Aren’t we the efficient society?
Over the past 150 years, innovations have made our lives ever so much easier. We have all the conveniences of modern life. No longer do we have to beat our clothing on a washboard to get our clothes clean. We don’t have to start fires in our homes to cook our food. Should we want to travel, we needn’t get up early to feed and saddle the horses. We don’t have to haul water from the nearest stream to the house. We don’t have to grow our own food and we don’t have to sew our own clothing. Our days are now full of free time in which we can amuse ourselves in as many different ways as there are different people. Why is it then, that we don’t have the time to care for our own families?
Our lives have been made so simple that our biggest worry is now how to pay for all of these conveniences. Not very long ago, companies advertised many time-saving products by appealing to over-worked housewives who no longer needed to spend their days “working their fingers to the bone”. They were now free to enter the workforce to help their husbands provide for their families. Household incomes shot up, doubled, or in many cases, more than doubled.
So, we have more time on our hands and more money in our bank accounts. And what have we done with all of that extra income and spare time? Among other things, we have placed our children into day care and our parents into nursing homes. The burden of caring for our children and our elderly have now been outsourced to strangers. When these strangers fail to care for our family in a manner of which we approve, do we bring our loved ones home? Do we care for them ourselves? Of course not, what’s the point of having all of this free time if we have to spend it caring for our own?
When we suspect that our children are being abused, do we quit our jobs and ensure the safety of our children? Why should we? Nanny cams and talk shows are now the solution to such problems. When the people who spent their lives caring for us can no longer care for themselves, do we bring them into our own homes to ensure that their declining years are spent in the bosom of their family? Of course not. We hide whatever money they have left and demand that society provide warehouses in which these frail, helpless beings can be fed, clothed and looked after. If those warehouses fail to provide adequate care, do we bring our loved ones home and care for them ourselves? Not very likely, it’s much easier to sue the facility or call the local news station.
It seems as though the more spare time we have and the more disposable cash that we accrue, the more we dump our responsibilities onto others. We who live in the richest country in the history of man-kind are swiftly becoming the most self-absorbed people ever to walk the planet. Far too many of us find personal responsibility unfair and notions such as accountability unreasonable.
An infant born to a woman unable to care for the infant can easily find someone willing to adopt her baby. But elderly humans aren’t quite as cute. We can’t find a family willing to care for our parents so we place them into buildings full of understaffed and under trained employees who are paid little more than those who prepare our burger at the local fast food restaurant.
Never in the history of the planet has there been a society fortunate enough to have the resources available that we have today. When we plan our monthly budget, we include money for entertainment, multiple vehicles and more clothing than we actually require. We spend thousands on cosmetic surgery, vacations and other useless luxuries.
We schedule time for weekly golf outings, shopping sprees and other pleasurable activities.
But when it comes time to care for the people who made all of that leisure time and extra income possible, we consider it a major imposition.
Many parents nowadays raise their children with the “best” of everything. The best education, the best clothing, the best athletic training. They take pride in teaching 3 year old children how to read. They dress their young daughters up in make up and parade them on stages competing for “Little Miss Perfect Whatever”. Playgrounds that were once places where children could play are now battlefields where parents fight with coaches and each other. Parents schedule time for “Mommy and Me” groups, Tae Kwon Do and soccer games.
Not only don’t these parents have no time to spend with the people who raised them, they don’t even consider it a responsibility, but rather a chore that they avoid at all costs. If their own priorities are so distorted, what sort of life will they have when their “perfect” children are busy tending to their own lives?
Just something to think about.
Send comments to meg.kelso@gmail.com
Over the past 150 years, innovations have made our lives ever so much easier. We have all the conveniences of modern life. No longer do we have to beat our clothing on a washboard to get our clothes clean. We don’t have to start fires in our homes to cook our food. Should we want to travel, we needn’t get up early to feed and saddle the horses. We don’t have to haul water from the nearest stream to the house. We don’t have to grow our own food and we don’t have to sew our own clothing. Our days are now full of free time in which we can amuse ourselves in as many different ways as there are different people. Why is it then, that we don’t have the time to care for our own families?
Our lives have been made so simple that our biggest worry is now how to pay for all of these conveniences. Not very long ago, companies advertised many time-saving products by appealing to over-worked housewives who no longer needed to spend their days “working their fingers to the bone”. They were now free to enter the workforce to help their husbands provide for their families. Household incomes shot up, doubled, or in many cases, more than doubled.
So, we have more time on our hands and more money in our bank accounts. And what have we done with all of that extra income and spare time? Among other things, we have placed our children into day care and our parents into nursing homes. The burden of caring for our children and our elderly have now been outsourced to strangers. When these strangers fail to care for our family in a manner of which we approve, do we bring our loved ones home? Do we care for them ourselves? Of course not, what’s the point of having all of this free time if we have to spend it caring for our own?
When we suspect that our children are being abused, do we quit our jobs and ensure the safety of our children? Why should we? Nanny cams and talk shows are now the solution to such problems. When the people who spent their lives caring for us can no longer care for themselves, do we bring them into our own homes to ensure that their declining years are spent in the bosom of their family? Of course not. We hide whatever money they have left and demand that society provide warehouses in which these frail, helpless beings can be fed, clothed and looked after. If those warehouses fail to provide adequate care, do we bring our loved ones home and care for them ourselves? Not very likely, it’s much easier to sue the facility or call the local news station.
It seems as though the more spare time we have and the more disposable cash that we accrue, the more we dump our responsibilities onto others. We who live in the richest country in the history of man-kind are swiftly becoming the most self-absorbed people ever to walk the planet. Far too many of us find personal responsibility unfair and notions such as accountability unreasonable.
An infant born to a woman unable to care for the infant can easily find someone willing to adopt her baby. But elderly humans aren’t quite as cute. We can’t find a family willing to care for our parents so we place them into buildings full of understaffed and under trained employees who are paid little more than those who prepare our burger at the local fast food restaurant.
Never in the history of the planet has there been a society fortunate enough to have the resources available that we have today. When we plan our monthly budget, we include money for entertainment, multiple vehicles and more clothing than we actually require. We spend thousands on cosmetic surgery, vacations and other useless luxuries.
We schedule time for weekly golf outings, shopping sprees and other pleasurable activities.
But when it comes time to care for the people who made all of that leisure time and extra income possible, we consider it a major imposition.
Many parents nowadays raise their children with the “best” of everything. The best education, the best clothing, the best athletic training. They take pride in teaching 3 year old children how to read. They dress their young daughters up in make up and parade them on stages competing for “Little Miss Perfect Whatever”. Playgrounds that were once places where children could play are now battlefields where parents fight with coaches and each other. Parents schedule time for “Mommy and Me” groups, Tae Kwon Do and soccer games.
Not only don’t these parents have no time to spend with the people who raised them, they don’t even consider it a responsibility, but rather a chore that they avoid at all costs. If their own priorities are so distorted, what sort of life will they have when their “perfect” children are busy tending to their own lives?
Just something to think about.
Send comments to meg.kelso@gmail.com
posted by Meg Kelso | 7:26 AM
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