An observation

I have noticed more and more lately that my "internet" community and my "actual" community are worlds apart.  Among most of my family and friends, I am the odd duck.  Among my "internet" community, I fit right in.  Here's what I mean:

My kids have chores.  They are expected to help in the kitchen.  They use knives, the oven, and the stove top. They peel, chop, stir, measure.  They cook.  One more so than the other, but they both do.  They have for years.  They are expected to do laundry...even folding.  They help in the garden.  Not all the time, but when there is work to be done, they get recruited.  They eat real food.  Food that grows in the dirt.  Food that is made from scratch (not all, but what we have time for).  Usually with whole wheat, sometimes quinoa, or millet.  All of this, to most people I know "in real life", is completely appalling.  Bordering on cruelty. (???) Their kids don't do chores.  Ever.  They have a thousand activities scheduled.  They eat out multiple times every week.  The rest of the food comes from a box because there is no time to cook with all those activities.  They firmly believe whole grains are for hippies, or kids with food allergies - poor things.  They have never been in a garden, a thrift store, done a thing in the kitchen.  They don't even clean their own rooms.  They have every new gadget on the planet.  These are the kids that my children interact with every day at school.  The kids that they are around during their "formative years".  The kids that impact the way they view themselves as people.  The kids that can be downright nasty.  It's hard for the kids to be the odd ones out all the time, but we can't just change our way of life...our very sense of self, just to fit in.  Thankfully, they each have a couple of friends who are more open minded.  Friendships we try hard to "take care of" since they are hard to come by.

As for me, even though I live in the city - I garden, I cook, I can/preserve, I make things.  Things that take way more effort than a trip to the dollar store or box store.  I wear clothes that will last - not the latest trends.  I try to avoid plastic.  I will go without - just because of the excess packaging.  Around here: I'm different, odd, unusual, strange, eclectic.  Most of the moms at school think I am downright weird. 

Random picture from the weekend...totally unrelated, but isn't it adorable?

 

In my "internet" community, I feel like I fit right in.  So many of my "internet friends" as I call them, live the same way I do.  Probably because those are the people I seek out.  The blogs I read, and the people who read my blog...because we have common interests.  The people I learn from, since I don't know people with those skills in my "everyday, real world life".  I see the pictures of their kids cooking, helping out, doing chores, chopping wood.  It seems normal to me.

 And another, because it's pretty.

Obviously, there are people out there who live they way I do - my "internet friends".  Are we so few and far between that the only way we meet is over the internet?  Is it because I live in the city instead of the country?  Is it just a sign of the times (how depressing is that thought)?  Do some of you experience the same thing, or do you have friends and family that live the way you do? I'm just curious.

So a big thank you, to all my "internet friends" for being you.  Just exactly you.