housemothers...

[Erik P Conard]

I recall when we hired Mother B from the KA's at Mizzou. The KAs
were a top house there and when KU played Mizzou we put up a
few KAs (they had no KU chapter) at the TKE house and they were happy to be--again--with "Mother B."
Mother Lesh had over 1,000 "boys" in TKE at Emporia; she retired
at 85--voluntarily. She "mothered" three generations...
I know many of us would always look up these housemothers in
subsequent years...and some made it to 100...
While we sometimes complained of the housemother system, it
was later that we realized how wonderful it really was. She was
our mentor at bridge and we escorted her to church weekly.
Do you, any of you, have any good housemother memories?

[Tom Earp]

E, as I am sure You know of Mom Buck at the Fraterity that I was with Well, you know what I mean, was a Grande' Ladie!

When I Started The Local, we flat told the School, We had no room for a House Mother or could afford it!

Now, I look back and think, with a House Mother, there would be less problems with Houses today! Yep I was the one who broke that rule and changed what it was back then? My Bad!

If I look at it today, I would recommend a House Mom to teach, keep, and watch over as a guardian. These young men would come out of College so much more educated!

RESPECT Becomes a Key Word!

[ACTDXDeltaDeut]

Not many Frats seem to have House Mothers anymore -- I can't think of a single one at Cal that still has one...

[sororitygirl2]

Is anyone on here an active at a school where the fraternities do have house mothers? None of the schools in my state do - except when they get in trouble and IFC mandates it for a year, although I would assume that some in the South still do?

[hoosier]

She thought she was a bridge master, but repeatedly proved she was a beginner. We usually needed her for a fourth, though.

For the first night of Hell Week, we had to ship her off to a motel.

She had a daughter who was a freshman or sophomore on campus, and she became the chapter 'date' - always available. On the first date, everybody got to second base, and some went further.

Looking back, a woman in the house and at dinner raised the standards of conduct and surely produced damage control. She brought some new ideas to meals (some even better tasting), and parents were glad to see her in the house.

The disappearance of housemothers has to be another step on the stairway to irrelevance.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by hoosier

The disappearance of housemothers has to be another step on the stairway to irrelevance.

Signature line material!!

[FAB*SpiceySpice]

I'm pretty sure every house on my campus has a housemom or housedad. A lot of fraternities have guys that are in grad school at Mizzou who went here for undergrad too and just stayed on as their housedad. I know that the KA's housedad here is a Delta Sig though, but I don't think he's from the Mizzou chapter. I know that the university doesn't allow the fraternities or sororities to operate without supervision from either a housemom or housedad. We did homecoming with Kappa Sig my sophomore year and they didn't have a housemom or anyone that semester and it was very fun but they had to hire one by the end of the semester or else they weren't going to be able to stay open the next semester.

That being said I DO NOT LIKE OUR HOUSEMOM at all. She is scary and mean, but luckily she's leaving after this semester and we're getting the Kappa house mom from some Iowa school...and she seems nice enough, but I won't be living in house anymore so I care a lot less than I used to.

[queequek]

Our housemother, Mom Bert, has been serving Beta Deut for more than 18 years (and counting!).
She is more than our mentor; she is our friend, guide, and mother role woman.

I feel the benefit of a housemother in a fraternity house

We love you, Mom Bert!

[Blue Violets]

The sororities & fraternities at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) still have housemoms, as do Univ. of South Carolina, I believe.

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by FAB*SpiceySpice
That being said I DO NOT LIKE OUR HOUSEMOM at all. She is scary and mean, but luckily she's leaving after this semester and we're getting the Kappa house mom from some Iowa school...and she seems nice enough, but I won't be living in house anymore so I care a lot less than I used to.

Interesting! It must be from either Drake or Simpson. The house mom for Iowa is a young alum--she kind of fell into the position, the previous house mom was a complete controlling witch who only lasted 6 weeks--and I can't imagine Mom Miller from Iowa State leaving yet.
--------------------------------
I believe all of the sororities at Iowa State have House Directors and many, but not all, fraternities have a House Director.

copied from a post of mine in a different thread, I didn't feel like typing it all out again
Our house mother (actually, her official title was House Director) was a mentor, a counselor, an enforcer and a friend. She was in charge of the day-to-day activities of the chapter house: if things were broken, they were fixed; if the living room needed new curtains, she ordered them; if one of us was very sick she would take care of us/call the doctor/let our professors know. She made sure we were safe, we were following the house rules (no boys, no beer) and cared for each of us. She taught us proper etiquette and graciousness. Her door was always open if we wanted to go in and talk about anything. In a sense, she was a surrogate mother while we were in college. It wasn't that, as college and sorority women, we couldn't take care of ourselves, it just helped that she was there. She has been the HD for our house for 19 years and we'll hate to see her leave.

[PhiPsiRuss]

We had a house mother who saw us playing poker one evening. She asked us what we were playing. We told her, and she naivley asked us how one plays poker. We invited her into the game. She cleaned us out in under an hour.

Anyway, house moms are a great asset.

A former Phi Psi national president has told me that if he could change only one thing about our chapters, he would place a house mom in every chapter that doesn't have one.

[hoosier]

Originally posted by PhiPsiRuss
A former Phi Psi national president has told me that if he could change only one thing about our chapters, he would place a house mom in every chapter that doesn't have one.

Secondly, I would give every chapter a 30-man pledge class every fall.

[Little E]

Our chapter has never had a house mom, but I eat at TKE and their housemom, Marge, is the best woman ever. She isn't live in, though all houses here used to have live-ins, but she cooks and is around during the day. I love her to death. She keeps those boys in line, yells at them when they break stuff, makes sure they 'know' how to do dishes and when she is around, they are polite, well they don't swear as much, and they generally are much more respectful. I think it is great for college students to have that influence because it does help teach respect, manners and general proper living behaviors. I wish that is one aspect that would come back to our greeks systems. RA's are ok, but an adult who really understands and cares is just in another relm.