It's such a trendy thing to talk about these days: Simplicity. It seems like I hear about this topic everytime I open a magazine or read blogs. And I will admit... I've bought into it. That was my New Year's resolution, to simplify my (our) life. Now is the quest to figure out exactly what this means to me and how to accomplish this. I guess I should have done all of that before making the resolution!
I've read some blogs about this topic and I know what I've decided simplicity does NOT look like for my family. One blog describes simplicity for them as being: living debt free, living close to nature, working from home, living green and without the use of harsh chemicals, cooking from scratch and on and on. Well, all of this kind of stresses me out a bit. It seems like work to me to try to live up to all of those standards - so this does not translate to simplicity for me. The definition of simplicity, according to Wikipedia (DO NOT tell my students that I have used Wikipedia - after all of my ranting to them about this not being an adequate source for research!!!) is, "the property of being simple. It usually relates to the burden which a thing puts on someone trying to explain or understand it. Something which is easy to understand or explain is simple, in contrast to something complicated."
The list that I've given above seems like just that to me - a burden. And to be honest... I like my house to smell like bleach when I clean. I know, I know... the environment. My children's health. I get it. But I want my towels to smell CLEAN. Really clean. Bleach clean. And during my first pregnancy I tried to use some green cleaner in my kitchen and bathrooms, but I have to be honest... It just didn't clean like I wanted it to. We eat in a kitchen and I want it clean. I want it to look clean and smell clean. And I want to know that those harsh chemicals are killing all of those little germies that like to hop onto our food!
Also, I do not like to cook to begin with. So the thought of cooking everything from scratch - doesn't feel simple. And isn't that what I'm going for?
So this is my question... how do you live simply? Especially in this culture with our excess of materialism and our excess of activities and busy-ness. But I think that is just it - what I'm trying to get away from. I don't want to feel like I NEED all of the latest trendy clothing or the latest gadgets. I don't want my kids to feel like they NEED every electronic known to man or every toy that the neighbor down the street has. I also don't want to have to attend some sort of practice or game 5 nights out of every week... which is the reason I started dwelling on this whole simplicity thing. I am watching all of these families around me live in their cars or at the field/court. Don't get me wrong, I think that children being involved in activities is a good thing. I think that it helps them establish that sense of competition and sportmanship and I think it teaches them good social skills. However, I truly feel like they should have limits. They are children. Let them choose one or two activities and then spend the rest of their time playing at home or in the yard. It bothers me to see kids having activities until 9 o'clock at night when they should be in bed.
So these are the questions that I'm having to ask myself as I look up ballet lessons and swimming lessons on the internet. Where do you draw the line? What do you allow children to be involved in when they want to do EVERY activity that the friend from school is doing? How do you keep things "SIMPLE?"
i was disappointed to find that no one had responded yet. i was eager to read responses on this subject. i think that's just the thing...if everyone else is like me, we are just like you...trying to define what simplicity means to us. your 5th paragraph is my fav...i agree with every word. please share your "answers" when you find them ;)
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