What we Have

I realized something the other day. I was thinking about how much we have and how much we pay for other things and for people to do things for us. I was thinking about how my father had time to change his own oil on his car. My mother had time to sew clothing for us and to make dinner almost every night.

Today, instead of doing these things, we take our cars into the mechanic (because, even if we knew how and could, we no longer have the time to change our own oil). We hire someone to clean our homes (because we don't have time to do it). We go to restaurants to eat dinner and lunch and breakfast (because we don't have time to make it).

Certainly we work more than those of my parents generation. I am wondering though, where and how this cycle started. What does it do that we no longer do those chores that I suspect no one really liked any way but just pay someone else to do them? Does it give us more peace to do that or does it just create greater impatience with all the rest of the tasks and challenges that come our way that we don't want to deal with?