The widely spread idea nowadays is that while career women are all walking prodigies, a typical homemaker can't talk about anything but dirty diapers and laundry.
The truth is, as usual, quite different. A housewife, especially one without small children at home, has much more free time to pursue creative hobbies, read books, study foreign languages, and in general, keep herself informed about what's going on in the world, especially in the age of broadband internet.
I'm not trying to attack working women. There may be different reasons why they choose to work and they certainly can be knowledgeable in their own field, but the simple truth is that when you work 40+ hours a week, then come home and have to do your housekeeping/attend to children and spouse, there is really very little time left for anything else.
It all may sound fun in your twenties, when your energy levels are high and you can spend the whole night entertaining and in the morning go to work as if nothing happened, but when you hit mid-thirties, it all starts to change rather dramatically. Women working full time kills all the social life in the neighbourhood and destroys the family circle since there is no one during the daytime to drop for a tea visit and everybody is too tired in the evenings for socialising.
A homemaker wife often carries a burden of responsibilities since it's assumed by others that she has the time to volunteer at church and school and busy working women certainly don't mind when a nice neighbour lady invites their children to come over for a meal and provides a listening ear, yet instead of gratitude one often encounters criticism and even contempt for "someone too dumb to hold a job".
Of course, by behaving in this manner, people like that don't demonstrate any real superiority, but only a total lack of class.
A homemaker wife also largely frees her husband from attending to domestic duties, which in turn allows him more free time to to pursue his own interests and to keep informed about the political and society matters. Someone told me that perhaps the whole idea behind making everyone work full time was to turn people into mindless drones easily manipulated by the elites, who are too tired in the evening to open a newspaper and think about something else but every day drudgery.
I'm not into conspiracy theories myself, so I leave it to you to decide whether it can be true, however, the point I'm trying to make stands: an average housewife doesn't have to be any more unintelligent than an average working woman. We live in the West. We all go to school, and many women attend college. Choosing to stay home doesn't turn their brains into jelly any more than holding a job automatically turns everyone into a genius.
In the current year it all comes down to a personal choice, which, I am told, is sacred and should be respected. That's all.
Age is a very important factor. I know people who struggled with huge efforts at work in their 30s and now in their 50s they are wrecked and still have 10 further years in front of them before retirement is possibile. Somebody judged me for quitting a tiresome job once and now, when I met ger again after a couple of years, I sas told how sick she was and how long she had been staying in hospital due to health issues. Health is important because it may run out at some point and the money one made by sacrificing health is going to be wasted to regain health. But should the recuperation be only partial, nobody will grant you money or health. The money goes for health and the health may have already gone for earning money.
ReplyDeleteThey say the Neanderthals died out because they had no division of labour, what does it say about our own supposedly progressive society which tries to erase all the traditional distinctions?
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, health is a huge issue which people tend to forget about.
Thank you Sanne for the wise words in this post. I really enjoyed reading it. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Linda! I'm glad you liked this post.
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