volvoxvsmarla

So Idk where you guys live and how your self checkouts look but here is my German perspective.

1. If I need a new gas cylinder I have to exchange it at the cashier's
2. If I buy alcohol or cigarettes I also have to get my ID checked. The self checkout will then be put on pause until some worker shows up and realizes I am well in my 30s. I can also not buy things like razorblades at self checkout.
3. Often the stuff will be weighted to ensure I put it in the bag and not more or less. When I buy something light, think a small back of herbs of like 15 grams, the scale doesn't realize it and again a problem occurs and a worker has to come
4. If I make a mistake like scanning twice I cannot cancel and again a worker has to come
5. It usually is a much more crammed space. I don't even need a whole trolley for it to become uncomfortable. More than 5-10 items just don't work because I have no space. Putting everything out of the trolley on the conveyor belt, getting it scanned, and then putting it back in the trolley is much easier.
6. If there are any items with a sale (30% off because BB date is approaching) I cannot scan this and again a worker needs to come.
7. I am not as fast. Not only because it is not a conveyor belt and I am not sitting at a scanner deck, but also I am just slower than a cashier who knows the code for fairtrade bananas and the avocados from spain but not from peru by heart. It's my first time scanning this can of beans, where is the bar code? While it is 9 am and the cashier has already scanned this can of beans 25 times today. (8. In some supermarkets my kid gets a free fruit which it not necessary but I find super cute. This is only a thing at the cashier's)

All I have to say is "hello", "card please", and "good day". And I can also just wave these things. So yeah, I am absolutely standing in line if it is possible. It is so much faster and more convenient and going to self checkout to then get an error code and wait for help to arrive for 10 minutes is absolutely not worth it. (Looking at you, cursed Rewe in Munich). Then I also have to explain what's the problem much more embarrassingly than any "hi thanks yeah with card please have a great day you to bye" conversation could ever be.

Edit: I just thought of an important 9.

9. I feel so much more anxious and pressured in the self checkout. How fast I am done with scanning, paying, and packing things up depends entirely on me. And I feel the stares of the people in line at self checkout stabbing my back. Telling me to hurry. I try to be fast but the more I try the more I fuck up. So for all the folks who don't like cashiers because of social interaction, don't you feel the angst of the line?

I know I'm in the minority

Dude look around the comment section. 90% talk about prefering self checkout

I remember looking up plant based milk alternatives and being surprised how well almond milk does in environmental impact. I think it was battling oats and soy, and depending on the source, the first/second/third place were changing. Iirc the explanation was that you actually need really little almonds to make a liter of almond milk.

Rice, coconut, cashew etc all had a worse environmental impact, but of course, everything was better than cow's milk.

(Mind you, it might have been that I used a German source for that, I'm going to try to look it up again.)

Thank you so much!! I wish I had more stuff to post but I'll try 🫠 I think the guilt tripping is working

Thank you!

Here's an anecdote: When I studied abroad, I met a guy who was in his master's program for psychology, and he wasn't convinced that phobias were a real thing and not something else. Some day, we tried to get home to the dorm through the rain in the dark, and he eventually ended up carrying me home. Before we said good night, he told me that he now has finally seen someone with a phobia, and now believes they are a real thing.

I am actually scared of all wormy creatures, ie long, no vertebrate, no legs or more than 10. That also means I am scared of bugs and flies, not because I am scared of them - I am scared of their kids. (I haven't taken the trash out in 8 years or so.)

And to me it makes only sense. I cannot understand how others aren't scared to death. I cannot explain what it is, I can tell you this: it is not just disgust. It is not just their form or smth. It's a genuine fear. I get tense just writing about this. I would never do therapy because to me the thought of being ok with it is not appealing. I don't want to be ok with it. Fuck that. Y'all should do therapy to realize that you're crazy for being ok with it. (I'm joking, I know that's wrong, but this is 100% how it feels.) I would rather chop off my arm than touch it. I would, and I mean this, rather let my mother die, than touch it. I regularly reevaluate these statements and they are still true.

I am fine with snakes and spiders tho lol.

I live in Germany so they are even in cities :(

Yeah the soil thing is difficult for me. I just wish there was a healthy world without any kind of ~ thing. I love the idea of gardening, planting my own food and stuff, but it takes about 20 minutes in nature for me to realize that is a fantasy self. I like nature, I just don't want to be around it. At all.

Well that can be less of a wonder and more of a curse. I have a very huge phobia of earthworms, and I can see them very well. People who know me well go outside and are like "it's all clear, I checked!" and then I go outside and I see them everywhere.

I also get "Oh just don't look down" by people who I tell this to all the time. Like, sure, stepping on that will totally be ok as long as I don't see it? That's not how this works.

Same goes for these stupid tiny green caterpillars hanging from trees. You wear hats to protect yourself from the sun. I wear them as head condoms against these fuckers. But the truth is I see them from miles away. Miss me with that shit.

I 👏 want 👏 more 👏 girl 👏 content 👏

To be clear - I am talking about stereotypically "female" subjects, not about the gender itself, and I hope it goes without saying that I want people of all genders to be part of it. Some topics over on reddit are full of guys, NBs, and everyone else, but are what a bigoted 90s teacher would call "female" topics. I want more stuff of what that 90s teacher would call "girly" stuff.

I mean, something like a makeup community. Maybe skincare and fashion. Cleaning tips. Pre and post and peri pregnancy content. The parenting community on lemmy is super quiet. There is a sewing community but it is rather quiet too. I haven't found a mending focused community yet. Boy there even isn't a sailor moon community, like 😭 come on

I'm horrible in creating any content tho, so uhm, not sure I should be complaining.

The problem in this thread seems to be that children are seen as one homogenous group of people between ages 0 to 17. And you can either send you 5 year old to NYC without any technology by themselves, or check your 17 year old's location 24/7. Forget about any kind of in between.

Like, of course I am "surveilling" my 3 year old, I am literally obligated to. I do this with my own eyes or leave them in the care of a capable person, although depending on the situation (relative, babysitter, daycare) it is still me who is liable when something happens.

I am happy to leave my 8 year old rumble around freely as long as they return home by a time that we agreed on. We can very well also agree on them calling if they won't make it home by the agreed time, and if they don't call or pick up their phone within an additional 30 minutes, I will check their location. This can be a known and agreed upon checking. And it is about mutual trust. I trust my kid at a certain age to be responsible and keep track of time, and be available by phone (unless otherwise agreed or if they don't have a phone to begin with), as well as be where we agreed they would be, without checking. And I hope my kid will also trust me to keep up my side of the agreement. I won't check unless it's past return time and you are not picking up your phone.

This mutual trust is important in families. You deserve privacy, even if you are a kindergartener. This privacy will expand with age. This is like hiding your locked diary or leaving an open diary on your desk. You should not feel the need to hide it because I for sure won't look at it. It is yours. Similarly, you can roam around freely even with an airtag. This thing is not for daily use.

Now, does my 17 year old need an airtag? To me they are basically an adult. Hell knows I had all the freedom in the world at that age. If they feel safer knowing I could check on them when they are on a night out, maybe we can keep a similar agreement as above. But otherwise it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

Born and raised in Germany, I have been a foreigner for 33 years. They had finally changed the ruling about double citizenship, and I was finally ready to apply. But this whole Israel stance is such a disgrace. So far I have not handed an application in, I feel too ashamed. I cannot imagine wanting to join a tribe that does what it does right now.

Right now the front page of the state news features that a hamas video was released and shows the hostages being very thin. I am raging. Yes it is awful. But you have thousands of starving children in Gaza. And you're doing this on purpose. Hundreds of thousands of people dead, the rest has such a trauma, if they miraculously make it out alive, the trauma will epigenetically be passed on for generations and generations to come. And somehow your focus is still on 50 people? On poor Israel?

I'm a meat eater. I like meat. I consider myself someone who eats meat regularly. That means I eat, like, one slice of ham and 5 köttbular in a month. And I might treat myself to a salad with chicken breast in a restaurant when I manage to quiet down the voice in my head complaining about the chicken most likely not being farmed very well. Whenever I read a sentiment like "try to not eat meat 1 or 2 days in a week" I am reminded that there are really people out there who just, like, buy meat every single time they are in the grocery store and cook it daily. That seems so nuts to me.