Trapped: to place in a restricted position
Confine: a: to hold within a location b: imprison
Stranded:: to leave in a strange or an unfavorable place especially without funds or means to depart
These words tend to make me think of horror movies, killers, kidnappers, and prison....sounds scary doesn't it? All the words I listed above were used to describe being at, wait for it, HOME.
I read this encouraging post on Money Saving Mom this past week and thought all the Likes were a positive vote for this great idea, then I read the comments. :( The post was about how this family is living with one car in a two car world. What a novel, inventive idea! Yes, I'm being sarcastic! However, when I see posts like this I'm encouraged about some of our family's choices, but at the same time it makes me scratch my head and wonder if some really think this is some original idea. It feels like sometimes, people really have no grasp of reality. (I may have just been born in the wrong time period.)
Anyway, as I read through the comments, it became all to clear what the overarching theme was. A few comments agreed with what the lady had said, but even many of those comments also included qualifiers like, "not by choice", "just barely surviving", and "too much longer or I'll be in an asylum". Then it hit me, what must these homes be like to invoke such strong and negative terms? Are there husbands locking them in closets and beating them?? Were they inner city slums in crime torn areas?
While I don't know these women, from them FB profiles and the other information in their comments, I highly doubt that many of them are living in a real life horror film.....they said things about how being forced to stay home with children would make the crazy, how their schedule was so full it would be impossible to stay home one day, and that cabin fever with the kids was not good for their mental health.
My heart broke, what a sad picture of culture today. Women, wives, mothers not wanting to be at home. Not enjoying the blessing of seeing little ones grow, leading little lives to Christ, and just enjoying the down time to grow as a close family unit. They were filling their lives with things, stuff, and activities.
Then I stopped, was I one of those women?
I know what it feels like to be home for days on end with the children and have that need to "get out" and do something. I think we have lost the sense of community- where you can just go out and interact with your community.
ReplyDeleteBefore cars and shopping malls, people walked down to the park, to the market, to the town square and interacted that way. Now we have to fill our lives with "activities" in order to even connect anymore.