Kid Of Amway Ambot Shares Story

Another reader shares how Amway destroyed their family.

Amway ruined my family. Granted, my parents were in Amway in the 90s. I was a kid at the time and didn't really know better. I am 26 now and recently have been doing research on Amway because Facebook friends flood my newsfeed with it as well as other pyramid schemes like Plexus.

Even though its been 15-20 years since my parents were active in Amway I still remember it all. I never understood why my dad bothered with Amway - he was making about $250k at a very good general sales manager job for a large radio station.

I remember my dad going to my friends houses(or inviting them to our own house) and "showing them the plan". I remember my dad always listening to "tools" when we drove places. I remember all the Amway products we had - Satinique, Glister, Critic's Choice, Artistry, LOC. I remember my parents always going away for the weekend for some "function" and we got to know our babysitters well over the years. Or my parents they would drag me and my sisters to some weekend function and take the babysitter with us. I remember the book "Just wait till we're diamond". I remember my dad would be going off somewhere to show the plan and my mom would have me and my sisters run out to him as he was about to leave and say "DADDY GO DIAMOND!". I remember my dad buying a used Cadillac, after reading up on Amway I know why.

Around 1996 or 1997 my dad lost his job. I was never told why at the time but me and my sisters, today, know the reason - its because of Amway. My dad focused more on Amway than his actual job, plus annoyed his boss by talking about Amway at work. He got fired from a well paying job. My mom didn't have to work, but after he got fired she started having to work.

It was around 2000 or so when my parents finally "quit" Amway. I don't know why they did, but I am guessing it was the financial strain after my dad lost his job and them realizing Amway was a dead end scam. The highest pin level they achieved was Silver Direct I think.


My dad was never the same after losing that job, he never could seem to hold down steady job after that even though he quit Amway. My parents combined income was never enough and from age 11 onward we really struggled as a family financially. We were never the same. Eventually my parents split when I was in college. We were an ideal American Family for the first 11 years of my life and after that we were fractured and financially struggled. If my dad was making $250k a year it makes you wonder how much he sunk into Amway that caused us to become destitute.

My uncle is still active in Amway and is always drinking XS drinks. But he hasn't become diamond either even though he has been in for 20 years. The reason my uncle hasn't crashed and burned like my parents did is because he runs his own(non Amway) business. My mom, dad, and uncle are smart people and good, moral upstanding people. That is why it is so disappointing to have seen them sucked into a blatant scheme.

I have never talked to my dad or uncle about my true feelings about Amway. But I talked to my mom about it. She says she knew it was a scam but was brainwashed to always think positive. She said it was a cult and how Dexter/Birdie would come out well past midnight when everyone was falling asleep and speak nonsense as if they were trying to brainwash everyone. How one weekend when I was sick and the babysitter was worried about me, and my mom wanted to leave the function to go home to me and how some Amway assholes guilt tripped her into staying at the function, and tried to make her feel like a "Dream Stealer" for wanting to leave.

Like I said Amway ruined my family. We were the ideal American Upper-Middle Class family and it was destroyed because of Amway's lies and preying on my parents like that. I live in a different state than my parents these days and I hate going home for holidays and having to go to my mom's house AND my dad's house. I just wish I could go home to my parents both living under the same roof instead of having to split time with both.

I hope there is a special place in hell for the likes of Dexter & Birdie Yaeger, Bill Britt, C.L. Foster(my parent's upline diamond) and other asshole Amway people who have made a living by destroying the financial lives of many.