I bore my own child

Tonight in the car, Kirk asked "Do you remember when we met?" A little puzzled, I asked, "You mean, in the hospital, when you were born?" He said yep. So I launched into the nice sappy story about how he was born, and how his Daddy got to see him first, but he carried him over to me so I could see him, blah blah blah. I wrapped it all up with "And when I saw you, I fell in love with you instantly."

Kirk said "What does that mean?"

Delighted to get to talk about this topic more, I took a deep breath and started, "Even though I'd never met you before, I felt a lot of love right away and-"

He cut me off. "No, what does that RED LIGHT mean? Daddy, does that mean you don't have your seatbelt on?"

That got a big snort from Mark and I. New topic, he was utterly bored, he had moved on to looking at dashboard lights. Mark took great delight in saying to me, sotto voce, using the high-pitched voice he uses when he's imitating Kirk, "I hate it when Mommy rambles on endlessly..."

So, on what do you blame society's ills?

Sorry for the multiple postings, but hey, didn't some of you gripe about the failure to update and entertain over the weekend?

Today I was commenting that I believe there is something very wrong in how we function as a society, interact with one another, and (perhaps most especially) raise/educate children. There are simply too many people who are dysfunctional and depressed. We're doing something wrong. We have to be.

Mark said he blamed television. He said it makes us value the wrong things, focus on the wrong problems, admire the wrong sorts of people and accomplishments, and so on. Plus it makes us less active, and it also cuts into other important pursuits like conversation.

I said I'd also blame the way we become removed from providing for ourselves and taking care of ourselves. We don't grow or harvest our own food (we don't even cook it, many times), sew our own clothes, fix our own cars, play our own music for entertainment, etc. When we see to our own needs, it's all very abstract. And it's made even more abstract by electronic money transfers and debit cards--I mean, these days we buy all that we need, (services as well as products), but you don't get your paycheck handed to you for your labor, which you then physically deposit in your bank and carefully spend out, bill by paper bill, in meeting your needs. I mean, not that I want to be running to the bank all the time, but the convenience of electronic gizmos makes the whole thing that much more removed. I can't articulate why I think this messes us up, but I think there is something to it, especially when I witness the satisfaction people express when they garden/can/woodwork/knit/emulate Martha Stewart.

So. What do you blame (assuming you even buy the premise that we're somewhat messed up)?