You know, it continually boggles my mind about how some people complain about the slightest things. "I don't feel like doing the dishes." "I don't want to go to school; it's stupid." "My parents are dumb." "My life sucks."

Why do we complain? Is it easier for us to just whinge and moan negatively about what sucks in our life instead of positively acknowledging the fact that we're a hell of a lot luckier than others?

Take a look into my life for a night: I have a mother who constantly complains about how tired or sore she is, which must mean that I have to cook, wash the dishes, clean, do laundry, and everything most parents are typically known for, all the while pulling A+ marks out of my behind in school. When I don't oblige to washing the dishes, she screams about how badly she wants a dishwasher. When I don't oblige to do the laundry, it's a big deal (there are many things she screams and complains about with that one). I know that when I go out into the real world, all of those things become a part of my life - and I have done it all before. I've cleaned bathrooms, I've swept, vacuumed and mopped floors, I've done dishes many times and I've done my own laundry before - which I think is all fun and games because that's just the way I am. If anything, I almost enjoy house work when I'm home alone and there's nothing better for me to do.

So why is it that parents with teenagers - who are being bogged down by the stresses of drama, school and making plans for living out on their own - are increasingly becoming more and more impatient with their kids? When did this all start? I don't know about you and how your parents react to so-called "laziness", but my mother reacts horribly to it. It simply amazes me when my mother complains about a lot of the things that I don't do, and when I do finally get around to building up enough energy and do minimal cleaning, she overlooks it and not a day later complains that whatever I cleaned has become a pig sty.

And why is it that parents complain to others about paying bills and cooking and cleaning? Even single mothers or fathers with an only child complain about cooking!

The point that I'm trying to get to here is, why is it that the majority of us complain about the most smallest things when we have all that we need? Think about it: I'm sure that most of us that are reading this has just finished a hearty supper and will be sleeping in a bed with more-or-less clean sheets later tonight, all the while protected from the bitter cold of winter, with some heaters running somewhere in whatever we live in. It is my strongest belief that if we have a roof over our head and food on the table - note that it's on a table and not a floor - and a bed to sleep in at night, we should be happy. We should be almost overjoyed about the position we're in.

Now, I understand that a lot of North Americans who become homeless randomly choose to become homeless - why? some of us will never know - but if you think about the poorer countries who have shacks, not even houses, that are built out of straw or leaves or whatever they could find, and they don't even have clean water or a proper bed to sleep in at night, you momentarily become content that you're not in that position. (For some reason, I think a lot of us should relearn what the definition and the difference is between clean water and dirty water.)

So my question to you is, why is that we complain if we don't have a dishwasher, or our parents took away our cell phone, or we have kids who seemingly don't do anything around the house? Why can't we be happy and joyful about what we have, instead of upset and angry about what we lack? So what if we don't have a dishwasher? At least we have the tools, ready whenever we need it, to wash our dishes clean with so when we use them next, we don't have the risk of eating from moldy plates? So what if our parents have taken away our cell phones? There's a lesson to be learned in that, and hey - at least you have a cell phone. So what if your teenager doesn't do anything around the house? They probably have better things to do before they hit out on the real world and experience what it's like to be a responsible adult instead of an easy-going teenager.

You can't stay unhappy forever, anyway, and you have to find joy in something. And maybe, when that time comes and you do realize that what you have is enough and there's nothing short in your home, things will start looking a heck of a lot better than when they did thirty minutes ago.