[maryz]

I don't think very many Protestant churches are candid with their ministers about the stresses and demands of the ministry and the family problems it causes

I seem to recall a spate of women's magazine articles -- maybe 20 or 30 years ago -- about the difficulties and stresses faced by ministers' wives -- little money, demands on their time and energy for church work and parish visitation and such, hypercritical attention to their children's behavior, etc.

[AnAmericanMother]

But Good Housekeeping and Mother's Day had to cover it . . . because the seminaries weren't!

You have to be a pretty tough cookie to be a minister's wife. My grandfather-in-law was a Methodist minister - a good one. He was a "visiting fireman" who specialized in saving churches that were at their last gasp. He would come in, clean up the finances, hold a revival, get a bunch of new members signed up . . . and then the Conference would transfer him again! My grandmother-in-law was a tough old lady -- a bit grim, but who could blame her?