As we hurtle forward at an ever increasing pace, I don't think that any one of us stops to think about the long term consequences of the way our lifestyles change or what we lose. This was something that came to mind yesterday when I was looking through my cookery books and I realised how many things we are losing or have lost already.
Society has changed dramatically with the breakdown of the family unit, so now a lot of children don't have two parents to act as role models for them and where both parents have to work, the pleasant routines of yesterday have fallen by the wayside along with manners.
This is borne out by the fact that families rarely sit down to eat together now, in fact most evening meals are eaten in front of the television, proper breakfasts no longer exist in most households and many miss this meal anyway. Lunch has become a sandwich which the majority of people 'graze' as they do their lunchtime shopping and most places of work do not have adequate canteen facilities. Afternoon tea with scones and cakes (and tea from a teapot not just a teabag) has died out along with light suppers. When I was younger, meals were social occasions where the whole family sat down and communicated with one another and Sunday lunches and teas were a real events in the weekly calendar.
Nowadays, most people don't cook from scratch despite having kitchens with every concievable time saving gadget. Cookery books only gather dust and the skills of pastry making or bread making are rapidly dying out too. How many young mums today could tell you how to bake a Victoria sponge when most of them probably don't even know what one looks like!
Today, despite having so many labour saving devices, we are 'time poor' and our lives are no longer enriched with so many of the simple social pleasures we once enjoyed.
Grandma, I believe you and I are kindred spirits. Your thoughts are mine as well.
ReplyDeleteWe've allowed our society to change us. It is us who need to take charge of our lives.
I always thought the feminist movement wasn't looking after a woman'd best interest. Now look at just how hard our lives are!
We now have to pay more taxes to greedy politicians. That was why feminist movement got it's way here in the states. If it wasn't for additional tax money, we'd still have simple lives as God intended.
Now we have to work full time jobs, cook, clean and do the laundry as well as try to raise and comfort our children and care for our husbands.
It's simply too much to do in such little time.
We need to make changes back to the old days. Those were the best of times.
Only a woman can multi-function and do all these things. Men wouldn't know where to start, they'd do nothing but moan and would fail miserably if they tried then leave a woman to pick up the pieces!
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