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Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington
Sunflower, that is a big problem...but it maybe because their mother/grandmother never showed them how to do these things.
We cannot blame them for not knowing how to do these things...except I was taught that once you find a gap in your knowledge/skills, it is your responsibility to make sure you do something about it.
I still try to follow that maxim....and today with the internet and Youtube as a teacher, there is little excuse to stay clueless.
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It's an admirable thing...I suppose I shouldn't judge, I'm pretty rubbish at a lot of things but those things I see as really simple. And as for the last bit yes, I can't remember who said it first, but I often paraphrase the quote 'In the information age, ignorance is a choice'!
One of my bugbears is folk claiming poverty whilst buying takeaway dinners several times per week!
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Originally Posted by Less
I wholeheartedly agree, sometimes when you get a 16stone ex rugby player that died in a traffic accident, you waste more than you eat!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington
No, money will not make you happy....it just buys you a better class of misery.
Happiness is a very personal thing. Obviously you need to have some money, there is no happiness if you cannot pay your way.
Despite having very little money when I was growing up, I believe I had a very rich childhood. My parents gave us their time.....we played silly board games.....we listened to radio programs in the firelight, drinking cocoa and eating toast cooked on the coals.
We went fishing for sticklebacks with improvised fishing nets, we picked blackberries, we picked flowers....we slept out in home made tents.
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It is nice to read that. In my experience, the people I know of who had all the money in the world (think private schools and swimming pools) as children had by far the more inferior childhoods I've know of, some to the point of downright neglect/abuse. It's easy to lose focus I guess, if you're a parent who is also avaricious or materialistic, or power-hungry. It can be that they forget the more important of the roles. Not at all saying all parenting turns out this way, far from it. But those things you mention are definitely the more enriching in early years.
I don't think money can make anybody happy. I think needing more money than you have can cause one to be UNhappy, but that as you say is very personal.
Also nowadays it seems all things material are easily come by, even to those who are poor. Credit means everybody can have what they want, at a price. I see a lot of 'plastic millionaires' in the industry I work in. They have the car and the clothing and the home comforts...None fully paid for. I would be a bag of nerves if I lived like that.
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Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington
Yes, and that is why I buy nothing from Oxfam.
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I know this is a very simplistic view but when I found Oxfam shops to be full of new fancy goods, and noted how often they advertise at peak times, I stopped viewing them as a charity.