My daughter turns 14 in two weeks.
She is in middle school (8th grade). She goes to school dances, where actual boys and girls dancing together is rare (it's mostly "groups," and mostly girls).
She hasn't had a "boyfriend."
She's had the early, rudimentary 'sex talk,' but has no clue really what it's all about yet.
She still likes stuffed animals, bunnies, and all the other "little girl" things.

In Joseph Smith's eyes, however, she would be fair game for making her a "wife" and sex partner. For a 37-year old man.

I can't see how anyone can't be disgusted by that.

Don't worry, as soon as she is "several months shy of her 15th b-day", you will notice her metamorphosing overnight into profit marriage material... wait... NO!

You really need to send your thread over to this guy...

http://lds.net/blog/faith/defending-the-faith/mormon-history/praise-man-even-40-wives-teenage-brides/#.VIXfjMmGfYY

Or so it seems to me...

^THIS^

My daughter turned 14 a few months ago. She still plays with dolls and stuffed animals. She likes to play video games, watch anime and read. She has no interest in boys yet but yep since she has already had her period I guess she would be fair game for JS. I just have to say though I wouldn't be like Vilate. If JS asked for her to be his wife I'd kill him. Plain and simple, 14 years old is a child and anyone who can defend men screwing kids is a sick individual. And this crap about judging through our 21st century eyes is BS, a grown man screwing a teen back then was certainly not seen as normal which is why all this crap was hidden.

Yeah- except that, in Smith's day, the average age for girls first menstruation was 16.5 years old. NOT 14. He was a prepubescent perv!

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Enjoy that sweet girl while she is there. And buckle your seatbelt. Likely rough road ahead.

sunnynomo Wrote:
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> Hard to believe, isn't it?
>
> Enjoy that sweet girl while she is there. And
> buckle your seatbelt. Likely rough road ahead.

No doubt. However, as she's quite intelligent, very well grounded, and hasn't been indoctrinated by a cult who teaches her that her divine purpose is to marry an rm right out of high school, start popping out future morgbot babies, and obey her husband, I have high hopes for her :)

I would like to share a little story about my family history, not so so long ago.
My family was never Mormon I and a cousin were the only ones but the rest were Baptist from the hills and hollers of Kentucky.
When I was growing up I had a Aunt who was crazy talked to in visible people etc. us kids were afraid of her but sh was harmless. Fast forward to several years ago and she passed away at a ripe old age. My mother begins to share family secrets that this aunt was 12 years old when her father married her off to a 28 year old man (my uncle) who I barely knew cause he died so long ago. But somewhere around 1929-30 her Daddy having 8 kids to feed and the young man from their church showing interest in his daughter decided to marry her off.my mother said that one week she was playing with dolls and the next week she was married.they said she was never right after that she showed signs of mental illness but no one did anything about it back then because she was seen as harmless how tragic it makes me sick inside and I'm sad I didn't get to know her any better.

Gosh, Starry, that is so sad. Trauma is a terrible thing.

Really, really sad. What a tragedy.

I wonder if maybe she had problems already that weren't readily apparent yet, and her father was eager to find someone to care for her before it was noticed.

Like the mentally ill wife in the book Jane Eyre.

One of my grandmothers was "married off" to an older man. She had some sort of learning disability, but of course back then you were just "simple" and that was that.

Her husband beat her, but thankfully her brothers found out about it and came to the house and beat the crap out of him. They swore if he ever hurt her again they'd kill him.

So even though she was married off, they did still care about her I guess. It was survival.

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It's quite the realization, isn't it? I went through the same thing. My daughter is now 16, and I still can't imagine what kind of man would be interested in a girl her age, especially a man who is almost 40...who has about 20 "wives" already. It's pretty sick.

Her father my great grandfather was dirt poor and worked the mines. He saw it as one less to worry about. They were very uneducated but still she was traumatized and it was brushed under the rug. I was told that was just the way things were back then. But I wonder if she didn't already have a problem and it was exasperated by this event. We will never know. So sad.