The Old Folks Home

[microchick]

@bruceha2000, our minister once told me that as parents, we can put everything good that we can into our children, but once they are grown it is up to them whether or not they put that knowledge to use or disregard our teachings.

I'm sure you and your wife put everything good that you could into your kids. That is what good parents do. Don't blame yourself if they don't put it to good use.

My parents were the same way. One of them was always there when we went to school and one was always home when we came home from school. We were never left with babysitters, no daycare. Yet my brother and I are as different as night and day. I took care of mom and dad when age and disease reared it's ugly head with them. Brother 'had a life' as his spouse put it. So did I but I put it on hold. They were always there for me, how could I do otherwise by them? We were raised the same. Who knows the answer?

I was speaking mainly of the kids our generation has born. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of wonderful young people out there. How they turned out that was is beyond me. Like the folks next door who have 15-16 kids? Heck, I lose count. But they are good kids....who are devout in their Christian faith. Does that make a difference? It sure doesn't hurt.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hard to Say some has to be the person empathy or not makes a huge difference

 

[chickadoodles]

I was a single mom most of my life. I had family to care for my kids while I worked. Mostly my mom.
Till my oldest could help take care of her sisters. My youngest son went into
Head Start at 2. With all his disabilities I got help from St. Judes to get him into head start and they had a bus pick him up in front of the house and drop him off in the afternoon's.
He loved going to head start! It gave him something to do and he made friends.
I stayed home with most of my kids and even had a day care for several years.
I loved it. I taught the kids their ABC's and numbers, colors. And how to write their names.
The parents loved it! Because they all lived in the same complex I did.

 

[Alaskan]

I keep getting told how a bunch of the under 35 set, have no idea how to work.

And how many of them think they should keep their job even if they show up late or do a bad job or barely work.

Also really hard to find workers that aren't druggies.

 

[chickadoodles]

I keep getting told how a bunch of the under 35 set, have no idea how to work.

And how many of them think they should keep their job even if they show up late or do a bad job or barely work.

Also really hard to find workers that aren't druggies.

It is sad Al. I know some that don't even know how to fill out an application.
And most of this generation expects someone to take care of them.
The entitlement issues are so out of control! And yes I know a lot that could not keep a job because they failed a drug test.
Why do I know folks like that? Because I had to hire employee's. And weed out the bad ones.

 

[pennyJo1960]

My Ma was a single Mother until she married Dad I lived with my Grandma being the youngest. I was in Wisconsin with her until Ma and Dad married an we moved to Washington state .. Ma use to say Dad had a part time job full time paycheck . He was postman so was home by 3:30 same as us from school he made dinner worked the farm with me in tow ..
till 6 Ma would be home we would all sit for dinner Dad had made .. He was good cook we never went hungry by any means ...

 

[microchick]

I was a single mom most of my life. I had family to care for my kids while I worked. Mostly my mom.
Till my oldest could help take care of her sisters. My youngest son went into
Head Start at 2. With all his disabilities I got help from St. Judes to get him into head start and they had a bus pick him up in front of the house and drop him off in the afternoon's.
He loved going to head start! It gave him something to do and he made friends.
I stayed home with most of my kids and even had a day care for several years.
I loved it. I taught the kids their ABC's and numbers, colors. And how to write their names.
The parents loved it! Because they all lived in the same complex I did.

Bless you. chicka. You had a calling. Like I said, mother is a verb as well as a noun. Neighbors I had back in IL raised their granddaughter. They were about my age when I first met them.

Plus I have a cousin who had quads. 3 survived, one with severe CP. She still takes care of him at home and they are 20 years old now. The two fraternal twins did head start due to learning defects and the fact that they were very preemie. They both graduated from high school and on their own now.

 

[getaclue]

If I had to pick one thing, where we, as a whole, went wrong with our youth, I'd have to say tv advertising. When I was a kid, there were no tv ads about designer clothes. For most stores, if you wanted to know their inventory, and prices, you had to get a catalog. Everybody had a Sears catalog. Some got a Spiegel's catalog too. Unless rich, nobody was buying designer anything. For jeans, or dungarees, it was wranglers, or levi's.

Maas Brothers was a bit higher end for "specialty" things, like Sunday clothes, or work clothes for professionals and those in the business world.

They had home economics, and taught sewing. It was a lot cheaper to make your own then. While Vogue, and Glamour magazines showed some of the designer fashions, which foretold the fashion trends, only the rich bought designer fashions. To be honest, a LOT of the designer clothes looked silly, and took awhile to catch on. The rest of us went to get new patterns, that reflected the newer trends a bit, or check catalogs to see when Sears, Spiegel, or Maas Brothers might be getting anything in, that might reflect a more updated look.

School clothes, Sunday clothes, and dress clothes were changed immediately after returning home.

A few magazines began touting how the stars were wearing French cut jeans. They were cut to fit better, and looked nicer.

One day, sort of suddenly, EVERYONE over 12, and under 35 HAD to have at least one pair of French Cut jeans. If you didn't have Jordache, Sergio Valente, Bill Blass, or Gloria Vanderbilt written on your butt pocket, and their respective logos somewhere on your pants, when you went out in public, you were a fashion disaster. Wranglers, and Levi's were fine for wearing at home, but you did not want to wear them out where you'd be seen. Wranglers, and Levi's were about $12.99 a pair. French cut jeans were around $50 dollars a pair. For those that really could not afford to go buy a pair, it went on their Christmas list.

I always wondered why Wranglers, and Levi's didn't offer a French cut line of their jeans, complete with their logo embroidered on a fancy back pocket. They could have made them for less than half the price, and still been trendy, but they didn't at the time.

In the meantime, advertisers realized that their target group, was a gold mine. Parents for the most part, have tried to accommodate at least some of their kids' wants. Stay-at-home moms were suddenly getting part time jobs, or taking on some form of income producing work to "better" their family's lifestyle. If nothing else, it ensured a bit of extra money for Christmas presents. Take a look at advertising now. Especially the ads geared at our youth. There is an endless supply of things for everyone to want, but the biggest targeted market, is our youth.

As advertising got more experienced, and ruthless, far too many are not geared to fight it. Do you think things in the grocery stores are randomly put where they are? Nope. A lot of studies, and research has gone into advertising. It's now a Science. Those specials on the ends of aisles, ARE advertising. The stuff by the check out counters, ARE advertising. They work, and they make money, or the stores would change things. Every so many years, stores completely rearrange where things are. Why? Because regular customers get used to the layout, and go straight to what they need. When they rearrange everything, and the regulars have to hunt to find what they're looking for, they WILL impulse buy things they had not intended to. How many times have you gone to the store for 1, or 2 items, and come home with a lot more?

 

[microchick]

If I had to pick one thing, where we, as a whole, went wrong with our youth, I'd have to say tv advertising. When I was a kid, there were no tv ads about designer clothes. For most stores, if you wanted to know their inventory, and prices, you had to get a catalog. Everybody had a Sears catalog. Some got a Spiegel's catalog too. Unless rich, nobody was buying designer anything. For jeans, or dungarees, it was wranglers, or levi's.

Maas Brothers was a bit higher end for "specialty" things, like Sunday clothes, or work clothes for professionals and those in the business world.

They had home economics, and taught sewing. It was a lot cheaper to make your own then. While Vogue, and Glamour magazines showed some of the designer fashions, which foretold the fashion trends, only the rich bought designer fashions. To be honest, a LOT of the designer clothes looked silly, and took awhile to catch on. The rest of us went to get new patterns, that reflected the newer trends a bit, or check catalogs to see when Sears, Spiegel, or Maas Brothers might be getting anything in, that might reflect a more updated look.

School clothes, Sunday clothes, and dress clothes were changed immediately after returning home.

A few magazines began touting how the stars were wearing French cut jeans. They were cut to fit better, and looked nicer.

One day, sort of suddenly, EVERYONE over 12, and under 35 HAD to have at least one pair of French Cut jeans. If you didn't have Jordache, Sergio Valente, Bill Blass, or Gloria Vanderbilt written on your butt pocket, and their respective logos somewhere on your pants, when you went out in public, you were a fashion disaster. Wranglers, and Levi's were fine for wearing at home, but you did not want to wear them out where you'd be seen. Wranglers, and Levi's were about $12.99 a pair. French cut jeans were around $50 dollars a pair. For those that really could not afford to go buy a pair, it went on their Christmas list.

I always wondered why Wranglers, and Levi's didn't offer a French cut line of their jeans, complete with their logo embroidered on a fancy back pocket. They could have made them for less than half the price, and still been trendy, but they didn't at the time.

In the meantime, advertisers realized that their target group, was a gold mine. Parents for the most part, have tried to accommodate at least some of their kids' wants. Stay-at-home moms were suddenly getting part time jobs, or taking on some form of income producing work to "better" their family's lifestyle. If nothing else, it ensured a bit of extra money for Christmas presents. Take a look at advertising now. Especially the ads geared at our youth. There is an endless supply of things for everyone to want, but the biggest targeted market, is our youth.

As advertising got more experienced, and ruthless, far too many are not geared to fight it. Do you think things in the grocery stores are randomly put where they are? Nope. A lot of studies, and research has gone into advertising. It's now a Science. Those specials on the ends of aisles, ARE advertising. The stuff by the check out counters, ARE advertising. They work, and they make money, or the stores would change things. Every so many years, stores completely rearrange where things are. Why? Because regular customers get used to the layout, and go straight to what they need. When they rearrange everything, and the regulars have to hunt to find what they're looking for, they WILL impulse buy things they had not intended to. How many times have you gone to the store for 1, or 2 items, and come home with a lot more?

Plus Hollywood. When we had our office you wouldn't believe how many 15 year olds came in see Doctor Sweetie, my DH, and were dressed like little Kim Kardashian or however that little band of tramps spell their names. No parent with them, I'd have to play parent and sit in the exam room with them because their 'plumber's crack' was showing.

I would have never been allowed to leave the house looking like that.

Hollywood rubs all sorts of things in today's youth that they come away 'just having to have' whether it be clothes or makeup and designer Nike sneakers that cost close to a thousand dollars.

Sooner or later the reset button will be punched. I just keep remembering the bible verse that says that the rain shall fall on the just as well as the unjust.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I know I’m young here but I also wanted to say that I think TV, movies Hollywood, etc. has gotten a lot more.... disgusting???? I’m not really quite sure how to say that. But the whole “family friendly” thing has kind of gone out the window. So much gore, violence, etc., even in kid’s shows, not to mention all the s*x scenes and stuff now. I’ve watched some shows where I could barely even watch them because they would show like full on nudity and stuff. Some of them are practically po.. you know.. these days.

That never would have happened before. Of course some of these shows are allowed to get away with it because it’s on Netflix or other “streaming” sites rather than actual TV but still.

Actual TV has plenty of this stuff too.

Heck, I’ve even noticed Family Feud, which I used to love, has gotten so raunchy or whatever the last few years. I still watch it occasionally and sometimes it is funny but definitely not family appropriate most of the time anymore.

I think times have definitely changed or whatever and I’m not sure for the better

And this is coming from a young person hahah I guess I might fall into being young myself but I’ve noticed so many of the younger kids, like today teens and younger I guess, are so rude and/or annoying or whatever. Not all of them but a lot.

I also think it’s partially because of YouTube and the whole “Internet fame” thing too. Everybody’s trying to become viral or make it as a YouTuber or “Viner” or “social media influencer” on Instagram or whatever it might be. So if you could do that why bother with anything else? Most of the big YouTuber stars make millions. even video game tournaments you can make thousands.

I think that’s a big part of it for sure.

I knew like 14 and 15 year olds or younger who were “famous” on YouNow (it’s like a live stream app) and were just so dang rude, entitled, and nasty to everyone because they were “famous” even though most people outside the app had no clue who they were.

So that stuff doesn’t help at all either.