I recently saw a post by a young woman on Instagram that said something like, "Let's normalize running errands with friends instead of $85 dinners when we want to hang out."
I felt that in my soul.
Last year I helped a friend who just got back into her house after four months of hotel living due to burst pipes. We folded and displayed her quilts, organized her spices, and decided on paint colors for a kitchen table and chairs.
Instead of it being tiring and tedious which that kind of work often is it was fun and the work was divided. We were twice as happy and only half as tired.
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. Ecclesiastes 4:9
Modern living has made each person responsible for all the work outside and inside the home. Our mothers and grandmothers had women to go to the grocery store with and it was common to get together to accomplish a large project like canning or quilting.
Nothing says I love you like "want to go to Costco with me?"
A few months ago while rambling around YouTube I ran across "clean with me videos." Millenial homemakers are cleaning their houses and posting it. You might think "who would want to watch that? Well apparently tens of thousands of people! If I'm feeling distracted and unmotivated or just plain lazy I'll put one of these videos.
I cannot explain why within a minute or two I am up busily doing all the chores I've been putting off. Is it possible that the appeal of these videos is that they are a virtual version of women working together? They have huge numbers of viewers so they are connecting and filling something that's missing in our modern world.
There has to be a way to spend time together that is both cheaper and more productive that lunch and shopping. Standing in line at the post office chatting with a friend is bound to be more fun that wasting time with strangers all silently glued to their phones. The grocery is another opportunity. Any and all crafting and decorating projects. Putting in the garden, weeding, harvesting. Basically anything we have to do would be more fun with a friend to laugh with while we get it done.
Maybe it's time we normalize working together instead of squeezing our female relationships into free time which may never materialize.