Thursday, January 18, 2007

I'll live in Melanesia

So the Intensive Behaviour Therapy is paying off. I think. Henry's day care teacher takes great delight in telling me how cheeky he's been though. I'm almost at the point of asking her if he EVER does anything positive. I think she's just paying me back for the time I got very irate with them all for leaving Henry outside. It's the same old story. The minute you question anyone's ability to do their job properly they'll pay you back by being stoney cold and miserable towards you.

In fact I'm starting to wonder whether or not anyone has any "people skills" anymore or life is so busy it just doesn't allow for "friendliness".

I am a member of freecycle.org. An online worldwide junkyard. The idea is that you post the stuff you no longer need (as long as it's still useable) and pass it along to someone who does. For free. The purpose of it is to keep stuff out of landfill for as long as possible by recycling it. You pass it along. You can also ask for specific items that someone may have lying around but forgot they had.

I have never asked for anything or actually ever collected anything from freecycle but I have managed to offload a lot of stuff that was too good for the tip but not good enough to sell. The problem is though that there are some people who will immediately respond to a post and ask for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you have. They don't do it politely either. They write to you and say "I'll have it, post it to me at this address". As if! As if I am going to go out of my way to pack something that is FREE and send it off to some moron who is incapable of asking politely for it.

It's not just freecycle. It's everywhere. I'm sick and tired of it! There's no time to be polite because they always have somewhere to be that's better than where they are.

I watched a program on television last night about some Australian cops working in Melanesia. The guy said his time there had given him a new perspective on life because the people there have nothing but are so happy. The people back home in Australia live in relative luxury and have many possessions but are all miserable and stressed because they're chasing an impossible dream. Our communities have broken down, whereas their community is all they have. Each person looks out for the other. Maybe we need community based Intensive Behaviour Therapy.

End of rant.

8 comments:

Churlita said...

Here here! I've told my girls that even if I were a millionaire, I still wouldn't give them whatever they wanted whever they wanted it. People with that kind of luxury grow-up with serious entitlement issues and no one wants to be around them.

Libby said...

Can I come Melanesia too???

I promise I will play nicely.

Claire said...

Churlita

I do the same thing with my daughter. She protests about it for hours and hours. One day she'll appreciate having grown up in a home with no money.

Libby

Of course you can come. Everyone can. We'll just play all day and pick coconuts.

Libby said...

And drink pina colada's.

Hey, you've got to do something with all those coconuts!

Meegan @ The Harvey Circus said...

Melanesia sounds perfect...

I've already started ranting to Owen about how he can't have everything that he wants - I don't think it works on an 18 month old, but it makes me feel better :)

Libby said...

Do we have to bring the kids??

Claire said...

Well we would have to bring them really. But of course with all that community and all those pina coladas we'd be sharing the load with everyone else.

Libby said...

We could teach the kids how to make pina coladas.

Now we're talkin'.

;-)