Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Most Families Today

Yesterday Mama Squirrel and Mr. Fixit went to an open house at a nearby nest. The real estate agent pointed out the small breakfast bar in the kitchen/dining area, and said that he thought it could be made even longer, because, you know, in most families these days that’s where the kids eat, and the table is just for “formal meals.”

Today a financial-advice show came on the radio during lunch time, and again Mama Squirrel heard the phrase, “most families today.” As in, most families today need a second income. Most families today have a mini-van or an SUV. Most families today have a mini-van or an SUV with a backseat filled with fast-food wrappers. Most families today don’t eat dinner together. Mama Squirrel was so annoyed that she clicked off the radio without waiting to find out which “most families today” cliche was up for discussion. She paced around the kitchen with her furry tail bristling indignantly (as the squirrelings calmly ate their hot dogs), muttering, “Most families today! I’m so sick of hearing that! And how come whatever most families are doing, isn’t what we want to do?”

So she decided to open this up to friends of the Treehouse. You are invited to post your favourite examples, overused and otherwise, of “most families today.” Virtual Canadian Smarties to the most interesting.

P.S. Mama Squirrel asked Ponytails to finish the sentence "Most families today..." Ponytails answered "homeschool."

5 comments:

Leslie Noelani Laurio said...

I asked my sons to finish the 'most families today . . .' phrase. Here are their responses.

J: "Watch lots of television."
L: "Eat."
T: "Are so obsessed with what other families are doing that they can't live normally."

coffeemamma said...

Most families today...

... are over-scheduled.

... are not disciplined (or even 'believe' in discipline).

... have badly behaved children, because it takes too much time/ trouble to correct them.

... are in debt, because of the need to aquire 'stuff'.

... spend little or no time together.

Anonymous said...

Most families today...

...believe that each child requires a room of his own.

...believe that they need two incomes to survive. (Whether they actually do or not is often a matter of gym memberships, new cars, cell phones, cable television service, dining out, each child having his own bedroom, and such.)

Javamom said...

Most families today:

~Need multiple cell phones, so the children and parents can "stay connected" with each other :-\

~Shop for new clothes and shoes...all the time.

~Are buying flat-screen TV's and need one tv in each child's (individual-grin-) room

~Desire SUV's with DVD players with private, individual headphones attached. This is to ensurer families can have a safe and quiet road-trip experience.(read: so that the parents don't actually have to deal with the children).

~Make sure that their children have an enriching schedule by enrolling them in at least three extra-curricular activites, such as team sports and music lessons.

~Are trying to implement what used to be a more common thing, a family and games night, once a month (another :-\)

Headmistress, zookeeper said...

Most Families today....

need two incomes to survive

don't spend very much time together

managed by one parent (actually in an article: http://nieonline.com/miami/theblurb/sect.cfm?sect=ins)

don't have much free time because they have so many extra curricular activities

are spending over half their income toward high-quality
child care programs- a direct quote from google.

are dysfunctional and the students have no one else to
rely on for guidance but teachers (!)- also google