It is interesting to begin a chapter with a certain assumption of what I will be reading and have my thoughts provoked by information that actually seems to make sense. I found myself agreeing to all of the ways that family and marriages were being described from the 1950’s forward. My parents were extremely old school and also 19 years apart. I won’t mention how young my mom was, because if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to barf at the thought.
My dad brought my mom from Mexico in the 60’s and 70’s so that she could have her children in America, then he would take her and the born child back to Mexico. Not being American had a lot of consequences on my family. We were not encouraged by my parents to go to school, just like this read states. Wives, specifically my mom, was ignored by her spouse. She had to do all o the cooking and cleaning. He had nothing to do with the child rearing.
This chapter is so on point because it states that children were working, and the mom stayed home but when child labor was abolished, the women went out into the work force. That is insane because that is exactly what happened. By the time my brother was growing up, it was nothing like me. There were laws against age and how old you needed to be to work. I didn’t have that! I was helping in the cherry fields and apricot fields since my childhood and once I started high school, I was working at Mc Donald’s by 14. As we got older, my mom found it necessary to go out into the workforce as there was no more children to supplement the incomes as easily as it used to be.
Another thing I found interesting is that “for the first time, a generation of adults must plan for the needs of both their parents and their children.” That actually made me gasp. Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to me since my parents have passed. How I would have loved to take my parents in when they were too old to care for themselves. However, this does apply to my 21-year-old son. Although, thankfully, he does not have any children yet and he doesn’t foresee any in the future, I can see how in 25 -30 years this becomes something worth talking about as he is my eldest and my other son is 7. I always tell him he must return the favor. I had to wipe his butt for many years and someday he may have to do the same. 😊
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