What people call “adulting” these days — chores, errands, personal finance, bureaucracy & taxes — is hard for a lot of people, and we’re all vaguely embarrassed about it. We feel like it should be trivial. We rely heavily on technology that makes it easier, and wonder how past generations managed.
For some things, I think it genuinely used to be easier. Back when corporate employment was more paternalistic, the company did a lot of the “adulting” for you. Planning a vacation? You didn’t have Travelocity, but the company did have a travel agent.
Notice how a lot of “adulting” has to be done during working hours? When you’re kind of stealing time from work to do it? How are you *supposed* to do it? I think the answer is “that’s your wife’s job.”
But isn’t this kind of hard for your wife too? Like, it’s hard to go to the bank if you’re dragging a couple of screaming kids, right?
First of all, this only works if the kids are in school most of the day. Second of all, it used to be a lot more normal to have *servants*. Third of all, you can squeeze more work out of people if they feel they *must*, and sexism is great at that.
The 20th century system was never set up to allow a person to work full time *and* do all the chores necessary for a decent life on his/her own. Weird “millennial” ways of filling in the gaps — roommates, software apps, cleaning/laundry services, company perks — are substitutes for old solutions like non-wage-employed family members, servants, government services, and company perks. Sometimes better solutions, sometimes worse, sometimes exactly the same thing under a different name. But the fact that “adulting” is time-consuming and sometimes difficult isn’t a result of some inherent moral turpitude in Millennials. Chores have *always* taken time.
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offtherecordsarahc: What people call “adulting” these days — chores, errands, personal finance,...
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