Our Subconscious Laziness
I was folding laundry while watching tv over the weekend and I saw a commercial for something called Instacart. Basically, this is a service accessible through your phone or computer and allows you to order groceries and have them delivered to your home. You may have heard of similar services such as Shipt, or Click & Pick. While I can see the positive in these services for the elderly or sick, it seems to be used by the average mom the most. I have heard people say they are too busy, they don’t have time, or they simply don’t want to take their kids to the store with them. This simply baffles me.
When did we become too busy to buy groceries for ourselves? At what point did we say I don’t have time to ensure I have food in my home? I can’t help but wonder if the real question is not whether or not you have time, but whether or not you feel like it. As a society, we have become lazy. Many households no longer cook whole meals, have family dinners, invest in quality family time. Instead we engage in technology, shove a screen in front of our children, and binge watch the latest series. When is the last time you saw a family bike riding in your neighborhood? Taking a walk? Playing in the snow? Having a picnic? Have these values simply been lost in the new American culture? Sadly, I think so. It’s not too late to turn that around though. It’s up to us 30 somethings to make a change. We have the perfect balance of family values combined with modern luxuries. Many of us haven’t forgotten hard work and still find a way to enjoy technology. We learned to cook from our parents and grandparents. How to mow the lawn from our fathers, fix the car. We learned how to sew, how to make things last, and most importantly how to stretch, not waste a dollar. Saying all of that, why are we the ones engulfed in this culture of lazy?
How do we continue to bring children into the world, but don’t want to spend the time to teach them invaluable life skills? Taking your children to the store teaches them how to shop. They learn how to pick produce and meat, check expiration dates, and find the best value. Even before they are old enough for those lessons, they can recognize the numbers in the aisles and it becomes a real life learning experience. They learn to help others, hold doors, use manners, manage a list, all while you are accomplishing a task for your household. I know that some children can be a bit rambunctious ( mine included at times), but the only way to teach them better is to place them in that environment. Yes, shopping will take longer, but it seems worthwhile to me.
I think we need to take a step back, slow down and take a note from the previous generation. How can we use some of this technology to aid in building stronger families rather than separating them?
You said this so perfectly and youre absolutely right! Nowadays people take the easy way out with most things because theyre too lazy to put forth the effort to actually do it themselves. Everyone needs to take the time & spend quality time with their kids and teach them these things because the schools dont teach it and if us parents cant do that then our kids are going to grow up and be even more lazy because thats how they were raised. They learn from us, watch us & do as we do. Do we really want that for them? I sure as heck dont. Put the technology away and go grocery shopping, go bike riding, go on a picnic, have family game nights and eat meals together and i promise you you wont regret it!
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