If Home Was Like A Peaceful Inn

[emmiedahl]

I guess I suck by FJ breakfast standards. No placemats or tablecloth at breakfast. The kids make their own cereal. If I have time, I'll blend up a smoothie as well.

I don't do placemats either, and tablecloths are for Shabbat and special dinners. We do use cloth napkins, more out of cheapness. I try to make them a hot breakfast when it is cold, but I don't beat myself up if they have to fetch themselves a bowl of cereal or peanut butter toast.

Neither of us claim to be homemaking experts or specially trained for this shit. And we both have things to do besides play Victorian House.

[duplessis3]

That was my dad. All his letters home from the Navy talked about the food. He lived on a farm in Nebraska so he says they always had enough food but my grandmother wasn't much of a cook. She was one that always had a smile on her face, even when my grandfather was kicking the bed at 6 am because she had overslept. Very much a pollyanna - but when she talked about the old days all she remembered were horrible things! No happy birthdays or whatever.

[YPestis]

Many of these "good old day" fantasies are propagated by people who never had to experience third world living conditions. I never took running water and air conditioning for granted after living on my grandparents' Chinese farm at the height of summer. All this talk about baking cookies and sewing dollies are great if you weren't lugging water from a well, burying children, and trying to hand wash diapers. Many people don't realize how these modern inventions improved the quality of life. Even simple things like toilet paper were nonexistent back in the days. How about re-wearing underwear for days on end? Or washing your hair once a week? Or washing the bedroom linens by hand? Or patching up clothes over and over again? Does anyone even darn socks these days? These small inconveniences really add up.

I think these fundie women suffer from first world syndrome. Some probably never lived without washing machines and running water or lived through food crisis. They can't comprehend the drudgery of doing everything by hand. They don't realize that cookies and cakes used to be food for well off people and poor people ate a monotonous and sparse diet.

Others may be trying to feel better about their own circumstances. If they live in a run down home, or have financial difficulties, fantasizing about the "good old days" when most people didn't have could be a coping mechanism. Many are probably enamored with the perceived "superior" morals of the old days. They like the gender defined roles, the dominance of men, the conservative values.

This is a sore point for me as I have family, including my own parents who grew up in the third world and knew real hardships. Poverty isn't fun. Not having things you need isn't fun. Going hungry is not fun. If these fundies would spend as much time prating on about their bible as they do alleviating poverty, the world would be a far better place.