Glad I raised a family yours ago-- - Page 8

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

I don't understand the modern trend to dislike china and then haul home tons of holiday decor to be dusted and stored.

I can't think why one set of 12 place settings of china takes up tons of space. I can't think why people wouldn't enjoy a pretty table setting for a special meal or for guests. Especially today when there is so much emphasis on updating homes and paint colors and decor. Then you want to NOT have a pretty table setting? Don't get it.

Most modern china goes in the dishwasher. There are lots of beautiful glasses that aren't crystal, but lovely glass in clear and every color under the rainbow.

To me, it's a special thing and about making guests feel special. I think we need a lot more of that in this world. So what's wrong with that? I don't understand the negative feelings about good dishes.

We were dirt poor but we had a set of "special" (cheap) dishes for company. We were always excited to get them out and happy that people were going to eat on the "good" dishes! And the pretty green TG&Y glasses. We never took for granted that we were able to do that.

Maybe it's because I was raised poor that those things are dear to me.

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

"Pretty" doesn't have to be China, nor does it have to be expensive.

Marienkaefer2 · ‎03-09-2010

@jaxs mom wrote:
What is it about so many of the posters here that you're so threatened by people living their lives differently than you did? Why are so many closed minded that other people can live lives of joy and value and have different priorities than you have?

@jaxs mom

Wow, I was just about to write something similar to this!

It seems like the real issue for some people is that not everyone does things the way "they" do.

Perhaps years ago, more people "conformed." There was "a way" you were supposed to be. Everybody had "good china" for example.

But a lot of those types of things have gone by the wayside as people decide what works best for THEM.

Live and let live. If one person loves fancy china and silverware at a holiday party, go for it. I love it too.

If another person uses paper plates and plastic forks, I'll have fun there, too.

It's the people that make it, not the trappings.

Now, if we're talking only about technology, I agree that people sometimes seem a bit wrapped up in it.

But that also is something that we can do nothing about, except within our own families perhaps.

In other words, that Pandora's box is open, and it's not closing.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

jaxs mom · ‎04-18-2012

I love china and bought my first set in my early 20s as a single woman. I've used it every day since, and added a few more sets to my collection.

My issue is with the hand wringing that people are making a different choice and have different priorities. And yes, the OP did make negative assumptions about a whole generation of parents and children.

Don't Change Your Authenticity for Approval

Starpolisher · ‎03-10-2010

As far as the China goes. I suppose it depends on your taste. As @q-girl and @Tsukiko say you have to be happy in your own space. I for one do not like the open concept or great room. I do not like that when people enter the house they see all the living space. I love my formal dining and living rooms and my separate family room.

I also do not like some of the new homes where you enter into the dining room. I do however, wish I had the large walk in closets and spa like bathrooms! Woo..hoo!🙌

"Kindness is like snow ~It beautifies everything it covers"
-Kahlil Gibran

Frau K · ‎02-02-2015

I inherited my MIL's melamine plain beige dinner plates. I cherish them. They are so retro. Other than that it's plain, white Corelle. My daughter already said she wanted everything in my house. Especially my large collection of Halloween decorations! She's very sentimental I guess.

Hayfield · ‎03-10-2010

Family is still very important to most people, at least to my friends and my relatives, it's just different but I will leave you with a quote from Socrates (469-399 BC)

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders & love chatter in place of exercise.

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@golding76 wrote:
Something just hit me! In regard to the end of my post on page 6, perhaps your grandchildren will want your "stuff." As we know, the pendulum always swings. (Remember the minimalist, out-in-nature weddings of the '60s that gave way to the opulent weddings of the '80s? Yes, both sorts were available in the '60s and the '80s, but each decade had a "look.")

I did not like my mother's taste in china or silver, but I adored my grandmother's taste, as I wrote on page 6. Maybe our children will agree to be "caretakers" for the succeeding generation (their children) who just might swing back to other side and want things that are beautiful, more specifically, our beautiful things. No one knows which way this will go.

Honestly, I liked my grandmother's taste in furniture and decor more than my own mother's. I loved my mother but not her taste in those objects. Maybe wanting objects/not wanting objects will skip a generation, too.

Totally O/T, @golding76, but I just wanted to make sure that you knew that you could change your settings to see 50 posts per page if you wanted to. I do that, and I find it much more convenient.

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

@Marienkaefer2 wrote:
@jaxs mom wrote:
What is it about so many of the posters here that you're so threatened by people living their lives differently than you did? Why are so many closed minded that other people can live lives of joy and value and have different priorities than you have?

@jaxs mom

Wow, I was just about to write something similar to this!

It seems like the real issue for some people is that not everyone does things the way "they" do.

Perhaps years ago, more people "conformed." There was "a way" you were supposed to be. Everybody had "good china" for example.

But a lot of those types of things have gone by the wayside as people decide what works best for THEM.

Live and let live. If one person loves fancy china and silverware at a holiday party, go for it. I love it too.

If another person uses paper plates and plastic forks, I'll have fun there, too.

It's the people that make it, not the trappings.

Now, if we're talking only about technology, I agree that people sometimes seem a bit wrapped up in it.

But that also is something that we can do nothing about, except within our own families perhaps.

In other words, that Pandora's box is open, and it's not closing.

@Marienkaefer2, @jaxs mom,

Brava, ladies.

It isn't just on this forum, but we see a surprising amount of it here.

People who seem to have serious difficulty accepting or tolerating anything that's different from their (often pretty narrow) frame of reference. Manners, morals, ways to speak, ways to dress, child-rearing, electronic devices, Medicine, taste, possessions, ways to take a breath - you name it, someone will be complaining about how it isn't "their way/their preference/their POV" and therefore, society, the current younger generations and just anyone and anything they don't like are reason for a slap at some group, or theoretical group, because it's not "their way."

And people wonder why Boomers and those older can have the reputation of being old fuddy-duddies. That's exactly why.

Live and let live. What others do in their own homes, with their own families, is no one else's concern.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all

GenXmuse · ‎05-15-2016

The older I get I cherish more and more the traditions of my mother and grandmother. I never thought dishes would mean that much to me being the "sensible" person I am about collecting "stuff" but now I feel an urgency to preserve these for myself and to pass on an appreciation to my children.

Of course, it had to take me to my 40s to really start feeling a need for preservation and not everyone will. But setting the table is satisfying to me.

As with everything, your mileage may vary.