Home is not like home

I had a prep / pep talk with my three year-old about his first day of full-time pre-school tomorrow, it went pretty well, I got him psyched about his lunch box, juice boxes, and the weekly "pizza party" on Wednesdays.

My first grader kept saying home isn't like home any more, and that we never stay home any more. I thought he was talking about the fact that we have a new house, or perhaps complaining about how busy we are with fixing up the new house and running errands to home depot, bed bath and beyond, and the like on the weekends, so I pointed out to him that we spent all of today home and he spent most of the day complaining about not being able to watch TV or play video games. (We let him watch an ungodly amount of Saturday morning cartoons yesterday, so he only got to watch a half an hour of educational TV today at one point when his mother and I were too busy to entertain him, or more exactly be a captive audience for him to entertain.)
So I said yesterday you complained about not being at home because we were shopping for four hours at "boring stores*," and today we're home all day and you're still complaining.

He said, "No Daddy can I explain what I mean, (and kind of rolled his eyes), I'm not talking about that, I mean we're only home for two days together then I go to school for five days, I spend more time at school than at home, it's like school is home and home is vacation for two days."
To which I answered, "You are right, but it's like that for everyone even when you are done with school and then have to go to work it's the same thing." Then I tried to explain about how it takes a really long time to learn all the things you need to know to make an informed decision about which career you want to choose, and some other crap about how important it is to do well in school so you can pick a career that you'll enjoy, but I was really thinking about how our economic system really doesn't have any family values, and how people leave their families and the areas where they were born for jobs that pay five or ten thousand dollars more a year, as if an extra big screen TV and two dens are more important than familial bonds and having roots in geographical place.
But with the way that most towns in America have become Anytown, USA many don't even pay the differences any mind, maybe one's near the mountains, one you need snow tires, and the other is by the water, but there seems to be the same stores every where and people seem to find that comforting rather than frightening.
My three year-old is surprised ever time he sees a McDonald's, I think our town is the only town in the world without one, but he can't comprehend how ever time we drive to a different town there is a McDonald's there. What this has to do with what I'm writing about I'm not sure, I guess spending most of your life bound by school and work, living in an Anytown, USA and driving past the McDonald's to get to the Home Depot are things that aren't questioned by many people, and I'm both proud and saddened by the fact that my six year-old is already clued into such things, things that feel wrong but are so accepted that there is little you can do to change them, except be an artist, numb yourself with drugs, or withhold your labor from the marketplace, marry someone willing to deal with it and become a stay-at-home parent.


* There's nothing worse than being really bored in a boring store and having your kids complaining about how bored they are, because they don't have the capacity to deal with being bored, so telling them, "I know I am bored out of my fucking mind and putzing around looking for shower curtain rods is as painful for you as it is for me," doesn't give them any increased capacity to deal with the situation so basically nothing calms them down because they can't yet commiserate, so they just get more and more antsy and I get more and more agita.