This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Put The "Thanks" Back in Thanksgiving

   What happened to the "Thanks" in Thanksgiving? As a bargain hunter I love the idea of crazy sales, getting all those great gifts for the ones I love at a great price. A price I may not be able to afford if not on sale.  In fact the first Thanksgiving that I had my son I actually caved and went to a Toys R US midnight sale on Thanksgiving. It was actually a great night . My mom came with me and we laughed the whole entire time, got great deals and honestly it is a memory that I will keep with me forever. Not what we bought (although I do remember what we did buy) but the memory of hanging out with my mom and doing something that is in a word, insane.

              Read More...

     It is INSANE to spend a holiday evening waiting on line to go into a store to give them your money.  It is INSANE to leave the comfort of your home and camp out in the hopes of buying something that you don't need. Yes you may want it, but those are two entirely different things. And what about the people that have to work those insane hours? That have to leave their family and friends to be at that store so you can get fifty percent off an object that if you didn't have you would survive without.  Why are they working  instead of being able to stay at home with their loved ones? Why are we letting this happen? What's worse is that we are not only letting it happen we are encouraging it. Every year the hours get earlier and earlier and every year there are people lining up to shop. It's insane, it's unhealthy and more than that, it is a sad reflection on us as a society.

Find out what's happening in Malverne-Lynbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

     As for Walmart paying their employees well and having to do what they do to keep the company going and therefore being able to employee millions of people, I say pish posh. My sixty something year old mother in law worked for Walmart. She has bad knees and can't really lift that much. One Christmas Eve they had her unloading trucks until 2:30 in the morning.  On Thanksgiving they had her come in at 1am. And this was a compromise. They would have had this GRANDMOTHER miss holidays with her family entirely; she negotiated to have this schedule. Now I ask you, would you want your mother to do this? Would the CEO's and upper management want their mothers to do this? NO.

     Now call this ageism, but when I was a youngin (I mean I still am....I'm not OLD) I worked the odd shifts, I worked holidays in my early twenties, I did it willingly, I even had a great time working Thanksgiving at Starbucks (before they were open all day) with my co-workers and the customers. It was fun and I didn't mind doing it so that the mother of four could have the day off. No grandmother should have to work a midnight shift on a holiday-where are all the young people? Why was it necessary to have a sixty something woman who had three children- five grandchildren and has health issues stay on Christmas Eve to unload a truck?  If you go out for these sales, this is the kind of company you are supporting. This is the kind of company you are giving your money to this Thanksgiving.  Now I am targeting Walmart because it is a story that is close to my family. We experienced it, and I know what you are all thinking, How could you LET your mother in law work that shift. Well we didn't want to, in fact I wanted to march right up to that store and tell them all where to go, but she didn't want to. She liked to work, she wanted to keep her job so she did what she was asked. But that doesn't make it right

Find out what's happening in Malverne-Lynbrookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?