5-minute freewrite Day 748 prompt: retirement
Some people don't handle retirement well. My neighbor, age 78, says she feels rather useless these days, without a job to go to. She lives with her granddaughter's family, and they don't want her to do very much around the house. So she has too much time on her hands. My husband retired in 2016, and I think he really misses the human interaction. He doesn't think he misses it, but I would say he needs it. Even the introvert-iest introvert needs to be around other people now and then. He is turning into a hermit. His job didn't require him to constantly be around other people, just a little bit, and it was enough for him. And it gave him something else to think about besides himself and his own problems. Now he doesn't have any new thoughts or ideas or conversations to mull over, because he just hides at home all the time. That doesn't seem healthy to me.
Although I have a teaching degree, I have been a homemaker much of my adult life. It is a full time job, especially since I also spent 20 years home-schooling our three children. I suppose that was a career of sorts, but it isn't one from which a person officially retires. A homemaker never gets to retire, because shopping, dishes, laundry, cleaning, and cooking go on forever.
I think we're a lot more contented when we have a reason to get up in the morning. You homeschooled three kids...I take my hat off to you!
It wasn't an easy task, but I don't regret having done it. I am proud of all three of my grown-up children. They all succeeded with higher education and have good careers. Their lives are not without complications, but that's life!
I myself love being retired. It's like an open ended life style. If we want to be around people, there is always the shopping and watching what others buy, or the occasional dine out meal in the restaurant. (Usually a soup and salad pre dinner meal, they are not real expensive). Eaves dropping on the other customers talking about their co-workers, reminding me why I like being retired. I know a lot of people have a hard time adapting to being able to do what they want when they want. Fifty to sixty years plus of leading a structured life is a hard thing to overcome, and to settle into an open-ended life where it is all about what you want to do.
I am glad you are enjoying retirement! Most people I know really do enjoy it.
Great thoughts about retirement and the need for human interaction and how retirement affect that @scribblingramma, and hats off to you for homeschooling three kids, it's awesome.
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