Living the Dream

By Heather

Before I start, this blog post is going to sound like a lot of bitching and complaining. But in all honesty its my concerns for the future of not only my work life, my family life as well.

First off, growing up is hard. Its not hard for everyone I guess but kids that were physically, mentally, and verbally abused like I was, it gets pretty rough. I mean if you have a level head you come out of it fine in the end but its a lot better when you have a good family to come home to. So I count myself very lucky to have had that in my life. Not so much the abuse part but I did have incredible parents. The reason I bring this up in a blog about retail and maybe the entire business world in general, is that the time they expect you to spend working versus what they pay you. I hinted at this, fairly irate in the last blog. Now I'm currently 26 years old, married, and looking to start a family within the next 1-2 years. What I worry about is, I have to work full time now and if it weren't for my husband's job we wouldn't be able to support ourselves at all, even now I don't feel like its enough income because there is always something that happens to pull us back down and steal our savings. So when a child comes along, one or both of us will have to take a second job. Where do you find the time and energy to spend time with your kids? I know people somehow pull this off, but you lose so much time, time you need to spend with your kids, not only because you want to, but you need to. Those first 4-5 years are important character building years. That's when you really get to tell them between right and wrong and they listen, most times with violently loud whining, crying tantrums, but they eventually learn and start abiding by what you tell them by repeated instruction. And then they go to school with other kids that may or may not have had the same instruction and most times you have to start all over again because Lord knows most teachers aren't going to do anything because they are not paid to parent our children. And they shouldn't have to, its your job as a parent to do this. This is why teachers want all their kids on Ritalin. LACK OF PARENTING. Some kids genuinely need it, 9 out of 10 do not. Yes kids are energetic, but they all have the ability to listen.

Here comes the second problem, jobs. Jobs don't pay enough. You go to college for a career but in my case the professors lie to you about the job market when you graduate and there is nothing out there for you when you when you get out of a 4-5 year program. So here you are, jobless, with a crap-ton of school loans hanging over your head. So you take whatever you can find. And lets face it, after rent, car payment, insurance payment, school loans for both you and your spouse of which neither of you are working in your field of study so of course your not being paid for any kind of specialty, utilities, credit cards, etc. Where can you find time to raise a family. Yeah, people manage to do it, but do they really? Look at our kids today. 7 out of 10 turn out like Jersey Shore wannabees. We barely have time for a dog and here we are wanting to have kids?

The American dream is dead and has been for a while now. The government is not taking care of you, they are not creating jobs, they do not pay you for the work you put in. The only thing they and big corporations do is find new ways to bend you over and rape you. They twist things around to make them seem like a good idea but really in the long run it just makes more money for them and takes more out of your pocket. Thus making us have to work more jobs to afford the eventual doctors visit, car repairs, broken something or other in the house and so on.

Word to the wise, when you are looking to go to college, don't go for your passion. Go for something that makes you money. They don't tell you that and they will never tell you that. Because as long as you have a good means to support yourself you can always continue your passion as you go. Colleges don't care about what you go into, all they care about is that check you're giving them. They don't care where you are employed when you get out, just that your employed so they can say say that a percent of they graduates found work after graduation. They don't care if those were jobs in your field or not.