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Compared to my parents and grandparents generation, my life is filled with leisure. Basic everyday necessities took up so much of my grandparent’s time when th

Compared to my parents and grandparents generation, my life is filled with leisure. Basic everyday necessities took up so much of my grandparent’s time when they were younger. A meal would take hours to prep. All the veggies to prep said meal grown. And then the many hours spent cleaning, maintaining, and improving the living space. Social obligations. They basically just worked all day long to just live. Leisure were for festivals, holidays, and the rare moments where there was everything was done ahead of schedule. I can—daily-exercise with my hobby sport of choice, eat at any restaurant of any cuisine at my choosing, watch and read more media than my grandparents couldn’t even imagine existing, and talk with strangers around globe. It’s all perspective. We’ve definitely improved as a society. We can do better though. But we still have come pretty far.

zdragnar 4y ago
Don't forget making and mending your own clothes, washing them by hand, beating rugs outdoors by hand, all the little chores that have been replaced by electrical tools or are cheaper to purchase than make yourself. Harvesting and chopping firewood, or managing coal. If you visit an Amish community, they might talk about how people occasionally want to join them, only to realize just how much easier modern life is and not be able to take the constant work required to live without. I've always thought the statistics for average television time for Americans seemed inflated, but even given that they might be, it is still pretty wild in perspective.
- BlargMcLarg 4y ago
  My parents' generation definitely didn't need to do most of what you described, and so did most of my grandparents' lives. They also had a much easier time retiring whereas young people are expected to work almost to their 70s. Not sure what generations you're talking about, but as sibling said, location and age matter. Boomers had it extremely well here past their 30s and more than enough services available to do the things you described, unless you want to save a bit of money or do something for fun.
  - zdragnar 4y ago
    Many rural homes in the US didn't get electricity until 1935 or 36; it took a massive federal program to electrify the countryside. Indoor toilets weren't a feature in many rural homes until 1950; I think my dad's farmhouse didn't have indoor plumbing the first few years of his life.
- dopidopHN 4y ago
  I’m almost 40, not from the US, and mass market hit us later in ( 1955 rather than just after WW2 ) Still: you will have to go back to my grand parent generation to find folks carrying out the activity you describing. And even then, that was seen at the time as a rural predicament ( bigger cities had «modern confort » already, but not isolated farm and so on. ( agreeing with all you says… just that the timing seems off ) Source : my 4 French grand parent born around 1920
  - quartesixte 4y ago
    East Asia at the onset of WWII was playing catchup to European comforts. Took a while for them to catch up.
  - nosianu 4y ago
    East German (GDR) here, born early 1970s. Let's go through OPs list one by one: > Don't forget making and mending your own clothes Not making, or not a lot, but some. Mending, definitely. > washing them by hand No, we had a washing machine. > beating rugs outdoors by hand Yes! We did that regularly. > Harvesting We had the garden in front of the house and an extra one a little further away. We had veggies and fruit in both, lots of it and great variety. And it tasted great. And it was A LOT of work. We also regularly went into the forests for mushrooms and berries and also spent a lot of effort on preserving food for winter. > chopping firewood I did that as a kid, a lot, and it was fun! I managed to never hurt myself somehow. > managing coal. Yes! We got coal every year, unloaded in front of the house blocking the street for the neighbors, so I, after coming back from school, had to start asap to put it into buckets and slowly move that large mountain of black dirt behind the house into storage. I must have gotten a lot of coal dust into my lungs. It only stopped after reunification when we got natural gas and central heating, which was not an option to buy anywhere in the GDR. We had our own house. On the other hand, he (in)famous concrete dwellings of the East Bloc, which East Germany had more and more of too to solve the housing crisis that lastet I think well into the 1970s or even the early 1980s, had central heating from the (extremely dirty) coal power plant of the (very large) local chemical factory. Still, even those living in that kind of housing often also still had a garden nearby usually used to grow fruit and vegetables to supplant what could be bought in the stores.
tayo42 4y ago
You should include your grandparents age,generation, location becasue this doesnt sound like the life mine lived through the 60s and 70s
- quartesixte 4y ago
  Rural post-WWII East Asia, broadly. They encountered their first flush toilets in the airport on the way out of the country. My maternal grandparents were city dwellers and while they did not have as many menial tasks to simply live, the economic conditions of the time made for very long work days.
rakejake 4y ago
The problem is the absence of leisure during leisure time rather than loss of leisure time. True, there is more time today for hobbies and other such activities than there was previously, and less responsibilities. But the increase in the pace of life sort of compensates for this. I technically waste a lot of time on the internet that could be better served listening to classical music or reading a novel. Yet, I find it very difficult to get in the mood. I know that it is a very enjoyable and enriching experience, and once I start reading/listening, I enjoy it. Yet it is a struggle to get off the internet. I am slowly working towards consuming media (movies, music, books) in a much slower and repetitive fashion. Strictly restrict what you watch/read. Read books you like more than once for better absorption.
- koheripbal 4y ago
  This has more with a lack of discipline, than a lack of available time or resources.
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    It's a common, almost universal, complaint which indicates pretty clearly there is more at play than individual virtue.
    - vorpalhex 4y ago
      It is a common, almost universal complaint that God sometimes plays favorites. Ergo, we can deduce from this that God exists and does indeed have favorites...
  - azemetre 4y ago
    How can you argue it’s a lack of discipline when companies like Meta and Google literally hire psychologists to make their products more addicting? Why should society pay the price for their malfeasance?
    - olalonde 4y ago
bluedino 4y ago
Hours to prep a meal? Maybe for Christmas dinner.
- dopidopHN 4y ago
  2 hours is plural. It’s not hard to spend 2 hours total if you count prep and clean
- quartesixte 4y ago
  When you have 7 mouths to feed, a wood stove, it does take about 2-3 hours to cook.
j7ake 4y ago
Agreed. Before inventions of dishwashers, laundry machines, and roombas, there was literally enough work to have one person in household home at all times (home maker). Now it is common to live life where both parents work and no homemaker.
hourago 4y ago
You are probably a well paid engineer or similar. Your experience is valid, but not the most common one.
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  I really don't think that's true. Everyone in the US has access to smartphones. They may not have large blocks of leisure time, but technology allows the average social media user to be scrolling for over two hours a day. You might not be able to live comfortably on 1 wage, but household responsibilities take much less time due to innovation. Obviously everything isn't rosy, but it's not really like we have less leisure time.
  - scollet 4y ago
    You are a bold-faced liar. If you have to work to live, leisure does not exist.
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      By your definition leisure has never existed for 99.99% of humanity. Doesn’t seem like a practical definition, but sure it’s be nice if people could just do whatever they want.
- nverno 4y ago
  Definitely the most common one in the states. I'm broke, but all this is the same, minus eating at restaurants. You'd have to go to countries where modern appliances aren't ubiquitous for most of these time-savers not to exist.
scollet 4y ago
It's not all perspective. You are a parasite :)
Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago
Your personal experience doesn't map 1 to 1 for all of society, just sayin.

zdragnar 4y ago

Don't forget making and mending your own clothes, washing them by hand, beating rugs outdoors by hand, all the little chores that have been replaced by electrical tools or are cheaper to purchase than make yourself. Harvesting and chopping firewood, or managing coal. If you visit an Amish community, they might talk about how people occasionally want to join them, only to realize just how much easier modern life is and not be able to take the constant work required to live without. I've always thought the statistics for average television time for Americans seemed inflated, but even given that they might be, it is still pretty wild in perspective.

BlargMcLarg 4y ago
My parents' generation definitely didn't need to do most of what you described, and so did most of my grandparents' lives. They also had a much easier time retiring whereas young people are expected to work almost to their 70s. Not sure what generations you're talking about, but as sibling said, location and age matter. Boomers had it extremely well here past their 30s and more than enough services available to do the things you described, unless you want to save a bit of money or do something for fun.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  Many rural homes in the US didn't get electricity until 1935 or 36; it took a massive federal program to electrify the countryside. Indoor toilets weren't a feature in many rural homes until 1950; I think my dad's farmhouse didn't have indoor plumbing the first few years of his life.
dopidopHN 4y ago
I’m almost 40, not from the US, and mass market hit us later in ( 1955 rather than just after WW2 ) Still: you will have to go back to my grand parent generation to find folks carrying out the activity you describing. And even then, that was seen at the time as a rural predicament ( bigger cities had «modern confort » already, but not isolated farm and so on. ( agreeing with all you says… just that the timing seems off ) Source : my 4 French grand parent born around 1920
- quartesixte 4y ago
  East Asia at the onset of WWII was playing catchup to European comforts. Took a while for them to catch up.
- nosianu 4y ago
  East German (GDR) here, born early 1970s. Let's go through OPs list one by one: > Don't forget making and mending your own clothes Not making, or not a lot, but some. Mending, definitely. > washing them by hand No, we had a washing machine. > beating rugs outdoors by hand Yes! We did that regularly. > Harvesting We had the garden in front of the house and an extra one a little further away. We had veggies and fruit in both, lots of it and great variety. And it tasted great. And it was A LOT of work. We also regularly went into the forests for mushrooms and berries and also spent a lot of effort on preserving food for winter. > chopping firewood I did that as a kid, a lot, and it was fun! I managed to never hurt myself somehow. > managing coal. Yes! We got coal every year, unloaded in front of the house blocking the street for the neighbors, so I, after coming back from school, had to start asap to put it into buckets and slowly move that large mountain of black dirt behind the house into storage. I must have gotten a lot of coal dust into my lungs. It only stopped after reunification when we got natural gas and central heating, which was not an option to buy anywhere in the GDR. We had our own house. On the other hand, he (in)famous concrete dwellings of the East Bloc, which East Germany had more and more of too to solve the housing crisis that lastet I think well into the 1970s or even the early 1980s, had central heating from the (extremely dirty) coal power plant of the (very large) local chemical factory. Still, even those living in that kind of housing often also still had a garden nearby usually used to grow fruit and vegetables to supplant what could be bought in the stores.

tayo42 4y ago

You should include your grandparents age,generation, location becasue this doesnt sound like the life mine lived through the 60s and 70s

quartesixte 4y ago
Rural post-WWII East Asia, broadly. They encountered their first flush toilets in the airport on the way out of the country. My maternal grandparents were city dwellers and while they did not have as many menial tasks to simply live, the economic conditions of the time made for very long work days.

rakejake 4y ago

The problem is the absence of leisure during leisure time rather than loss of leisure time. True, there is more time today for hobbies and other such activities than there was previously, and less responsibilities. But the increase in the pace of life sort of compensates for this. I technically waste a lot of time on the internet that could be better served listening to classical music or reading a novel. Yet, I find it very difficult to get in the mood. I know that it is a very enjoyable and enriching experience, and once I start reading/listening, I enjoy it. Yet it is a struggle to get off the internet. I am slowly working towards consuming media (movies, music, books) in a much slower and repetitive fashion. Strictly restrict what you watch/read. Read books you like more than once for better absorption.

koheripbal 4y ago
This has more with a lack of discipline, than a lack of available time or resources.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  It's a common, almost universal, complaint which indicates pretty clearly there is more at play than individual virtue.
  - vorpalhex 4y ago
    It is a common, almost universal complaint that God sometimes plays favorites. Ergo, we can deduce from this that God exists and does indeed have favorites...
- azemetre 4y ago
  How can you argue it’s a lack of discipline when companies like Meta and Google literally hire psychologists to make their products more addicting? Why should society pay the price for their malfeasance?
  - olalonde 4y ago

bluedino 4y ago

Hours to prep a meal? Maybe for Christmas dinner.

dopidopHN 4y ago
2 hours is plural. It’s not hard to spend 2 hours total if you count prep and clean
quartesixte 4y ago
When you have 7 mouths to feed, a wood stove, it does take about 2-3 hours to cook.

j7ake 4y ago

Agreed. Before inventions of dishwashers, laundry machines, and roombas, there was literally enough work to have one person in household home at all times (home maker). Now it is common to live life where both parents work and no homemaker.

hourago 4y ago

You are probably a well paid engineer or similar. Your experience is valid, but not the most common one.

colinmhayes 4y ago
I really don't think that's true. Everyone in the US has access to smartphones. They may not have large blocks of leisure time, but technology allows the average social media user to be scrolling for over two hours a day. You might not be able to live comfortably on 1 wage, but household responsibilities take much less time due to innovation. Obviously everything isn't rosy, but it's not really like we have less leisure time.
- scollet 4y ago
  You are a bold-faced liar. If you have to work to live, leisure does not exist.
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    By your definition leisure has never existed for 99.99% of humanity. Doesn’t seem like a practical definition, but sure it’s be nice if people could just do whatever they want.
nverno 4y ago
Definitely the most common one in the states. I'm broke, but all this is the same, minus eating at restaurants. You'd have to go to countries where modern appliances aren't ubiquitous for most of these time-savers not to exist.

scollet 4y ago

It's not all perspective. You are a parasite :)

Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago

Your personal experience doesn't map 1 to 1 for all of society, just sayin.