24 hour world

[showmeborn]

My generation may be the last to remember a time when every store in town was closed and the whole town was quiet. With most grocery stores open 24 hours, this world is becomming a place that never sleeps. Sure, most people still work 9 to 5 and go to bed at a normal hour, but more and more people are staying up all night either to work or just because that is what they want to do.

Take, for example, the people who work an evening job. Most evening shifts begin anywhere from 3pm to 5pm. They end anywhere from 11pm to 2am. So, after work what are they supposed to do? Just go home and go to bed? I have worked the second shift and most of the time I wasn't in bed before 2am when I got off as 11pm. It took 3 hours for me to get my kids, get home, get them back to bed, get me something to eat and wind down after work.This seems very illogical since the 9 to 5 people come home, and often aren't in bed until 9 or 10 at the earliest.

SO why is it that the 2nd shift people feel this need to go to bed as soon as possible? Why don't they 4 or 5 hours after they get home? Because, though this is a 24 hour world, society is still 9 to 5. Once you have children you are supposed to work first shft and be at home with your family at night. Well, if all the family people are working first shift, who is working 2nd shift? Better yet, who is working 3rd shift?

Think about it, you work 2nd or 3rd shift, but daycares mostly close by 6pm, schools run from 8 to 3, and other businesses that are used when one has a family are 9 to 5. So, where are those people who work these other shifts to help run our 24 hour world supposed to leave their children? How are they supposed to get their children to and from school? What about the other buisnesses, the doctor dentist and such?

I do understand that some businesses need to be open 24 hours a day. Hospitals, because an emergency can happen at anytime. Fire stations, because fires do happen at night. Police stations, because crime knows no hour. Hotels, because often people travel overnight and are in need of rest. Even the occasional gas station, because people might need gas in the middle of the night.

But grocery stores? Really, we need grocery stores open 24 hours a day? Wal-Mart? What, do we have a sudden emergency that involves pillows and coffee mugs? Don't say pharmecies, because they don't stay open 24 hours, They tend to close at 6pm, even the pharmecies located in most grocery stores. Don't say that you have some food need that can't wait until the next day. Pregnant women got by just fine before stores were open 24 hours to aid in their needs to have their carvings satisfied immediately. And MC Donalds, why in the world does it need to be open 24 hours? I understand one along the interstate. Sure, the occasional traveler might be in need of nourishment, but why does the McDonalds in my home town need to be open at 2am?

When the great minds that make decisions about how long and how often businesses will be open got together and decided that they needed to be open 24 hours a day, did they give one thought to who would be working 24 hours a day? They were probably thinking that some person with no family or commitments would come and welcome the job standing at a cash register in the middle of the night. Or maybe they were thinking that it would start with the convience stores that sold gas and soon all businesses would remain open 24 hours.

So, what does the fact that most towns now have a 24 hour store of some kind open for business mean for the future of this world? Will there be more 24 hour daycares that cater to parents that want to have their children kept up all night so that they can sleep all day? What happens when these children raised to be up from 9pm to 8am get ready for school? Will the future of public school be that you will register your children for one of 3 times. 8 to 3, 4 to 11 or 12 to 7? Will there be children that watch the sun rise through their class room windows or children that see the sun set as they eat their disgusting school dinner? Will some highschools offer astronomy for the nighttime kids, because hey, ther are at school at night and when better to see the stars? What about sports? Will the athletes all have to be day kids or will they hold sporting events in 3 shifts as well?

So, what's it going to be world? ARe we going to be a 24 hour world and have everything open 24 hours or are we going to be a 9 to 5 world with only the necessary businesses open 24 hours? We can't have both for long. More and more parents are finding not only the convience of shopping 24 hours a day, but working anytime they want. Now your "not a morning person" doesn't have to be a morning person. How long before they require that their "not morning people" children not have to be morning people either?

[GaMomx3]

Mar. 24, 2010 at 10:28 PM

The town I live in shuts down at 9 every night. I kid my husband all of the time that we live in mayberry. Everyone that lives here grew up here and there are alot of elderly people in this town. It is very laid back and relaxing. It took me some time to adjust to when we first moved here but I like it now. The closest Walmart is 30 minutes away so that keeps me home more. The only down fall is if you run out of tylenol for a sick child in the middle of the night.