thankfully we have not been put to the test yet. Our power was out for half the day on Sunday and it was a good thing as it showed where we have holes in our prep. For me the struggle comes down to which things do we tackle first.
Cheryl,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I wish you well on your prepping efforts.
I loved this show, as well as all the other “House” shows made along the same premise. 1900 House and 1940′s House are among my favorites.
The Glenns did end up divorcing following their separation (talked about at the end of the show), and the Clunes did as well a couple years later.
My take is that these families already had marital issues going into the project, and the stress just pushed them into the forefront and exacerbated them. Note, too, that these shows – as authentic as they tried to be, were heavily edited by the producers to highlight the drama of the situation. Add to that the producers purposely chose families whose personalities and lifestyles were very different from each other – more drama for ratings. Actually I thought the children had it more together and acted more mature at times than their parents, with the exception of the two teen girls, lol.
Betsy,
There are many things about any reality show that muddy the message, producers, etc., I’ll agree with you on that.
I also agree that these couple obviously had their issues, but who doesn’t? Stress has a way of bringing out the worst in all of us. I’m sad to know that both of those families divorced. The Clunes appeared pretty solid to me….
Thanks for your thoughts!
visiting from the Barn Hop. I’m gonna try and find this series in my area. You are right that preparedness is key. I’m reading the book “Just in Case” and the author stresses not only being prepared – but rehearsing. Spend a day living off the grid. Practice your evacuation route. Etc. By being prepared – and practicing your crisis plan, every family member will already know the role they need to jump into if a crisis happens for real. That eliminates so much of the stress right from the get go.
Jill,
Amen! Thanks for commenting!
Kelly I loved Colonial House and Frontier House some things never go out of style! We have so much in common I am adding you to my Blog Roll! I truly am enjoying your site!
Thanks so much, KarenLynn! Great minds think alike!
I enjoyed the Frontier House show and have watched it several times. I give the folks on there a lot of credit, as I don’t think I would ever volunteer to do something like that!
Planning ahead is vital and maybe the recent weather events will prompt more people to do just that.
Kelly,
I will definitely be looking for this on my TV! I saw that TLC had a special of ‘Livin’ for the Apocalypse’. It aired Sunday night, but there are repeats in my area this week at least twice. It looks interesting on the prepping front. I did run out to get a few things before Irene, Flashlights, Batteries, (block) ice. We did need milk anyways too. While browsing I found a 10 in 1 wooden game set that I grabbed, yes, we had plenty of games, BUT it had quite a few that we didn’t already have. I looked at it as an investment because it’s something we will have around ‘forever’. Other then that, we were all set! Now I will be looking for the other lantern I was looking for, and batteries! And I will be looking for candles,etc too to stock up on. I am SO glad that I was taught, and learned how to coupon, otherwise I would have been one of the people at the store trying to get all of these supplies!
I have friends that applied to be on Ranch House here in Texas done by the same people that did Frontier House. The application was very detailed and
asked what they knew how to do. They could answer “yes” to everything. They were not chosen. They later learned that answering “yes” was a negative. The couples on Frontier House knew nothing and were given two weeks preparation. Just think about how long it took to learn some of the stuff that you do every day now out of habit and what you are still trying to learn to improve your self-sufficiency. And, I agree with another commentor, those couples had problems when they entered the show.
Sara,
I’m sure having people who knew what they were doing wouldn’t be near as entertaining, that’s for sure!
Regarding Sara’s comment – I think in a way that’s good that they only took inexperienced/unskilled couples. I bet your friends would have made ranch survival look “easy”. People would blow it off and think, “no biggie – if a crisis comes, I could do that – look how simple it is!”. I’d rather watch couples struggling – it would make me ask just how well *I* could do it, and show me where my family’s prepping weaknesses are, etc. (Well, plus it just makes for better TV watching people flop. Sad but true).
Jill,
You and Sara are right. The shows aren’t labeled as documentaries, they are for entertainment.
I remember seeing this when it first came out. There was another one but I don’t remember the name of it. I know it would be a pretty big challenge for my family…not all the members of my family are interested in the ‘homesteading’ lifestyle.
I just listened to a wonderful audio on Barbara Salsbury’s views on Personal Preparedness, Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage. It was enlightening!
Emergency Preparedness is what the city does with the utilities- and our city or government is NOT our rescuer!
Food Storage is provident living, or your Rainy Day/ Blizzard Use- like for hard times bumps of unemployment, sickness or minor weather.
Personal Preparedness- is not food storage, but a long term storage on what you use including food… you know the essentials- light bulbs, soap, chocolate… ( She uses a great deal of chocolate as a required food group- my kind of storage! I do have 4-5 cans of cocoa stored)
Disaster Preparedness is that ON YOUR OWN- for 3 days to 7 months with NO contact, no heat, water, light, power or fuel…. How far can we survive?
Personally, Food storage is getting there, personal preparedness is sort of there, disaster preparedness- we could do about a week if I am allowed to go outside and get things in my yard. Emergency Preparedness- the town is sort of there, but there’s a lot of gaps in priorities.
The website for listening is: http://mormonchannel.org/faith-in-action/5
the title is: Barbara Salsbury- Emergency Preparedness- Episode 5