Bed Rotting

This term startled me when I came across it this week.  Apparently popularized on Tik Tok, college students and young professionals seek this method of relaxing and coping with stress.   Kristi McDermott in the London Economic reports that:

“Essentially, bed rotting is a remix of an existing concept: the duvet day.  While older workers are likely to be conversant with the idea of an ad hoc day in which they can ditch work and veg out, Gen Z has given the idea of a self-care spin.

“Duvet days are a defined benefit which many companies offer as part of a wider employee package, and while your boss isn’t likely to give you a free day off to rot in bed anytime soon, the idea remains the same.”

McDermott suggests that the pandemic helped create the circumstances that gave rise to this, citing that Gen Z, having been initiated into working remotely, missed many cues about office protocol, opportunities for mentoring, feedback, and camaraderie.  This contributed to feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed as a result. She reports UK workers took a total of 23.3 million sick days last year due to poor mental health. Burnout is at an all-time high. 

While I applaud self-care and can appreciate a day in bed simply relaxing, reading, napping, as a routine means of coping this seems questionable.  I recall in my final semester of college, I went to bed every chance I got, escaping into sleep.  I was quite frightened of the adult world and the responsibilities I would be assuming for myself.  I approached my advisor, suggesting that I might stay for a graduate degree in Family Relations and Child Development.  My advisor, knowing my plan had been to eventually get a Master’s in Social Work in order to work as a therapist, said “You can do that, but you will never be able to do with that degree what you will be able to do with an MSW.”  So I gathered up my courage and began to seek employment and housing.

This week I saw a sign that said, “Our parents never told us that growing up was a trap.”  I found it humorous and yet somehow disheartening.  My avoidance of accepting adult challenges in my senior year pales in comparison to the current trend that seems to cower in the face of “adulting,” the term that is frequently bandied about.  Something deeper than the reluctance I felt in college seems imbedded in the notion of “adulting,” a sense that growing up is repulsive. At a time when we so need mature people who can think and behave rationally, this trend does not serve us well, individually or collectively.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Hope’s Café Bonus: You deserve something to give you a smile after this blog.  “Growing up is a barbarous business, full of inconvenience and pimples.”  Captain Hook, in Peter Pan.