The other day I was channel surfing on my television and came across the show Wife Swap. The topic of the episode was showing different sides of the rector scale (One with a modern lifestyle and lots of money and the other living the lifestyle of pilgrims).
One family live in a wood cabin in the forest with no modern appliances or even electricity. Living a green style life was very important to them. They went as far as the whole family bathing in the same bath water. They never flush the toilet and use a bucket of bath water to help the toilet flush. The mom said she hadn't shaved her armpits in weeks.
The point of this blog entry is that seeing the total opposite of modern life made me feel bad I was using electricity to light up my room, run my fish tank and to help me watch this show on television.
The wife of the other family was totally obsessed with appearance of herself and her house. She had the house built around a 10,000 dollar chandelier. The father worked as a computer software consultant and let the kids play on the computer whenever they wanted. The mom would spend over $500 just on the kids clothes during every mall visit. Contrasting the with the other family, they go to the thrift store and spend under $10.00 on used clothes. They wash them every two weeks and wear the same thing everyday. Without electricity, they would wear flashlight headbands to do everyday choirs and play boardgames.
They're family entertainment was making candles out fresh wax.Once the wives swapped places, hell broke loose in the homes. Each side were stern about changing the lifestyle of the other family. During the end of the episode, the modern family wife wired the Pilgrims home with electric lighting and bought the families daughters a digital camera. The daughters were frustrated that this new wife cared only about commercialism and rejected the camera. The father was angry about the electricity invading their home, it being a waste of energy. The father quickly unplugged all lights and threw them out the window; telling her to leave.
The episode trailer is below: Starting at 1:00 is shows what each wife thinks of their temporary new family lifestyle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXq0NCQb0eM
Basically, If you didn't have today's modern electricity or digital electronics, could you handle it?
What is your take on how each wife reacted to their temporary new lifestyle?
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