Now we need parenting recipe from a farm!
Tume’s customers’ busiest sowing season is behind us. Year after year for the entire organization, this time is stressful, but at the same time also grateful. We at Tume live strongly according to our values together with our customers. When using machinery, something always happens, and when it happens, you have to hurry. The customer must not be left alone in trouble under any circumstances, and once again I can proudly state that the Tume service workers handled the job honorably. Our aftercare works great and our customer satisfaction is second to none! Of course, there must be a healthy humility, the level of doing could always be improved and again we also have a list of things we need to do! I think that continuous development is our responsibility and at the same time our duty towards our customers! A totally complete machine that can not be developed has still not been made anywhere.
While pondering this writing, my mind wandered to deeper thoughts. I was startled to realize how little responsibilities are generally discussed. In my opinion, nowadays we prefer to emphasize different rights and freedoms, which of course are also extremely important. So what is the cause of this? Is it the case that today’s social media and constant presence through the mobile phone easily creates pressure on some people, especially youngsters, that “there should always be something worth publishing.” I bet this is also one big reason for growing depression and anxiety problems. We want to alleviate this problem by emphasizing freedoms and rights and the fact that every person is allowed to be who they are. This has a good purpose, and this is certainly how it should go, but I am concerned to see where this kind of thinking is taking us at the social level. Nowadays, we are really good at giving advice to other people, how to e.g. on global warming issues we need to do this and this. Issues are nominally justified by the responsibility and obligation to bring problems to the fore, but at the same time, personal rights and freedoms are again emphasized in one’s own actions. You can get some strict instructions, for example, from someone who lives in a coal-heated house or secretly eats foreign junk food in the drive-thru of a foreign fast food chain. It’s enough for them if someone else grows their forests correctly in their opinion. So there’s no need to criticize your own doing so much. When this is pointed out in public discussions, people get anxious and go around the circle again. This is becoming unfortunately common.
I dare say that children who grew up on a farm have comparatively much less of the problems mentioned above! So why is it that they generally do well in life? I have also often heard it said that children who grew up on a farm are good workers. They often take initiative and understand more easily how their own actions affect any entity. I think the biggest reason is that from an early age they have had to do something for the common home. So they have been given responsibilities and duties! They respect nature and have learned to live together with it despite adversity. With today’s data connections, they have access to the same information as everyone else, so they are no longer “backroom people”. From the point of view of our society as a whole, these kinds of people will be worth more than gold to us in the future, because even fewer of these children who grew up on farms will be born in the future. In some way, that cultivated common sense should be instilled in others as well!
As the father of two children who are approaching their teenage years, I often find myself introspecting about these same parenting challenges. Which parent wouldn’t want to emphasize their child’s freedoms and rights. Hopefully as many people would remember to teach that in addition to those, each of us also has the responsibilities and obligations that ensure a safe growth environment. They don’t just apply to, for example, compulsory education or military service, they apply to everyday life and how exactly we manage to get that food on the table. Ultimately, we ourselves are responsible of ourselves, and I think this responsibility is our duty! Of course, you don’t have to bear this responsibility alone, that’s what loved ones and friends or colleagues in the working world are for! Somehow, I think in this isĀ crystallized the doctrine that the children of the farm environment learn by themselves. I think that this parenting recipe should be applied more than now, so society would run better! What do you think?
July is our holiday month at Tume. Of course, you can see us at various events, but the factory workers spend their well-deserved vacation days. It’s good to spend them, for example, grilling responsibly grown Finnish food. It’s not an obligation, but everyone has the freedom and right to do so. š
For my part, I would like to wish an enjoyable midsummer and a good summer to our customers, staff and partners!
Jorma LƤhetkangas
Managing director, Tume-Agri Oy
