Churn Wisely

Happy Monday

How the heck are you all doing today? I’m doing good and I’m excited to share some news with you all, but first, how was your weekend? It was a tad on the hot side of things here, but overall, it was nice. I got to spend a little time with my nieces, took Grant to San Diego so he could help his grandparents with their moving yard sale, and while he did that, I took a trip to visit Aunt Cathy for a little while. Yesterday, not too much happened, I did go to take some photos for a really nice lady that lives here in the lake that turned 80 years young, so that was special being able to have a little part in that. Other than all that, I worked on some homework, my beads, and I was in bed by 9:00, which is early for me. Shoot me a text or leave me a comment, I would love to hear what you did this weekend.

This morning when I was checking Facebook for upcoming events, I stumbled across this quote and wow, heck to the yeah on this one, it’s so true. It said, “we’re churning out a generation of poorly educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic expectations of what it means to go to work.”-Mike Rowe (dirty jobs).

Did you ever watch that show? This guy would go to companies or businesses and actually get down and dirty doing jobs that most of us would sit back and say heck to the no on that one, but looking back, wow, just wow. What a humble man he must be to go and do the dirtiest of jobs to let the viewers see some of the things we might just take for granted. I’m sure he made some good money at it too and rightfully so.

I now sit here and blog to you all and I can’t help but think of some kiddos today who have zero clue of anything outside a technical device of some sort. I went to the library this morning and I met these two thirty something moms and one of them was saying how her seven-year-old daughter recently asked her what TikTok was. Now I never watch TikTok, not that I’m aware of, anyway, the other mom popped up and began telling of some of the things that happen on TikTok. Now, I’m not here to bash it, because I know nothing about it, so I can’t give an opinion if it’s a good thing or bad, however, what I can tell you is what this mom shared with me about it. She said that there have been challenges on it and she gave two. One was for kids to go into supermarkets and dump out a gallon of milk without getting caught and the other was for kids to go and kick someone’s door, then run.

I sure hope that this mom was wrong on this, because for one, neither is something appropriate for kids to do and the second is, you never know who’s behind any door, so kicking some strangers door could result in a whole heaping mess of things, not to mention, what if it was a single, old woman and it scared her to the point of a heart attack.

Seeing this quote this morning, then talking to these young moms really made me stop and think about some kids today. How sad it is to me to think a child would have no ambition for anything. Handwriting has been taken out of schools, hasn’t it? I think it has, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s because instead of writing a letter today, kids and adults prefer to type it instead. I’m guilty of that. My handwriting skills aren’t as good as they once were.

How sad to have children not want to do anything. I applaud those parents who have their kiddos in activities to help grow their minds and desire to be a part of this world and who knows, maybe one of them will make a huge difference in the lives of others.

I remember the days of just wanting to sit and relax, but I made a commitment to my children the day I decided to have them. I didn’t commit to them to keep them busy on a device, it was my job to ensure that they were living life. and learning. I know some families need both parents to work and that’s okay, kids can learn to have quiet time so mom and dad can work or whatever the work style looks like in your home, but what about when your off work? Do we take the time to teach out kiddos, talk with them and work with them?

I went to Target the other day and this mom and dad were holding the hand of their little girl who couldn’t have been more than three or four. The little one was asking questions that as an adult I would not even consider. She asked her mom why the asphalt was so uneven in the parking lot and instead of mom just saying it’s because it’s not flat or because so many cars drive on it, it breaks down the blacktop, this mom went into detail about how the earth shifts and how the black top was made and put down and all kinds of other things that, honestly, went over my head, however, this child was asking question after question about what mom was saying and I wanted to so badly to turn around and say to these young parents, good for you for taking time to teach her. I was impressed to say the least.

I know with the pandemic that we all went through and in some ways continue to go through, kids were the ones that hurt the worst in many ways. They were allowed to just surrender to their rooms with faces planted on screen time and we had no choice in the matter. Some kids continued to flourish, and others began to spiral down to this pit of not caring about anything.

I spoke to one therapist who told me that so many families are struggling now because of kids not having interaction with other peers. She also said that kids with underlying conditions were hit especially hard with the pandemic as now, their issues are even more manifest.

I’m no expert, and I’m the last person to tell anyone how to raise their kids, however, I will say this, as a mom of two grown sons who have a passion for life and for doing life, work included, it couldn’t hurt to buy out a few moments each day to just put down all devices and go outside and see the world, take a walk and engage with someone else walking, ask how their day is or say something like, “what a nice evening, isn’t it.”

I know you work all day long and I know you are tired at the end of that day, but our kiddos will grow up faster than we know and they will leave the nest, and it usually begins when they are teens, they have their peer group and they want to be hanging with them, so maybe Albert Einstein knew what he was talking about when he said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

I agree with him at the same time I will say that technology in many ways has been a blessing and some kiddos thrive in the tech world and do amazing things, but overall, I think what Einstein was saying was, our kids are going to miss out on life because they are so trapped and held prisoner to their devices.

I was blessed today to see a little 18-month-old looking through a book at the library and this little girl was babbling and every once in a while, you could hear her words so clearly as she was sitting on the floor, telling herself a story based upon the pictures she saw. Wonder how much screen time this little one gets a day?

I’m not trying to bash on kids and their devices, all I’m saying is, we need to think about the big picture of what we’re churning out, so we need to churn wisely those little minds that we were so blessed to have come into our lives and call us, mom and dad.

I’d love to know what you think about all this, and I would so appreciate any and all feedback about the podcast. Your input helps me grown and become a better writer.

Well guys, that’s about all I have for now, oh, except the good news. The podcast is up and running, so check it out, anchor.fm/hyet

I should have my, “Have You Evolved Today” blog up and running soon, so stay tuned for more details. I look forward to hearing all your feedback and comments about this blog, the new blog and all existing and upcoming podcasts.

I’m so excited to be on this journey with you all and don’t forget, until next time, Love Life++