Oh yes, I’m oh-so-terribly droll for writing this from ‘work’. *snorts* I mean, I am at work – I’m curled up around my laptop on my mother-in-law’s dining table, which is our desk. Leah is cheerfully running amok and letting us know what she thinks of this and that, and I’m just sort of off in my own mind. I might expand on the specific why of this specific lost-in-thoughtitude… but not quite yet.

However, it serves to frame what’s on my mind outside of that specific issue right now – parenting and work. It would make sense that these are often in my head, as they’re oh… things I can’t quite escape from. The articles in specific, however, would be two goodies from the BBC:

Inflexible and Stressful Work ‘Harming Families’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12201262

and

Mothers Admit to Parenting Lies, Netmums Survey Says
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12192050

Now, the former seems like a massive duh, though I must admit – the number of hours respondents are purported to work kind of make me blink. I sincerely have a near-impossible time understanding why people have so many ridiculous money problems. Even when I was single and made a near-fortune (I was clearing $3,000+ a month when I was in the Air Force), my other single co-workers were constantly out of money and trying to beg me for loans. And even now, making significantly less than that and having  a kid and a mortgage, I cannot understand what madness and guilt drive people to work such insane hours. My husband and I work to live, not live to work. And while the nature of our business means it’s a non-stop part of our life (as is the burden of self-employ), we just… y’know… get on.

Actually, this is where the second article comes in – pressure to be the perfect parent. To insist that little Alice and Dermot are always doing something; I get the impression that kids aren’t supposed to be kids anymore. That if you let your kids go play instead of sending them to dance classes and extra languages and instruments, that you’re failing your child. And that, obviously, people feel horrible because they dare to lapse and let their child oh… play. I sincerely hope their campaign is successful in getting people to quit feeding each other bollocks, and that people y’know… admit they’re not always perfect. Seriously, I have some almost crippling perfectionist tendencies, so I tend to get irked by this sort of junk.

All in all, it kind of wraps up to thus – there is a lot wrong in society today about what is important or not. A vacation isn’t a necessity – it’s a luxury. Electronics – luxuries, not necessities. Food, clothing, shelter – if you’re unable to obtain these because your brand new Range Rover, then you’ve probably done something wrong. Life and society as a whole is just too much like a game of Jenga these days – people insist on building on top of unstable foundations.

I realize this is all just random blathering, with no backing data… so sue me. *giggles* I guess the point that I’m trying to make, that I’m always trying to make, is that people need to simply (maaaaaaan). But then, I realize that I’m so completely outside of the mainstream that I might as well be shouting into the wind. That’s all blogging is, really – letting words and letters flow slippery across data streams, watching the occasional snippet stick on a rock or twig as it makes its inevitable way towards infinity.

But then, why would I want to understand and be a part of the mainstream? People use groupings to harm each other, to belittle, to puff themselves up. I find these actions so reprehensible that I’d rather be isolated than be forced to participate in such things. And while, sure, I do think well of myself to myself and perhaps occasionally poorly of others, it’s more that I want to understand why people do the things they do. Man, I really should’ve taken a sociology class…

Anyways, the pieces are becoming fragments are becoming dust, so I’ll wrap this up before I sound any more hot-air philosophical. Hooray, hooray, for sparing you all the pain of that. 😉 Though I will add before I go that the third prompt for The Chrysalis Experiment is up, so I need to start thinking about that…

[[radio edit]] I’m working on gathering up some thoughts on the living to work versus working to live thing for tomorrow; fingers crossed my brain will make things make sense! ^__^