Family Values On The Run?
What has happened to good old-fashioned family values? We are tampering with the very foundations of our society and corrupting the building blocks of our communities.
I was entertained for dinner by a much younger family member last Thursday evening. When the time came to sit down, only one of their four children were present. The youngest had his food in front of the TV, the next one did not feel like eating and preferred to play games on the laptop, the eldest was out at a friend and would get his food later while the young lady who did honor us with her presence sat there texting for the duration.
I can recall dinner to be the climax of the day when I was a child and nobody dared missing it. Only serious illness saw you getting your food in the bedroom. Not that anybody would have wanted to miss out on it. This was prime time for the entire family; a time when everybody’s day was discussed; quality time spent together by the entire family. The only event in the week that had a higher popularity was Sunday lunch.
It seems that families don’t do things together anymore. When we went to the beach, everybody had to go, when we went camping or visiting other family members, everybody went along. It is no wonder parents, children and siblings drift apart nowadays. They no longer form a unit and no longer spend time together; they only share the same dwelling. I think I can understand why teenage suicide and teenage drug usage are on the rise.
Families are the building blocks of our communities and happy families build happy communities. Happy communities build happy nations.
Is it not time to get our old family values back? A bit of routine and discipline can do no harm to anybody.
A very good day to all of you.
Comments (45)
and welcome back...
Was not gone at all. Just very busy. I have logged on every 2nd or 3rd day to check my mail. I even read a few blogs and made one or two comments.
Over here, all quiet in the western front
The western front was always quiet. I is the eastern front where the spaghetti hits the fan all the time.
The other day, on the Commuter Line, I sat across a woman with her little girl around 6 or 7 years old. The little girl was holding this kind of napkin.
She was playing sort of an online games using that napkin as her tablet or ipad. I could see her excitement when she pretended to win the games. While her mother was busy with her own blackberry..
You see, when I was little, my father would ask me to open my eyes and to look around whenever he took me in a trip. Then he would ask me questions or he would answer my questions.
I guess such family bond is out of date now in most cases.
Anyway, welcome "home," glad to see you are okaay!
Now that is my kind of woman. Tell him, tell him. But in SA I blame it on TV. That is when the slide started here. We only got TV in - I think it was - 1985 or about then.
Hmm, in that respect my old man was the same. He made an educational experience of it where ever we went.
That is true. We could not make appointments to visit friends and family. Very few people had telephones those days. It was considered to be a luxury.
I could not have said it better. I may just add that insanity runs in families. I got mine from my daughters when they were teens. And now her son is driving her crazy. Life makes a complete circle.
No, I cannot think of anybody fitting that description. Maybe if you can drop a hint.
Too true. What is nicer than to sit around a table with the whole family having fun? Just talking nonsense while eating. Even a simple meal becomes a feast.
Good to see you.
I think I was privileged as a child. South Africa only got TV in the middle 70s (I made a mistake earlier about the middle 80s). There was no TV to interfere with family life.
Yep, coming down a mountain road on skateboards at breakneck speed. I shudder today if I think of all the stuff we did.
Pram wheels were rather scarce but there was an engine rebuilder close by. We used ball bearings for wheels. Even if we could work out brakes it would not have worked.
Now, The family value is still exist in some way, but changed the ways from primitive to modern. Like children buy things online and their parents help them to receive the express at home and learn from their children how to use new technique.
But traditional way is still appeal me. Feel more close.
Nice to see you once again!!...family values...yes they are a rarity these days...consumed by technology...I hate having lunch with people that think it's okay to answer their cell phone while dining...I feel like I was having lunch for one...I am that unimportant?...perhaps!!...we have lost the kind of social closeness of the past...nothing was better than listening to others stories or having a family card game that brought everyone together...thinking about the Xmas holidays long ago...it is a shame!!
I have no problem with technology. It is the way we are consumed by the technology that worries me. Technology should not interfere with the unity of a family.
Now you're talking! Remember those long winter evenings playing monopoly, ludo or snakes & ladders. I'm sure we were happier kids than today's kids.
I know a lot of families ,where both parents have to work to make ends meet. Technology has also replaced time spent with grandparents, quality family time , and even babysitters. I definitely don t think this is progress,
As I said, dinner time is prime time. My mother did not even allow the radio to play while we were eating. That was our time together.
Hmm, I also see no progress. We are raising problem children and who knows how they are going raise their children?
Ja, the age-old strategy. Divide and conquer. I simply feel that children are exposed to the bad too early.
And there was not a thing like not going along. Everybody had to go but then who would have wanted to stay behind. It was too much fun.
Oh my, I totally totally agree with you. GREAT blog.
Fortunately whilst my kids do like the phones etc and I have to say.. dare I say it?........ so do I
It all starts in the home doesn`t it? All the teaching of manners, respect, and family values. It does all being within the walls of our own home.
I read a saying once.. `No other success can compensate for failure in the home`. Totally agree. Home is the heart. And it is what communities are made up off.
I LOVE family times.
CC, you mentioned camping trips , and family outings, in my youth ,the family would head out to the grandparents farm. Visiting family, seeing my Grandparents and their new farm animals, maybe do some fishing, Sure miss those days.
And nowadays family farms are on the endangered List
Family is a treasure that is irreplaceable. The more time you can spend together the better. I can remember how excited we used to be when going to my grandfather and grandmother. And they did not live very far. We saw them at least twice a week. I used to love sitting there listening to them when they told me about their parents.
Yep, when I was a child there were six farmers in the close family. Now there is one left. the children simply sold the farms as their parents died.
I never knew my father's mother; she died four years before I was born after being gored by a cow but I know so much about her it is as if I had known her. Precious memories; mostly told to me by a dieing old man while I sat on his lap. He died when I was 8.