Comparison is the Thief of Joy: Generational Edition

 Do you ever compare yourself with some mythic ancestor, whom you imagine scrubbing floors on hands and knees while making jam and nursing a baby at the same time?  Ok, not that particular combination, but do you ever compare yourself to women of the past?  Wonder how they managed to cook, clean, scrub the whole family's laundry by hand on some knobbly washboard?  Do you picture them doing it in a beautiful home sewn dress that perfectly accentuates a trim popsicle waist?  With bright red lipstick and perfectly curled hair and a sweet expression on face and issuing from her lips toward her angel children?  Maybe I'm crazy, but sometimes I do.  When we are having pizza, again.  When I'm in my pj's at noon.  When

I beat myself up a bit then.  I compare myself and I see myself waaaaaay short of that ideal.  And then I label myself with unkind words like lazy, inefficient, incompetent, poor disciplinarian, .  Maybe not outright, but under there, that is what I'm thinking.

One thing that doesn't contribute to my worthless feelings at this point is that I had ancestors who were Mayflower emigrants and others who were Mormon pioneers.  So not only are they so beautiful and fabulous and perfect, they were tough.  Doing it all in the desert with a million children and no air conditioning. 

So, the first question is....is it really true?  Did women in the past "do it all?"  The short answer is: no.  Absolutely not!

When I'm having a particularly "what-did-I-just-do-today" sort of day, I try to brainstorm ways that this generation, this particular one, has it harder than the ones that have passed.

1.  No internet.

2.  No devices.

3.  Papers.  Darn papers.

4.  Boxes, bags, packaging, oh my.

5.  Floods of cheap toys, stickers,

6.  Shuttling/taxi driving.

7.  Far away family. (husband helps)

8.  Larger homes.

9.  More comfortable way of life, more fun-centric, entitled rising generation.

10.  Junk mail.

11.  Modern news. (afraid of all that can happen)

12.  Empty neighborhoods and inside kids.  (if there is no one else playing outside, or riding his/her bike to "x"  Less cooperation and watching out for each other.

13.  Danger of cars.

Pros:  modern medicine (yet, advent of well-check and preventative screenings), time saving devices (yet we tend to still clean as much, we just buy more and clean more things in total, so its not always a time saver),