By *Not you, me. Your whining may be completely justified.
In my constant pursuit to be grateful (aside from some breaks to be totally whiny and feel completely sorry for myself), I realize that I have reminders all around me of how lucky I really am.
While out weed whacking the yard this weekend, I chuckled to myself remembering what my parents used to have in the pre-electric weed whacker days. It looked like this:
And I used to have to use it. My parents called it a “golf club”. Funny, because it’s the closest that I ever got to a golf club growing up in the 80s in my small hometown in the woods.
This memory spurred on some gratitude for being a mom in the 2010s. Whenever I get to feeling overwhelmed or exhausted or whiny and need to get my ass in check, I need to remember what it was like for my parents. And then recall the modern conveniences that I have in my home:
Microwave: Open door, beep, boop, beep, dinner is served. Magic.
Digital Camera: There are about 7 baby photos of me in existence. There are about 7,000 of my daughter. And no need to buy film and flash bulbs.
Automatic car door lock / unlock: Raining. At the grocery store. CP in one arm, wallet, groceries, phone in the other. Beep. Abracadabra. Door unlocked. No need to transfer everything to one arm (impossible, btw), unlock door, scoot around car and unlock each door manually. What medieval bullshit that was.
Television: One time when I was a kid our one (and only) cable-less television broke and we didn’t go to Best Buy to pick up a new one. Because WHAT? and HUH? Yeah, let’s just say it was a long time before our household televisioned again.
Internet: Question? ANSWER. Dinner? RECIPE. Need a gift? AMAZON. Does this canned good seem funky? MY GOD,THROW IT AWAY BEFORE YOU ALL DIE OF BOTULISM. Also: You Tube.
Cell phone: Oh, sorry Mom. Sorry you had to drive a million miles to go pick me up and I got a ride home with so-and-so. There was no pay phone so I couldn’t call you. And even if I could, you were on your way to pick me up, so … Yeah, sorry. Also: texting.
iPad: See Internet.
Kuerig: No offense, Sanka.
Car seat: During my intense research of life in the 70s, my mother informed that we did not have car seats, but rather, she just put me in her lap.This was a direct quote from an email: “Cars were built much stronger – we had an Oldsmobile and a car stopped short and your Dad rear ended it – you didn’t have a seat belt, but just landed on the floor no injury, compared to today the cars were like tanks, big bumpers.” Whoops. However, let’s hear it for Oldsmobiles.
Honorable mentions: Clothes driers and two-car households being much more common, disposable diapers, baby monitors, remote controls – especially when holding a sleeping / eating baby.
So, there you have it. Sure, some stuff is harder now. And I’m aware that there is beauty in simplicity. But, Lord love a duck – some stuff is WAY easier.
We may as well have been a freakin pioneer family. Props to my Moms. And yours as well, provided you didn’t just “land on the floor with injury” in your family’s Oldsmobile.
I’m laughing hysterically in a very crowded starbucks. #crazylady Thanks for the laugh on this gloomy day 🙂
Oh how I loved this! I totally remember sitting in my mom’s lap while she was riding in the FRONT seat! Thanks for taking us way back…I loved growing up in the 80s!!!
Love it! I often think the same way. Must have been crazy!!
First of all, hilarious. And agreed.
Second of all, I couldn’t help but notice your bio … do you work at the Orange Is the New Black prison?! You’re, like, famous 🙂
Haha, Susan! Not nearly as funny or glamorous!
Hahaha, I love that car story!!! And don’t forget garage door openers!!! when I was a kid, I WAS my parent’s garage door opening. They handed me the key, I’d run out in the pouring rain, unlock the door, turn the handle and hoist that giant door up. It was always so freaking heavy and I was soaking wet by the end,
Hahaha! Love the Oldsmobile story. Ours was a Brown Pinto.
We had a white pinto with green pleather seats!