Are We Not Thinking, Or Just Plain Stupid?
You know that we’re destroying the fabric of our society, don’t you? I’m not talking about movies, TV, godless education or any of those things, although they aren’t helping. What concerns me is how we’ve let selfishness destroy the extended family. Two or three generations is all that separates us from a much different way of living, and that rapid change isn’t helping us!
Back in the “good old days,” families tended to live as multi-generational units. Grand parents, parents and kids co-existed under one roof. This guaranteed that someone was always there to watch and whip the butts of one of the youngsters, thus insuring a more decent and well mannered grownup. Kids didn’t exist for hours unattended, they had grandparents who had more time for teaching and storytelling, and the transfer of family and world history was astounding.
Parents had extra hands, and a handy repository of experience and knowledge to fall back on, which made their life better too. Now, parents are stuck, both trying to provide economically for their small family, but they also have to worry about the kids and the elderly parents too, since the old ones are off somewhere else, and the kids are free to roam unattended. If you wanted to devise a system that maximized the chances of failure, this would be number one on the list!
Why? Why did we do this? Selfishness. On the part of both parents and grandparents. Most young parents hate to share a space with older and wiser adults. The grandparents also don’t want to be “burdened” by any responsibility during their ‘golden years” So the parents work themselves to death, and raise dysfunctional hoodlums, and the grand parents end up in a Nazi death camp called a nursing home! I don’t suggest this is smart, in case you’re wondering.
The good news is that thanks to the idiots in Washington, ruining us financially, we may all end up living together again. Won’t it be so nice, sharing our cardboard boxes with that nice big family again? At least the kids will be better supervised, assuming they don’t starve.
Jack