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Dec. 9th, 2003 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labrujahThis morning there was a pretty good interview on WNYC with Arlee Hochshild (sp?), a sociologist who writes about work and family life and how they interact. She found that at a company with great childcare, flex time etc. options, hardly anyone used them -- because Americans are workaholics. Also she found that lots of people (men and women) escape their home lives into work -- at work they get a lot more recognition and being good at work is easier than being a good parent.
She also had some interesting views about how there's very little community life anymore, people don't know their neighbors, and kids spend time watching TV or shopping in the mall instead of doing things as a family. The commercialization of our intimate lives, is what she calls it.
And they talked about how women fought to get into the workplace and now they are looked down upon if they decide to stay home with their kids. And how people consider making money (two parents working) to be more important than spending time with kids. And you can't really blame them, when the cost of living is so high, and the public schools and parks aren't good.
She was so smart, it made me want to go be in her class right away. (I think UC Berkeley or somewhere like that.)
She also had some interesting views about how there's very little community life anymore, people don't know their neighbors, and kids spend time watching TV or shopping in the mall instead of doing things as a family. The commercialization of our intimate lives, is what she calls it.
And they talked about how women fought to get into the workplace and now they are looked down upon if they decide to stay home with their kids. And how people consider making money (two parents working) to be more important than spending time with kids. And you can't really blame them, when the cost of living is so high, and the public schools and parks aren't good.
She was so smart, it made me want to go be in her class right away. (I think UC Berkeley or somewhere like that.)
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 12:24 pm (UTC)Sounds like fascinating stuff.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 01:39 pm (UTC)I didn't use it I confess, but that was because I didn't want a stranger doing my errands, I dunno, trust issues I guess.
On a related note, the self-sufficiency of being a single working gal can be alienating at times.
What the hell am I working FOR? Once you have enough $ to live, its superfluous.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 02:01 pm (UTC)I also want to manage my work time with my time off -- I'm not so motivated by money that I even want to work full-time. So this boils down to being motivated by ample time off.
What else. I'm motivated by boredom -- I'm always looking for a more rewarding job or to go back to school.
Those are the biggies. Though it sounds like I'm in a different stage than you, since you've got big projects you're in the middle of, and I'm still stalling about what to get into.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 02:08 pm (UTC)The next phase is difficult. I could either consume consume consume and raise my standard of living in any number of ways which I probably would have done had I had a husband and potential child on the horizon, those things can be expensive, but since I didn't I felt like whoopee, now hat do I do. So I went back to school.
It really can't be underestimated though, what hell it is not to be able to make ends meet. But of course the absence of one problem just brings another. Or to flip it, brings another opportunity - hence the school. Rolling with it all.
p.s.
Date: 2003-12-09 01:52 pm (UTC)Rememeber that supposed to excellent book about that last year?
That woman , the writer, went all over the country and reported these people's experiences. I think it about mainly women.
Re: p.s.
Date: 2003-12-09 02:03 pm (UTC)Re: p.s.
Date: 2003-12-09 02:13 pm (UTC)It's a book I would love to read some day, it sounded great.
(did you mean to say tangle or angle, because I think you just coined a new term — "a whole different tangle, my friend"—I love it...hee hee...sorry)
Re: p.s.
Date: 2003-12-09 02:05 pm (UTC)Re: p.s.
Date: 2003-12-09 02:14 pm (UTC)and depressing.
but a really genius undertaking on her part, and committed.
I think (hope?) that book won some award for journalism.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 03:33 pm (UTC)I'm thinking about applying for a journalism program at NYU and the English Lit program at Columbia. But I'm torn with indecision.
Berkeley looks really awesome but I'm kind of committed to staying in New York for a while. I just got this great apartment which I can never let go.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-09 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 10:34 am (UTC)But I've been convinced that at least if I apply, I can choose whether or not to go in the spring, instead of just not applying and staying at my stupid job forever.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-10 10:48 am (UTC)whatever. I sent him this link and now he listens attentively with me every morning.
I was going to post about this!
Date: 2003-12-10 08:02 am (UTC)And she totally put to rest the one thing that kept ringing in my mind from the earlier show: Though positive people are more fun, more productive, more giving, and healthier in every way, pessimistic people are more often right. That seemed to leave no way to intelligently militate for positivity. But Hochschild seems an example of someone who can be positive not by ignoring reality, but because there are ways to affect outcomes for the better.
[Ed.]
Date: 2003-12-10 08:08 am (UTC)Re: [Ed.]
Date: 2003-12-10 03:24 pm (UTC)