I will focus on the United States and three significant effects on Americans' family life. The first was the huge mobilization of troops needed to fight a war on two fronts in Europe and Asia. Most able-bodied men under age 38 were either drafted or chose to enlist in the armed forces. This left many young families with absentee fathers. Second, the loss of male workers combined with the need for factories to run nonstop to support the war effort threw masses of women into the workforce. Women earned their own money and had a taste of freedom, but children were often left in daycare or, if older, to fend for themselves. Finally, rationing, which conserved resources for the war effort, left most families with little to buy and, because of gas rationing, few opportunities to travel. Instead, families were encouraged to grow Victory Gardens so more food would be available and to collect tin cans and other resources that could be recycled for the war effort. Families, when they did have leisure time together, were more likely to focus on life's simpler pleasures.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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