How is labour character building?

[Tom1351]

From my own experience, jobs (or I should say chores, really) with no real, visible, positive outcome, that demand a disproportionate amount of time and effort to complete, are boring. I'm talking about things like scrubbing dishes and peeling potatoes for hours on end without so much as a kind word from the other way.

People not on the recieving end usually justify these tasks with the phrase 'character building'. In what way is it character building? From what I see, the only character anyone could possibly gain from this is the desire to put too much effort into ultimately rewardless, thankless tasks.

I'm not talking about volunteering, for volunteering is incredibly rewarding in terms of positive experiences, thanks and a more mature outlook on life. I'm talking about being forced, conscripted if you will, into doing tasks that nobody else wants to do, and ebing happy about it because it is 'character building'.

It's like cross country running in schoolsin a way. If you want to do it, then good for you and I hope you enjoy it, but if you really don't want to do it, then it turns into a mind-numbingly boring modern flagellance, with no real short or long term positive outcome. Surely this justifies it, and other things like it, as a waste of time and effort, which could be used for much better things like learning skills and practicing hobbies, or maybe learning in schools or putting effort into more tangible, rewarding, useful things, rather than character building.

My question, ultimately, is this: how is a character well suited to letting authority trample over it for no reason other than just because better than a character that is happy, with a large and diverse skill set and well adapted to becoming or being a functioning member of society?

TL;DR Why are chores justified as character building if the character is simply being happy to bend over and take it without reason or complaint?

/15 year old's rant

 

[aba1]

They teach you that life isnt always easy and that your going to have to do hard work so you have to learn to suck it up n stop being a baby. It also teaches you the value of labour you have to earn what you get when you are on your own. Also running had alot of great positive outcomes on your body.

Honestly you sound like a little kid who can't stand that he actually had to pull a little weight for once.

edit: I guess you are just a kid you'll grow up eventually.

 

[blaqknoise]

They teach you that life isnt always easy and that your going to have to do hard work so you have to learn to suck it up n stop being a baby. It also teaches you the value of labour you have to earn what you get when you are on your own. Also running had alot of great positive outcomes on your body.

Honestly you sound like a little kid who can't stand that he actually had to pull a little weight for once.

And I think this is the end of the thread.

 

[thiosk]

Nobody likes chores. When you are wealthy and powerful, you can hire people to do them for you, or have children and make the kids do them for you. Until then, wash the gosh-darn dishes already.

 

[HardkorSB]

People not on the recieving end usually justify these tasks with the phrase 'character building'. In what way is it character building? From what I see, the only character anyone could possibly gain from this is the desire to put too much effort into ultimately rewardless, thankless tasks.

I think it's like this:
If you can do it with a lot of effort for no reward than you can do things that do reward you with even more effort.

 

[manythings]

Job = food

 

[Llil]

At least with peeling potatoes, it teaches you to do a bit of research and do this:
I'm sure you could figure out more efficient ways to do other chores too. So basically, it teaches you to find inventive ways to get away form doing stuff you don't like to do.

 

[Speakercone]

Forget 'character building'. It's an old victorian idea based on a form of muscular christianity whereby sport and hard work was considered to cause a young person to grow up to be a good christian with an accurate moral compas. Considering it was the victorians, I'd say that idea fails right about the time of child labour in factories being socially acceptable.

The idea that hard work builds this nebulous concept of 'character' isn't worth much. However, as indicated in the above comments, hard work is just what you have to do in life. If things need to get done, you need to do them. When you live on your own, you'll find that it's not very nice living in a place where you haven't done the dishes or swept the floors in a month. So then you either hire a maid, or you take some pride in your own space and make sure it's tidy to whatever standard you like.

Since you live at home, consider that your family is not your maid and that your parents also don't feel like doing chores sometimes. If you learn to do your share without being asked, I'd say that qualifies as 'character', whatever that means.

 

[FernandoV]

Well, I dunno about the rest of you but my chores only extend to taking out the dog and doing general cleaning in the house (which I actually love doing). My parents have yet to requests potato peeling or wood chopping of me XD

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Forget 'character building'. It's an old victorian idea based on a form of muscular christianity whereby sport and hard work was considered to cause a young person to grow up to be a good christian with an accurate moral compas. Considering it was the victorians, I'd say that idea fails right about the time of child labour in factories being socially acceptable.

The idea that hard work builds this nebulous concept of 'character' isn't worth much. However, as indicated in the above comments, hard work is just what you have to do in life. If things need to get done, you need to do them. When you live on your own, you'll find that it's not very nice living in a place where you haven't done the dishes or swept the floors in a month. So then you either hire a maid, or you take some pride in your own space and make sure it's tidy to whatever standard you like.

Since you live at home, consider that your family is not your maid and that your parents also don't feel like doing chores sometimes. If you learn to do your share without being asked, I'd say that qualifies as 'character', whatever that means.

I'd take this a step farther and say the whole "value of hard work" thing comes from this as well. Hard work is not intrinsically valuable -- the value of hard work is in what it gets you. So, say, the value of peeling potatoes is in getting the potatoes peeled so you can cook and eat them, not something intrinsic in the effort you put out to get them peeled. This is just the remains of a form of social engineering which was intended to produce a tractable work force. Even though the notion is pretty well outdated today, people still cling to it.

 

[alandavidson]

It helps teach you that sometimes you have to work to get what you want. Stop whining kid.

 

[Gladiateher]

I dunno if this will help you or not but you should probably realize that these chores whether or not they build character still have value when completed. Your parents provide you with everything you need to survive. You may or may not realize it but your existence is incredibly expensive. When they ask you to perform a mundane task for them after they get home from eight hours of doing a mundane task for their boss is that so unreasonable? There are plenty of perks that come along with playing ball with your parents as well. Showing them that your a "good kid" will be incredibly useful when you are older and want to go out on the town as it were.

I hated doing the dishes too. I hope this strategy helps you as much as it did me. The easiest way to weasel out of doing the dishes it to request that your family members simply rinse their dishes off immediately after eating. If you have a dishwasher you can put the dishes right into it saving you all the real work. If not than you will still need to scrub them but at least you won't get dried ketchup and other debris on your hands. Just a little soap and a swirl of the brush. Try to appeal to your parents by saying things like "it would really help me if" or "I don't mind doing the dishes but I would really appreciate you doing one small thing for me". If you keep your composure and gently make your parents realize how logical this tactic is you'll save yourself alot of trouble. You gotta make sure not to lose composure over this though. Your parents will feel disgusted with you if they find that you break down over such a small issue.

Hit me back if you have any questions.

 

[mornal]

My dad tells me the reason he wants me to chores and the like is just so I know how shitty manual labour is and how desirable a white collar job is.

 

[2xDouble]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2680-Minecraft

Pretty much says it all.

 

[DEAD34345]

"Character building" does not exist. People who claim that something is "character building" either merely need an excuse to make you do something, or have been mislead into believing that "character building" exists by someone else. That pretty much sums up my opinion on the matter, and luckily I've very rarely come across anyone using that phrase. Also, thank god people aren't generally so stupid as to believe that bullying and other forms of harm are "character building" any more.

(Note: I don't mean that people's character does not build up over time, merely that no activity is inherently better than any other activity for causing this.)

 

[Disgruntled_peasant]

For a kid, yeah it teaches them the value of hard work as has been said.

For an adult, it seems like a rich guys way of saying "fuck you".

 

[Salad Is Murder]

"Character building" does not exist. People who claim that something is "character building" either merely need an excuse to make you do something, or have been mislead into believing that "character building" exists by someone else. That pretty much sums up my opinion on the matter, and luckily I've very rarely come across anyone using that phrase. Also, thank god people aren't generally so stupid as to believe that bullying and other forms of harm are "character building" any more.

(Note: I don't mean that people's character does not build up over time, merely that no activity is inherently better than any other activity for causing this.)

I don't think that's it at all. Sometimes, we have to do shit we don't want to do. Heck with sometimes, A LOT OF times we will have to do things we don't want to do. But the ability to see beyond your wants and needs and grasp the concept that this shit needs to get done, and then doing it...that is a character trait worthy of being built upon.

You don't believe that learning how to deal with bullies is a valuable life skill? You will need to know this shit, there are bullies all over the place and they're not always as overt as punching you for your lunch money.