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I can't say my home life contributes. It's just what I do when I'm not working. I love my family but there's really nothing critical I do for them. It's very easy to replace anything I do at home.
Just...wow.
If I saw my life this way I'd be having an existential crisis myself.
With respect to...well, all of us on CD...I would hardly judge the relative mental health of our society by those of us who fritter away down time posting on message boards. As with many relatively solitary employments, it tends to attract a higher-than-average percentage of whackjobs.
Some women are becoming doctors, engineers, and elephant trainers because they want to and would never be happy doing otherwise. Others are where they're happy, but might have been equally so doing something else-- another profession, religious life, staying home or whatever-- but one can rarely do more than one fulltime thing well for a long period of time. Some have gone into the workplace for lack of anything better to do. And a huge percentage are there because of the paycheck. In other words, lots of reasons.
Black and white thinking only works with binary code, not behavioral or social sciences.
This thread is fruitless. Tried to rep but have to spread the love.
If I saw my life this way I'd be having an existential crisis myself.
HUH? If you can't see putting a dish in the dishwasher as important you'd have a crisis? Sorry, chores are just chores. Next week, it doesn't even matter if I did them this week or not. Doesn't matter who does them either. What I do at home just isn't important in the big scheme of things. Anything that really matters I can do during non work hours just as well as I can during work hours. Work just adds to what I contribute.
With respect to...well, all of us on CD...I would hardly judge the relative mental health of our society by those of us who fritter away down time posting on message boards. As with many relatively solitary employments, it tends to attract a higher-than-average percentage of whackjobs.
I don't agree. I see way more whackjobs IRL than on line. Most whack jobs can't manage a lifestyle that provides them with a computer and internet access on a regular basis.
The difference is that volunteering at the shelter is for the kids to get some sense of importance in their daily lives. Volunteering in the classroom only provides pride to the parents--and the point of this was to help our kids find the same.
Just wanted to agreee . There is a difference in doing for others and having done for you. Having done for you gives you a false sense of self importance and the idea that others should do for you. Doing for others, is a contribution you make to others and a source of self pride that, hopefully, fosters the desire to continue to contribute to others.
Still thinking the animal shelter will be a good start. Hopefully, it won't net me half a dozen new critters.
Just wanted to post that I'll be offline for a while due to a family crisis. Didn't want anyone to think I've tucked my tail and run. I just won't have much time for posting in the next week or so.
Originally Posted by Aconite With respect to...well, all of us on CD...I would hardly judge the relative mental health of our society by those of us who fritter away down time posting on message boards. As with many relatively solitary employments, it tends to attract a higher-than-average percentage of whackjobs.
HUH? If you can't see putting a dish in the dishwasher as important you'd have a crisis? Sorry, chores are just chores. Next week, it doesn't even matter if I did them this week or not. Doesn't matter who does them either. What I do at home just isn't important in the big scheme of things. Anything that really matters I can do during non work hours just as well as I can during work hours. Work just adds to what I contribute.
Well, there's the thing, Ivory. Doing dishes is as much the sum part of my life-- ofan at-home parent's job-- as erasing the blackboard (or whiteboard) is of a teacher's.
If you reduce any job down to the tasks involved, pretty much any monkey can be trained to do it. What makes a job well done is the judgment and synthesis of seeing that the tasks are done at the right time, by the right person, and that everyone has what s/he needs to function in an assigned role. In short, someone to orchestrate the goings on of a workplace, a household, a fraternal organization or societal group. And yes, you can probably hire a person to do the synthesizing and oversight, but even with overtime, you won't have seamless continuity.
Some jobs require more hours and more continuity than others. I suppose if it were the case that-- like the old Roseanne Barr joke-- "if they're all still breathing at the end of the day my job is done" it would take far less time and effort. But IME, there's far more to it.
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. There is a difference in doing for others and having done for you. Having done for you gives you a false sense of self importance and the idea that others should do for you. Doing for others, is a contribution you make to others and a source of self pride that, hopefully, fosters the desire to continue to contribute to others. 
