I recently read an article in the news about the difficult time that millennials are having and how it is so different for them to leave the nest so to speak. Many are ending up back at home with their parents.
The article talks about college and large student loan payments and many not being able to get a good job after graduating from college.
This made me do some thinking since three of our Grands are working jobs and taking college courses at this time.
The time we live in right now is so different than how it was in the past but only because we make it that way.
Many young people now do not understand, and is not their fault, that after we leave the nest we start at the starting point, not the finish line.
When I married and left my mother we had very little. All we had went into a 1955 Ford. We rented a very small apartment on top of a older two story house that had steps on the outside climbing to the upstairs apartment. There was another apartment next to the one we were in. Both apartments were an elongated with two rooms and a small bathroom. Both bathrooms were butted up to the other. We had a tub and they had a shower and whenever you went in the bathroom you heard what was going on in the other bathroom. The walls were so thin between the apartments that when someone told a joke the other side laughed. All I can say further is that it made long lasting memories.
Each apartment had a very small kitchen with a small table on one side of what we called the living room which was just the other side of the kitchen and had a couch and chair.
There was no washing machine and a clothes line that we shared in the yard.
We did not have a television or air conditioner or radio or telephone. We had paper and pen to write home. Nothing costs nothing. Something costs something like rent and food and postage stamps. When our shoes wore out and we could afford it we had new soles put on our shoes.
Living like this was not a bad thing.
My Grandmother on my Father's side lived in a small house. She did not have fancy things but very practical, useful and both my Grandparents always kept me sensible by their examples.
We have so much stuff today because we make poor choices. We don't realize that we just don't "Need" what we are led to believe we need.
We start at the beginning of the starting line, not jump to the finish and we should not want to because we learn so much along the way. To make a good CEO we should have worked from the very bottom up to understand all parts of that business.
How can we appreciate what we have if we never knew what it was like to not have it?
In the past clothing was important. People dressed more proper. It was food, clothing and shelter. But now it is cell phone, computer, tablet, i whatever, car, then food and shelter then clothing. By what we see now, clothing is, well, you know because you see it too.
It seems that priorities are all messed up and parents have hovered and given their children too much too quickly. I don't know why it is that today parents feel led to give their children so much. Then the Children become adults and they do not know how to live without these things that cost so much and are not necessary to have. Food should come before a cell phone. A cell phone should come once we are firmly on our feet so to speak. We did not even have a land line and it was not a big deal. It did not affect our survival at all.
Not all Millennials are struggling, some can afford college and go right on to a good job but that is some of them.
What I am trying to say here is, children lived at home until they were ready to leave home. They were taught skills while growing up. If an older child is living at home today and it is not working out it is most likely because that adult child is not helping in the house, sharing the chores.
When it was time for me to leave home I never expected to live the same as I did while I was at home because I knew I had to start at the beginning with very little. I was given used pots and pans and extra dishes from my mother. I had made some things while I was still in school for my small hope chest. I had a few basic things like a few bath towels and wash rags. I had to wash the silverware from one meal to the next or there would not be any to eat with.
I am not saying any of this was a bad thing. It was actually a good thing because it was an exciting time in my life. I was happy and learning how to keep my own home.
My great grandmother standing in the back right hand side with her hand to her mouth.
If we go really far back families were often close and helped one another much more than today. Some might look at this picture and think oh those poor people but let me tell you these people were full of love and cared about each other. Those children chased lightening bugs and never knew what a car seat, sippy cup, plastic sunglasses, plastic electronic toys were. They grew up helping with chores, picking cotton, shucking peas and reading books. They turned out to be some of the most sensible people I ever knew. These children were taught values, how to be responsible and what is important.
Living the old way was hard at time but I can tell you that life was better living with less because I did not know the strain that comes with all the "Stuff" we gather as we travel through life and the how it can weigh us down. All the debt that comes with getting the things we thought we needed because everyone else was doing it.
I feel that if I could buy this little white wooden house that we once rented I would be perfectly happy. I would scrape those windows and keep it painted and maintained. Those old lace curtains would be cherished. I never needed the things I thought I needed.
If I could start over just after high school I would work my way through college, paying as I go. I would not let status sway me one bit, I would be proud of my small apartment above the old house or the little white house after that. I would be more content but life is going to happen or maybe not, we have no way of knowing so I would not rush the day today or tomorrow.
I wish the millennials could only know these things. Maybe we should sit and talk with them. Grandma Donna
