For decades the modern housewife or homemaker has been relegated to an afterthought. Most women today, feel that they don’t have a choice to stay-home once they have children, much less, when they are childless. All too often, mothers who stay at home with their children encounter the question, “well, what do you do all day?” My very dear friend, feels infuriated each time she is asked this question because what she does is provide her children with a stable, clean, nutritious, healthy home environment. She is the heartbeat of her home. Her job is endlessly important.
Most twenty-something women, don’t consider being a stay-at-home mother an important or worthy career. In fact, they claim they don’t consider it a career at all. Yet,these same women are considered the “working wounded” because, as one article puts it, they don’t have a choice. The term,” working wounded” correctly interprets the way in which many working-mothers feel.
The Pew Research Center recently released a survey that shows mothers who work full time rate themselves lower on the question, “How good a job do you feel you’ve done so far as a parent?,” than mothers who work part time or who stay home.
Society has strayed so far into feminism that today women feel they don’t have a choice due to the economy. For many it seems virtually impossible to own a home or raise a family on one income. In fact, most young women today are not willing or even prepared for motherhood, often leading to Mommy Shock, in which they are unhappy with juggling daycare, full-time careers, marriage and motherhood. The result, according to Reuters National Marriage Project, is a decline in lasting marriages and a loss of child-centeredness for the nation. They report:
Marriage has fallen by the wayside, in part, because it receives less and less social recognition and approval. Any norm of behavior requires for its maintenance the continuing support of the community, including active social pressures to uphold it. When social approval and pressures wither, the norm weakens.
Is it any wonder that housewives and stay-at-home moms are disappearing? Southern Baptist Theological Seminary considers the problem important enough to establish a new homemaking course of study.
“We are moving against the tide in order to establish family and gender roles as described in God’s word for the home and the family,” Patterson said at the denomination’s annual meeting in June. “If we do not do something to salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and our nation will be destroyed.
The homemaking program endeavors to prepare women to the model the characteristics of the godly woman as outlined in scripture. It includes courses on hospitality, interior design, cooking, sewing, child rearing, and culinary arts. Programs such as these offer young women who may otherwise not have an opportunity to study the seemingly lost art of creating a home.
Where have all the homemakers gone?
Gone to graveyards everyone.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn.
“what do you do all day?”
I think that’s a legitimate question once the children are in school.
LOL! Yeah, the title keeps reminding me of the song “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and I keep getting it stuck in my head. So, let’s change the lyrics to match:
CHORUS:
Where is my Doris Day?
Where is my prairie song?
Where is my happy ending?
Where have all the homemakers gone?
Why don’t you relax this evening
Kick back and watch the TV
And I’ll fix a little something to eat
Oh I know your back hurts from working on the tractor
How do you take your coffee my sweet
I will raise the children if you pay all the bills
Yes, once the children are in school that is a legitimate question, just as you could ask anyone about their profession. However, it is important to realize that (despite what society says) running a home is a full time job. The answer to that question for a Christian woman who models herself after Proverbs 31 is easy. A woman who works at home contributes in the following ways to her family:
*cleaning (everything!)
*cooking (planning, preparing, clean-up)
*shopping (food, clothing, gifts)
*care taking (general and nursing)
*laundry (wash, dry, fold, put-away)
*accounting (pay bills, track spenditures etc.)
And, this is only a short list! In addition to these things many stay-at-home mothers or housewives run on-line or part-time businesses out of their home to contribute to their families income.
I think that’s a legitimate question once the children are in school.
I can go with you here if you’re talking part time. (May the Lord bless companies who provide part time work, preferably with some benefits!) And just because kids are in school doesn’t mean they don’t still take a lot of time.
But even now that I’m an old woman and all my kids are grown up, I still don’t work full time. If a woman is to do all or most of the things in Sadie’s list, that takes time. (I do understand that my financial situation is not typical; we get paid the same amount whether I do any work or not!)
There is a lot I could say on this topic of balancing life, kids, husband and house but the specifics of what worked for me may or may not work for someone else. However, I’d give women some general advice:
1. Marry a good man. One who isn’t a jerk, and one who will listen to you when you talk. That way you’ll be able to work through the difficulties of managing everything together.
2. Figure out how to live economically and not have a bad attitude about it. Don’t let money have control over you and your family. Time is worth so much more than money.
3. Try to live close to where your husband works if at all possible. Time is worth so much more than money.
4. Cultivate female friends who live nearby. Then help each other out in times of need. Women friends can help you when you need someone to talk to, need to borrow something, need someone to pick your kids up from school because you have your other kid at the hospital.
Not to mention that for some mothers, once the children are in school, education is what they do all day!
Yes, but homeschooling is above and beyond running a home. Let’s not muddy the waters here.
You’re right, please excuse that!
Speaking with not much experience, I’d say it’s about a thirty-five-hour-a week job to actually run a home, from the woman’s point of view. But the woman really doesn’t “run” everything in a home. Traditionally, the man takes care of house and car maintenance, some yard work, and the more exciting parts of finances such as taxes - to name just a few.
But it’s hard to speak of raising children in a certain number of hours per week.
Oh yeah, taxes and yardwork. A manly man’s dream.
How exciting to have an article posted somewhere, especially since I wrote it originally for my own personal blog. Neat!
I don’t know what LoveBlob is, but congratulations anyway! I noticed their version of your article seems to be missing all the links, however.
Yeah, I don’t know who they are either. I did notice that is wasn’t formatted correctly and was missing the links.
I have no children and I am a homemaker… as for what do I do all day? I do whatever the hell I want to do, Can you say that?
Sounds like a good situation. You must have plenty of time to volunteer in the community.