I’ve worked at a lot of different places and in my experience it varies a lot.

Some bosses cut everybody slack. Some bosses are jerks and cut nobody any slack. I would say most of them play favorites with their employees (some are blatant about it, some are more subtle). Some bosses cut the workers with kids more slack. Some bosses cut the workers with kids less slack.

Anecdotal evidence is like that. It’s emotionally compelling, but doesn’t really tell us what’s going on in the bigger picture.

Yes, the pressure is immense and I suspect most would not miss it if they could just let it go and could experience life without it.

Reduce, reuse, recycle in that order of priority.

The economics of Christmas spending is mind boggling. It’s not a harmless once a year indulgence.

Thank you, I’m grateful for anyone who gets where I’m coming from with this.

That’s awesome, but let’s not ignore the billions in profits, and questionable spending, and plastic waste production that goes on every year because people feel cultural pressure to buy things for other adults. For every one thoughtful person like you, there’s a thousand buying junk nobody wants or needs.

Thank you for the adult perspective.

So, nobody should ever nudge others towards new behaviors or ideas? And how do you know who I do and don’t buy gifts for? Lot of assumptions here.

I don’t see it as that black and white. Kids get special treatment in many different contexts.

Thank you, well said.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hope (even if naively so) for a cultural shift away from the “Black Friday” mentality that taints the holidays.

I’m sorry you can’t distinguish materialism as distinctly different from celebrating with family and friends. Enjoy being brainwashed by ads.

I specified gifts. You can still enjoy the holiday without excessive unnecessary consumption.

I’ve only seen one of them up close in person and it was pretty cool, I do admit. But I still don’t want one for myself. Something about the whole thing just feels weird and off. I’d be constantly feeling like it was going to split apart from plastic fatigue if I had one.

I have no idea, but I really hope some genius on Lemmy creates a simulation of this fight so we can all have a great time watching it.

Might be that whatever subconscious processing that happened overnight is bubbling up. The mind, consciousness, and memory are all still mysterious. The more neuroscience learns about the brain, the weirder it seems to function.

Come on Lemmy, look at the name of the Community and stop downvoting honest questions, FFS. I don’t know about or care about TSwift and her billions, but there’s nothing wrong with the question that the OP posted.

I vote Democrat, but they’ve always been political pussies and policy wonks. The Republicans are macho meatheads. Unfortunately the latter’s optics tend to play better with our unsophisticated population, most of which couldn’t pass a basic civics test.

Please edit the title of your post and add “YSK” to the beginning of the title. Rule 1 of the community. Thanks.

“Dogs and cats sleeping together!”