If you believe in people having lived past lives, then I'm sure in my past lives I was either an Italian mumma or a 1950s house wife or maybe both.
I would have been quite comfortable playing in pasta dough or baking scones and playing homemaker and I would have been really good at it. Ok so your initial reaction might be how very antifeministic my view of the world is especially considering how far we have come in regards to women's rights and equality. The truth is I feel very comfortable embracing my role as a house wife and mother. I love the routine of fixing my husbands lunch every morning before work (I have been doing this since he was 17 years old and a 1st year mechanic) I love the sense of completion and satisfaction when my house is in order, I love to bake (and eat) real food, nothing from a packet or container, I am very passionate about making everything from scratch and my date scones and coconut and banana bread are pretty dam good if I do say so myself and there is something very fulfilling for me to put on my apron and get to work.
There is something about being in the kitchen that excites me, I am a passionate cook, cleaner and house wife and I don't apologise for being right at home in this role. (pardon the pun)
This year I am working on developing my skills in the garden so I can grow my own vegetables and food to continue to strive towards being self sufficient and environmentally friendly.
I developed a lot of my homemaking skills in my 20s when I lived on an isolated cattle farm for 7 years. We had to be self sufficient, there were no shops for 40km so if we ran out of milk or bread we would have to make do or use our initiative and find ways to improvise. Ok so I never milked a cow however this is something I have always wanted to do. We did collect our own eggs right from underneath the hens backside, kill and prepare our own meat from the cattle and sheep on the farm and bake (lord did I learn how to bake) and even a little sowing (although I was not a very talented sower) so these skills have been transferred from one life to another and even today despite the fact I now live in modern suburbia, I find myself longing for a modern but traditional lifestyle. Its funny though that it seems I'm not alone, so many of the women I surround myself with have a familiar story and longing to embrace child rearing and home making as much as I do. Its almost as though we are going through a complete cycle or revolution and coming back to a much more simple approach to life.
Don't get me wrong there are elements of my modern-day womanhood that I would never want to forfeit, rights that I have that if I didn't have would make life pretty miserable, like access to birth control, being able to vote and having the choice to work outside the home. I do have a brain that I like to use and no I don't believe that we should be second class citizens to men or that men have the right to control or dominate us. I enjoy a good argument with my husband when I am feeling hormonal or just dam emotional and I need someone to take it out on. He knows we are on an equal playing field, its just that I chose to be the good wife when it suits and make his life more comfortable, after all he is the one going out to work to provide the money to make it possible for me not to.
The only element I would love to master to make this whole stereotypical image of the 1950s housewife come to life would be the fashion and attire. When I think of housewives in the 1950s I think of immaculately made over women with the full floral skirts (with matching apron) their hair having been set and perfectly styled, flawlessly made up in preparation for their husbands to return home from work ( did I just say that out loud!) I can almost feel the cringing of the millions of women's activists and feminists across the world. I know how hard you worked for us, call me ignorant, I'm sorry but I cant help the way I feel, take me back to the good old days.
I think sometimes when you pair it all back there is something liberating and empowering to embrace your femininity and for me that is embracing the traditional role of the woman, for this I make no apologies and I hope to continue to perfect my homemaker skills this year. Watch this space.
I would have been quite comfortable playing in pasta dough or baking scones and playing homemaker and I would have been really good at it. Ok so your initial reaction might be how very antifeministic my view of the world is especially considering how far we have come in regards to women's rights and equality. The truth is I feel very comfortable embracing my role as a house wife and mother. I love the routine of fixing my husbands lunch every morning before work (I have been doing this since he was 17 years old and a 1st year mechanic) I love the sense of completion and satisfaction when my house is in order, I love to bake (and eat) real food, nothing from a packet or container, I am very passionate about making everything from scratch and my date scones and coconut and banana bread are pretty dam good if I do say so myself and there is something very fulfilling for me to put on my apron and get to work.
There is something about being in the kitchen that excites me, I am a passionate cook, cleaner and house wife and I don't apologise for being right at home in this role. (pardon the pun)
This year I am working on developing my skills in the garden so I can grow my own vegetables and food to continue to strive towards being self sufficient and environmentally friendly.
I developed a lot of my homemaking skills in my 20s when I lived on an isolated cattle farm for 7 years. We had to be self sufficient, there were no shops for 40km so if we ran out of milk or bread we would have to make do or use our initiative and find ways to improvise. Ok so I never milked a cow however this is something I have always wanted to do. We did collect our own eggs right from underneath the hens backside, kill and prepare our own meat from the cattle and sheep on the farm and bake (lord did I learn how to bake) and even a little sowing (although I was not a very talented sower) so these skills have been transferred from one life to another and even today despite the fact I now live in modern suburbia, I find myself longing for a modern but traditional lifestyle. Its funny though that it seems I'm not alone, so many of the women I surround myself with have a familiar story and longing to embrace child rearing and home making as much as I do. Its almost as though we are going through a complete cycle or revolution and coming back to a much more simple approach to life.
Don't get me wrong there are elements of my modern-day womanhood that I would never want to forfeit, rights that I have that if I didn't have would make life pretty miserable, like access to birth control, being able to vote and having the choice to work outside the home. I do have a brain that I like to use and no I don't believe that we should be second class citizens to men or that men have the right to control or dominate us. I enjoy a good argument with my husband when I am feeling hormonal or just dam emotional and I need someone to take it out on. He knows we are on an equal playing field, its just that I chose to be the good wife when it suits and make his life more comfortable, after all he is the one going out to work to provide the money to make it possible for me not to.
The only element I would love to master to make this whole stereotypical image of the 1950s housewife come to life would be the fashion and attire. When I think of housewives in the 1950s I think of immaculately made over women with the full floral skirts (with matching apron) their hair having been set and perfectly styled, flawlessly made up in preparation for their husbands to return home from work ( did I just say that out loud!) I can almost feel the cringing of the millions of women's activists and feminists across the world. I know how hard you worked for us, call me ignorant, I'm sorry but I cant help the way I feel, take me back to the good old days.
I think sometimes when you pair it all back there is something liberating and empowering to embrace your femininity and for me that is embracing the traditional role of the woman, for this I make no apologies and I hope to continue to perfect my homemaker skills this year. Watch this space.
Be First to Post Comment !
Post a Comment