Wifey Lifey

What Do You Do For A Living?

I can’t count the times, whether it be on bank paperwork, in general conversations or filling out insurance information that  the entire world needs to know what you do for a living.  How does one write what a stay at home wife/mother does for a living.  Most of society finds it “unskilled” to be a wife and mother.  Most who live the lifestyle find it derogatory to use the word “housewife” and usually consider themselves “domestic goddesses”.  Does our world base their general evaluations of a person based on their “living”?  I have definitely gotten the “oh, you don’t work” comment from so many people I have lost count.

Merrium-Websters Dictionary defines a housewife as :  noun; a married woman in charge of the household.  Television portrays them as unrealistic women in high heels and spandex outfits with big hair and tons of make-up!  Others think Roseanne Barr is more up to speed on the realistic housewife. I guess I sort of fall in the middle between them.   I fall short in the heel department and never settle for “frumpy housewife” attire.

In charge of a household…. hmmm ,  what exactly does that entail?  I can honestly say that my house is my pride and joy.  I strive to keep it clean, but I am far from one of those people who make you feel uncomfortable when you walk in because you are afraid to sit on furniture or wrinkle a pillow.  My house might have a cobweb on the deer antlers or a dust bunny on the ceiling fan, but I hope whenever someone arrives they feel at home.  I also am “in charge” of keeping the finances in order.  My husband, Kraig, is the financial provider and king of his castle (which happens to be his garage not MY house lol).  As a couple we have sat down and budgeted our funds and agree on all purchases over the normal things like gas/soda etc. I am pretty sure all those beauty shop appointments and shoe shopping trips don’t fit into our budget. So the King will have to settle for me!

The King doesn’t do laundry, nor does he do a dish.  He doesn’t make beds, vacuum, dust or mop any floors. Cooking is out of the question and the toilet is my job too.  Why, you might ask?  Because as a couple, we have defined our “roles” in our family and his is working outside the home and mine is working inside the home.  He is not controlling and I am not a maid.  I take pleasure in doing the things around the house and making sure when he is home we can spend time together or he can have his down time in his “castle”.  This traditional way of running our family may not be for everyone, but it sure has worked for us !

Some call it old fashioned, some call it stupid “not to have a career” but I guess I didn’t think of it as a waste of my time or less of a life not to have a career outside my home.  I did teach school, worked in an office, pumped gas and drove a team of horses at a stable, but none of those ever gave me the same sense of accomplishment that being a housewife has.  I believe that as a society they have down graded the importance of a wife and mother role in our world.

Beaver’s house was nothing like mine.  I had toys everywhere, dishes in the sink, flour handprints on my butt and jeans and cowboy boots on.  I didn’t have tea with the ladies, nor did I have PTA meetings to attend.  I wasn’t soft spoken and meek and mild, I yelled when I needed to and sometimes when I didn’t.  But at the end of the day, when kids were quiet and nestled in bed, I could lay my head down and feel proud of the work I had done that day.

I guess the reason that I am writing this entry on the blog is to let the younger moms and wives know it is ok to be a housewife and it is ok to love that role.  I don’t want anyone to look down upon someone who chooses to stay home and “keep house” over a career as a bad thing and a mindless job.  I believe I am intelligent, and well rounded and can carry on a conversation about most subjects.  I am also far from unskilled.  As a wife and mother I can juggle better than any circus clown out there!