New Forms of Entertainment

Written by The Square Parent Monday, 30 March 2009 00:00

At one time, there were all sorts of home tips that fell under the heading of folk knowledge.  Less was often more.  Good folk knowledge usually always used (and still does use) the general principle of pulling, rather than pushing.  This is the reason why many folk remedies, tips, and tricks had lasted for as long as they did.   Retro-fitting hand-me downs, cough and cold remedies, home processing and storage of food, making impromptu toys, knowing when to tell which classic story, any many other everyday ways of doing things out of necessity are no longer in widespread use.  

Most have simply been rendered obsolete by technological and product advances, which on the whole have been overwhelmingly beneficial to large numbers of people.  And make no mistake, many of these advances are even better than is commonly realized.

Unfortunately, however, what also seems to have been lost is the common sense and simplicity of thought that made much of the folk stuff so useful in the first place, and so often out of necessity.   There's no shortage of contemporary folk fixes, but what's missing is the real, actual necessity.  Many fixes fall within that blurred line of wants and needs, or rather, perceived needs.  

Tips abound, fueled by an insatiable hunger for shortcuts, work-arounds, or just little things that make sense to people promising to make their lives a little "easier."  Unfortunately, this quest to make one's life easier often takes on a life of it's own, to the point of needing a management system for all of these little management systems.  This can be a real downside.

Even keeping track of some of the easier kid management suggestions available through a simple Google search, in relation to the volume that they're available, is a job unto itself requiring advanced Excel skills.  To wit:

• When traveling, have baby supplies shipped directly to your hotel.
  Which sounds great, except for the fact that you've actually got to do this, if will involve collecting several different items specific to this task, not to mention the time and expense to actually pack up the stuff, tape the box, and then pay to ship it.
• Organize baby clothes in appropriately-sized diaper cartons.
  This is an organizing method that requires it's own organization.  Why not simply purge more often so the items remain the same size?
• Let kids hand out "playdate cards" if they're too shy to ask themselves.
  This is an example of reading too much into too much, which then requires making the cards, an explanation, not forgetting the cards, and an entire series of potential mishaps and agruments over the cards, not to mention dropped cards, not being able to decide which card to give, and other parents having to keep track of the damn cards.  "Too shy?"  How is too shy different from just shy?  Maybe it's perfectly normal behavior; if the parent has a problem with that which falls under the heading of perfectly normal, the problem is with the parent, not the kid.  Cards aren't going to fix this.  
• Store hairbands on a carbineer.
  Quickly forgotten, this requires absolute consistency, and the end result will be half of the hair bands on the thing, half strewn around anyway.
• Store a granola bar inside a glasses case.
  Isn't this the reason why most granola bars are individually wrapped?  What about a sandwich bag?  File uner the heading of over-thinking, and coming up with a clever solution for the sake of clever rather than the sake of solution.  
• Prolong museum visits with a scavenger hunt.
  What about the stuff in the museum?  The museum is an activity in and of itself, and for that point.  Why create more details and more activity?
• Trunki suitcase keeps toddlers entertained during flight delays.
  It's an airport!  There's absolutely no need to take the time and effort to find something else for amusement.  This is particularly true in large airports, where long walks are possible. In smaller airports, which will b less crowded, there's also plenty of room to simply run around.
• Add ankle weights to umbrella strollers to keep them from tipping.
  There is an epidemic of tipping strollers in the United States.  Many of these strollers tip...over!  Look for the feature on 60 Minutes.  A solution for a non-problem, or rather the case of the manufactured problem.
• Boon Bender spoons make self-feeding a bit easier.
  If they're at a certain age, it's not going to be easy.  This is why they need to practice.  Another solution for a non-problem.
• How to teach kids to put on their own jackets.
  Tell them to.
• White washcloth as diagnostic tool for a mouth injury.
  What about eyes?
• Cut-off sock "leg warmers" keep sleeves snot-free.
  Where there are sleeves, there's snot. Sometimes there are no fixes for the realities of life, let along the horrid... snot.  
• Keep a stocked sports bag at the ready.
  Then what?  Do this once, it sounds like a great idea.... but then you need to keep doing it. 
• Turn catalog pages into homemade Valentine stickers.
  Crafty, for sure.  What ever happened to crayon hearts on blank stickers?
• Turn chewed-up sippy cups into kitchen dispenser bottles.
  The sippy cups aren't cute, they're grungy, and require refilling from the container that's often fine to dispense from in the first place.  This one is sure to be quickly abandoned.

These are just a brief sampling of what's out there, and some really good examples of "quick tips" that actually create more hassle, create more busy-ness, more commotion, more effort solely for effort's sake, and all for relatively low return, unless the goal is to demonstrate one's cleverness. 

Maybe about 3% of suggestions in some form are actually useful.  Maybe.  But in the quest to make things easier, the solution is often more complicated than the problem, which makes no sense, unless of course, the goal is to demonstrate one's own cleverness.  

At one time, this was called folk knowledge, and a good general principle used to apply: pull, don't push.  What's a want, and what's a need?  One's own vanity doesn't count.

It's still true that less of often more.