WORK

I have learned over the course of my life that work is good and important. I have my parents to thank for that. Every Saturday of my life was spent picking up sticks, weeding the garden, and cleaning the house. On special Saturdays we would get to cut down a tree, plant flowers and vegetables, chop fire wood, or clean out the garage. That was just physical work, though, my parents also taught me the importance of cognitive and spiritual work. We read our scriptures and did our homework - there was no questions about doing it or not, we just did. We were also expected to get good grades.

In class we were talking about how work has changed in the history of the world. It used to be that families worked together on farms and grew their own food and worked together for whatever they needed. Sons saw what the fathers did and daughters saw what the mothers did. Everyone saw the other people's contributions. These days the dad leaves for most of the day and no one gets to see what he does. He does not get to see his wife and work and she doesn't get to see him, so at the end of the day both people think that they have been working so hard and can't figure out why the other person is so lazy.

Another thing is that we have started working only for the money. we trade our time with our families for money to buy a big house or a new car or whatever else we want so that we can spend more time as  a family, but it doesn't work that way. Children are not going to want to spend time with you if you haven't been spending time with them. That goes for everyone.

There was an old 20/20 about the average dual earner household and they found all of the averages and then picked a couple who was at the average. They followed this couple for a while and also had an accountant add up their expenses and stuff to see if it was actually worth having two people in a job. This family had two boys, a dad who worked about 45 hours a week and averaged about $42,000 a year, and a mom who worked about 32 hours a week and averaged about 30,000 a year. They met with an accountant who added up all of their expenses: after school program for boys (because mom was working), eating out (because there was no time for dinner usually), extra curricular activities for boys...

The accountant totaled everything up and discovered that their actual yearly income was $40,500. The couple was so surprised because the mom only took the job so that her children could have the things they needed, but it showed that she was spending time away from her sons for nothing. They were gaining less than they would if just the dad was working.

Work used to be about life, but now life seems to be about work. Let's change that.