Leisure's Relationship to the Family

THE WORLD in which our grandfathers, or great-grandfathers, lived was much different to the world of this generation. For many, many families - at that time living in rural America - the day began on the farm at daybreak when the rooster jumped up on the corner fencepost and crowed! There was much work to be done. Cows needed to be milked; fields needed to be plowed; clothes needed to be washed and hung out to dry; wood needed to be chopped; in short, everyone in the family had chores - including the children. Generally speaking, the work day ended when it became too dark to see how to get the chores done. Duties and obligations dominated the lives of family members at least six days per week. With the possible exception of the afternoon period on Sunday, there was very little real free time for anyone in most families.

In today's world, what changes we have had! The sun-up to sun-down schedule is gone for most people. Labor saving machines and devices have made our lives much easier and more comfortable. In most cases, hard manual labor is no longer a requirement of most folks. Instead of traveling in a horse-drawn buggy or Model T Ford, we now get from place to place in our shiny and colorful automobiles - complete with automatic transmission, heaters, air conditioning, and perhaps even XM satellite radio! Instead of an old-fashioned ice box, we now have side-by-side refrigerators and freezers - with water and ice dispensers in the doors. We now have automatic washers, dryers, vacuum cleaners, garbage disposals, central air conditioning, and electric lights. We have cameras, calculators, and computers. We now live in an "instant society." We have instant rice, instant coffee, instant tea, instant oatmeal - instant everything. We enjoy fast food or TV dinners in front of wide-screen, color, high-definition television and entertainment centers. Truly, times have changed. This is no longer our forefathers world.

More leisure for the family has turned out to be a paradox: while offering families a chance to be together more often, it has - at the same time - had a tendency to drive families apart as well. Some of the results of the leisure revolution in America have had significant influence on the family and family structure in society. Here are some of the results of increased leisure in our society: more emphasis on individualism; more emphasis on materialism; a widening of the generation gap; and, the development of the "entertain me" mentality.

Hopefully, in the years ahead, increased leisure will have more of a positive impact on the family and family life in our society. If increased leisure leads to a weakening of family life in our nation, it will be to the detriment of us all. Perhaps, we need to remember this admonition: leisure - use it wisely, or perish.