(no subject)

[naath]

So I've seen a lot of people complaining about some stupid thing about lazy benefits-scroungers with closed curtains and aren't they lazy. People have made many points about, eg, disabled people who need a lot more sleep because of their disability and shift workers who are not benefit claimants but who might be asleep at noon because they were working all night.

But also...

I got up at 0800 this morning and although it was daylight out the daylight was insufficiently good at penetrating the house, so I needed to put the lights on. I don't like having lights on and curtains open (it makes looking in very easy)... so I didn't open the curtains.

So lets say it's a work-day morning and I get up at 0700 (LOL, but lots of people do); it is dark out so I put on a light, scarf down breakfast, pull on clothes, grab bag and head out (turning off the light). Now my curtains are all shut - so I'm still snoozing? no! I'm at work 60 miles away (only reason I can think of for being up at ungodly hour).

In fact I venture to suggest that people with *open* curtains in their houses are the ones who are lazy snoozers-in; like me - I don't actually get up until 0830 on a work day by which time opening the curtains is sufficient to give me the light I need so I open them.

So if I were job-hunting I could get up at 0800 and go out to do job-hunting things; leaving my curtains closed because opening them would be useless... or I could snooze in to 0900 and then get up and open my curtains, and sit around in my living room playing PS2 games.

Also I think that victim-blaming police types think we should keep our lounge curtains closed so thieving types can't see our Valuable Lounge Stuff through the window! And I think closed curtains probably keep the heat in better too (especially when sun isn't shining on the window; which most of the day it is not on ours).

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE LOGIC of this "your curtains are closed at 1100 so I will shame you" nonsense. Even if it has slipped your mind that some people work shifts or that many people who are unable to worth through disability are also unable to get up and out in the morning for non-work tasks... Which of course you should not forget! HORRIBLE PEOPLE.

Comments

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I've late to this as usual, but I completely agree with you on every point. When I have to wake the boys up for school, I open their curtains so the daylight (such as it is at the moment!) helps them wake up. But when they wake themselves up, they come out of their rooms themselves leaving their curtains closed and in the rush to get off to school in time I don't see a good reason to take the time to go and open them. So even for my primary-age children open curtains is a sign of greater laziness, and closed curtains a good sign that we'll get to school nice and promptly.

That aside, I often keep curtains shut when I am not in the rooms (especially bedroom) in the winter to keep the warmth in and the summer to keep the sun/heat out. *And* most days I have to have a nap at some point while the boys are at school because my ME/CFS dictates it if I am to decently perform my job of being a good mother the rest of the time, which of course does not respect standard office-work hours. (Of course, these are the sort of people who both look down on sahms as scroungers who should be doing a 'proper job' *and* at the same time bewail the death of the 'traditional family' and probably think a woman's place is in the kitchen, but that a whole 'nother rant.) So, yeah :-(