this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2026
472 points (96.6% liked)
Showerthoughts
44013 readers
788 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
What it's actually highlighted is how overworked and underpaid everyone is now. When a single salary could comfortably support a whole family, people had more time. When only one person needed to leave the house to earn money, the rest of the family had time during the day to help with the domestic work: dishes, laundry, gardening, etc. Then the evenings could be spent indulging hobbies.
Now that we live in a world where you need to have a dual income to barely get by, both partners are working 8-10 hours per day for the paycheck and then coming home to another 2-3 hours of domestic work. It's fucking exhausting and there isn't time to focus on quilting, whittling, playing music, or any of the other fun and creative hobbies that my grandparents got to be into.
So these AIdiot tech bros come along and offer to sell you the feeling of doing those hobbies without having to spend the time or energy to actually do them? It's shitty, but I understand why a lot of people are taking that deal.
If you look at the history of work in the US though, there was only a short window of time that you had that extra time. Unless you were wealthy, your kids started to work at a very young age. Have you seen the pics of kids where they look like they could haggle with you and rob you? The teenage years are a relatively new concept.
Also, most of the boomer and older generations:
Yes, the goal is for everyone to get back to the lives of upper middle class, white men.
The middle class sprung out of a post war boom and the ruling class snatched that shit right back.
Oligarchs: Fine, then none of you poors will have it good!
But wait, there's more:
Houses cost so much that people don't have space to do hobbies they used to. There's no garage or shed to set up as a maker space or studio or to setup drums or a weaving loom or painting canvases.
Intensive parenting is now the norm and the expectation. Kids can't play in front of the house like they used to. They can't go out and knock on friend's doors and go to the playground without a parent from every household going along. The only time children can be left is with a screen, and you're a villain if you do that.
Expectation from romantic partners also comes into the mix. After all the time and energy drain from the things above, there is nothing left in the tank. My wife would then not be a happy camper if I told her I'm going to be in the garage for an hour for my creative hobby.
Some disposable income is also required (variable amount depending on which hobby you take up).
was there really time like that tho? just sounds like rose tinted glasses tbh. maybe because i'm not US based but people here were poor af back then and things got much better these days.
Anecdotally, my mother, father, and half my grandparents grew up solidly middle class in single-earner homes.
It depends on the place, but in some western countries this was true for a couple of decades for the upper middle class.