The Career Of A Domestic Goddess, Part2

In my previous post on this topic, I mentioned that Mrs Andelin talks about balancing priorities in the daily life of a housewife. She also gives us an example of a priority list, where feminine appearance occupies the top position. If you stay home, it's easy to let yourself go, especially nowadays, when there is little pressure to dress and look well. It's interesting, that Helen devotes a whole chapter to the proper feminine appearance, where she states the following thing: "She (the feminine woman) doesn't neglect her hair, face, figure or clothes. She looks as pretty as she can at all times." (Fascinating Womanhood, p248, Bantam Books, 1992).

Second on the priority list is providing regular meals on time, and then comes the clean house, washing, ironing, shopping etc. Mrs Andelin adds that if there is an infant in the family, he will require the top priority, and the care of small children will be placed high on the list, too, while further in the chapter she talks in more detail about food preparation and stresses how important meals are to both husbands and children: "Of all domestic tasks other than the care of little children, the most urgent is feeding the family. Other things can wait." (F.W. p.236).

The modern tendency is to go for quick and easy meals, and Helen criticises it in her book, urging the women to return back to the kitchen. To organize the housewife's work properly, she suggests keeping lists of work and commitments and arranging them on a schedule, so that there is a specific time for everything. I have written about the importance of schedules and routines before, and included some helpful links in that post.

Mrs Andelin suggests you use a calendar notebook for better organization. She also recommends avoiding such time wasters as lengthy phone conversations, watching TV for hours on end, excess sewing and reading, or hanging in the shopping malls. Of course, now we have internet as well. In other words, treat your homemaking as you would any other worthy occupation and be willing to go above and beyond the call of duty, and you will not only succeed as a Domestic Goddess but enjoy your work as well.

And since we are talking about homemaking today, you'll probably be interested in this article discussing whether a housewife is a parasite. Happy homemaking!