Posted on 06/20/2026 3:09:28 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Yesteryear opens by introducing its narrator, Natalie, a 32‑year‑old influencer who amasses millions of followers by posting about her pioneer‑like lifestyle.
Unbeknownst to her audience, staff keep the household running, her marriage is strained, and her children hate being filmed.
One day, she wakes up in a place that looks like her home, except it’s the early 19th century.
As the story develops, Natalie proves anything but content. She meets her husband, Caleb, at a church group. After they marry, she finds herself pregnant at 20 (and with a husband more of a buffoon than she expected).
I left Yesteryear feeling misunderstood...One reviewer wrote that the book made her feel better about judging tradwives because it “proved” tradwives judge her right back.
Unlike Natalie, I’m not fictional. Those who want to “get inside the head” of traditional wives should start by getting to know one.
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
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She marries a buffoon and is pregnant at 20. Sounds delightful. Who wouldn’t want to be a tradwife?. 😄
Well, everyone creating content on the Internet is ‘selling’ something, even if it’s just an idea.
You could make that argument.
When the portrayal of marriage starts with the subject having made a huge mistake in who they married, I would probably assume it is going to be anti that marriage regardless of what kind of marriage, and regardless of what decade or century.
I wondered if the word had made it into the dictionary, and it has. It covers a lot of ground:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/influencer
It has nothing to do with a job - it has to do with posting personal stuff on social media.
Most ‘Trad Wives’ sites that I’ve seen don’t generally do that. They promote traditional domestic skills and a more traditional type of family life.
There have been some sleazy ones who have made the news, but most of them are offering solid content on how to return to a healthier lifestyle more in touch with earlier times practically and in terms of values.
Yes, but someone who posts an editorial on a political site - or even an opinion on Free Republic - is trying to ‘sell’ you something. Much more than ‘things’ can be sold, ideas are sold, too.
A lot of the ‘Trad Wife’ influencers are selling the idea of a particular lifestyle. For a lot of younger people today, the idea they are selling is something never really known firsthand and is being resurrected from the past of their grandparents or even further back.
I think it’s a valuable movement.
The person who wrote the book is an author who made up a story... not a tradwife
That is 5he story line by the author who is not a tradwife. Just a fiction writer.
Sounds like tradwives are going to get the HANDMAIDEN TALE style hatred of conservative Christians.
That was part of my point.
Most of the people writing fiction, especially for the chick lit market, have never actually had a real job. Lot of the people who write for TV and other media are the same. Which is why their stuff is dull and they don't "get" people who might be different.
Which is not great for people trying to promote that lifestyle.
There was one who waxed eloquent about how she "lovingly" prepared everything. Yeah, where does that leave the person who comes home after a long day and just wants to feed the family something that is not really bad for them?
If you want to promote a lifestyle it has to be within reach for people. Bottled lemon juice is not evil, might not be as good as fresh squeezed Meyer lemons that you just plucked from your own tree but it is acceptable to use.
Every year starting in January I help teach a "life skills" course for people moving out on their own. The amount of nonsense they have been fed about food and cooking is just unbelievable. You need this that and the other or else you might as well just order door dash.
Women who decided to stay at home and be traditional wives and mothers have been told they were wasting their potential since the ‘Women’s Liberation’ movement I remember from the 60s and 70s.
I think sensible people take these things the way I’ve always taken stuff like Martha Stewart - you can take from it what might be useful to your individual situation and leave the rest.
There are plenty of Internet creators that offer economy ideas, ‘easy’ meal planning, etc. And then there are those that offer much more.
I think it would be a pretty silly person who decided to feel ‘victimised’ by Internet content and condemn it for that reason. If you don’t like it or find it useful, don’t watch it.
I find a lot of it very interesting.
I never said anything about being "victimized" I just think that the people who push "perfect" are going to drive away those who just want to learn to do something.
You run into this with every group out there, there is always "little Miss (or Mr guys do it too) Perfect". Mostly the new person begins with hero worship and ends up hating them and the group at large. Unless someone steps in and teaches them it is ok not to be perfect, to use a short cut, and some days it is just your turn in the barrel.
I am going to make a guess and you can tell me that I am wrong, but you don't hang around much with the under twenty crowd do you?
There are plenty of people who are not ‘pushing perfect’. And there is nothing at all wrong with people who present more extravagant or aspirational content.
I’ve spent my entire working career among people 18 to mid 20s. They are not all dunces who can’t scale this kind of content down to their own situations.
There is room for everything, and you can’t hold everyone by the hand to guarantee that nothing makes them feel ‘imperfect’.
☺️
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Buy and sell low.
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