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Robyn M
Speed |
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Life is just too fast
The state of the world. What’s going on? Everything is speeding, everything is becoming more complicated. Even your food is no longer simple. You rush through everything. Let us consider the old lifestyle, the one that has been left well behind you… There was a time when the men went to work and the woman stayed home and raised the family. She cooked good, wholesome meals from scratch, she baked, she grew vegetables and she also tended to the rest of the gardening, the housework, laundry, and most of the parenting duties. Her days were pretty much filled with all these tasks. Her job was not hugely valued. Society did not see what she did as vital or important. She was ‘just a Mum’. That is a sad way to look upon the women who were responsible for raising a new generation. Their love, support, encouragement and patience created the people who would run the businesses, the governments, the countries. Yet, why was it that the work the men did was so highly valued, whilst the work of the women was not? That is something for all people to consider. From that society where Mum raised the family, things changed, and now we have mothers who are not only raising the family, but they are also working either full time or part time. For both of these groups, the rush is on to tend to all their tasks, to get the washing done at night or early in the morning, to cook meals, to iron, to clean and then, on weekends to try to catch up with everything else. They manage to squeeze in the child care and the helping with homework, but, on the whole, they are rushing to get everything done. Again, the majority of husbands don’t tend to share in the vast list of tasks. They go to work, do their job, come home, and are also taken care of by their wife. To be a ‘stay at home Mum’ today has even more of a stigma than it did 20 years ago. Yet, is this not the very time when the lack of a ‘stay at home Mum’ is beginning to show in the behaviour of some of our children? This is not to say that all troubled children are from families where both parents work, simply that it is something to think about. The pace of life is also something to take into consideration. With computers, cell phones, and microwave meals, time usage has also changed. Where there was time once spent writing out homework, reading books, playing draughts, chess, monopoly, helping Mum bake, playing soccer in the back yard, all that has been replaced by the computer games and instant communication with friends. And when Mum is too busy to cook, out come the microwave meals – we must wonder how many people know what true home cooking tastes like? Life has become too fast. The pace is too rapid. The rush, the workload, the stress, it is all too much. The time saving devices all created merely added to the stress. Now employees can be contacted any time of the day. Business men are seldom ever not on the job. Life is too fast, and that rapid pace is showing up in the teenagers. They rush, seek instant gratification, instant fun. They rebel against the many rules and the confines of society. There is too much rush, and not enough sitting still. You eat too
fast. Slow down! Decrease the pace of your life.
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© Robyn M Speed |