Women's shed to open in Adelaide's north

[davidc4430]

Women's shed to open in Adelaide's north to combat social isolation

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-07/womens-shed-opens-in-adelaides-north-to-combat-social-isolati...

the womens activities going by the pictures are a wee bit sexist

knitting, cooking, clothes and gardening.

lets hope they there are others subjects like house maintenance or car fixing.

the same goes for mens sheds should include doing/learning things normally done by women, cooking and cleaning.

i usually see men surrounded by machinery and tools in their mens shed.

a lot of those seeking out these places have lost their husband or wife and it would be good to see then getting help with day to day stuff their off sider would have been doing.

i think the shed idea is brilliant for lonely people.

[bright.ton42]

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:

If they knew her well they probably knew that she needed to be needed, to feel useful. If she was depressed she probably wouldn't have been interested in going just to be sociable, so they were clever and gave her a reason for wanting to go.  Depression often makes people feel worthless so they gave her a way to get back her self-esteem.  Merely inviting her along wouldn't have done that.

If you tell most depressed people that they need to get out and be with others, most of the time they're not interested because that's how depression affects you. Dale Carnegie in his book How To Stop Worrying and Start Living has a chaper on how to beat depression in 8 days and he gives examples of people who never wanted to do anything, but as soon as they were given something to do where they felt useful the depression disappeared. That's what obviously worked for this particular lady.

---

So well put brer.   For those with depression the thought of joining a new group where there are expectations ....... of being chatty,  of talking about yourself a bit when you just don't want to,  of exceeding your comfort zon,e can be an almost insurmountable challenge.  To be a busy 'tea lady'  helped her to feel safe.

btw I read Dale Carnegie's book when I was 18,  many moons ago when I had not the slightest idea of  how to overcome severe shyness  and lack of self worth and it was a kind of epiphany.  that did wonders for me.  As a self help book I think it still has huge relevance today. 

[brerrabbit585]

I didn't discover his book until I was nearing 40 but he wrote it in the 1930s and it'll always be relevant. It was the first 'self help' book I read (other than the bible) and I had no idea such books existed. I've read some really fantastic ones since then. Unfortunately a lot that are printed aren't worth the paper they're printed on (would have been better used for toilet paper) but there are some real gems out there.

[lyhargr_0]

I would like to read this book, so I have placed it on order at my local library

[davidc4430]

i think mens sheds and womens sheds should be side by side

so if a woman needs a mans help she can just pop into the mens shed and ask if anyone can help with fixing a tap washer or whatever.

and a man might need some sewing done, trousers shortened or curtains altered.

he could pop into the womens shed and ask.

lucky for me my mum taught me to use the sewing machine, i couldnt run up a wedding dress but i can shorten my strides and shorten some cutains.