Thursday, November 29, 2007

Butter and yarn

I want to be a housewife. I shit you not. Stay with me here, becuase I know all us college educated ladies have been conditioned to think that housewives are the mailroom workers of the fairer sex. But, how can that be so when I, a Big XII graduate and a corporate ladder-climbing company shill, want to give it all up to stay at home? I'll tell you why: Being a cog in the machine is unfulfilling. I'd rather stay at home, freelance every now and again, bake bread, sew stuff, read philosphy, raise a rugrat and knit all the livelong day. Will I ever do this? Probably not.

The market of human resources has become conditioned to the availability of women in the workplace. Now it's almost expected that women take advantage of the wide array of jobs now available to them, and if a college educated woman were to ever shun the corporate life for one at home, she's a waste, and wasn't worth the educational investment in the first place. I disagree.

Although I've never seriously considered starting a family, I can see why a woman would want to stay home with their children. I'm not going to make any generalizations that it's in a woman's nature to care for kids, but I can understand why a woman would want to make sure that the only indoctrination their kids get is from their home. My parents did as much, albeit I'm sure it was a nightmare with five kids. My mom made sure we understood that there were people out there that were going to say things and do things we didn't understand or we didn't like. We could always ask my parents about that kind of stuff. We ate meals together, we did sports and clubs together. We were all active in eachothers lives.

So I was thinking about how this Christmas will be the first Christmas for all of us married kids to bring our spouses and all be together under one roof. We're so different, and our husbands/wives reflect that. But we're all a family. I don't know one kid or in-law that doesn't absolutely love one another. That's a freakin' family. I hope that we're always like this. That we're always involved, that we're always on good terms. And when someone finally squirts out offspring, I hope it doesn't poo/puke/pee on me and that I'll love it, too.

3 comments:

Bruce Johnson said...

I think I hear the sound of hormones talking.......

Olivia said...

"squirts out offspring" Hahahaha!

I respect you for wanting to be a housewife. I can't say what I will do when the time approaches, but my mother, 30 years ago, was a corporate ladder climber when she had me. EMI liked her so much they kept her job for a year begging her to go back, but she wouldn't, and she devoted herself to bringing me up at home.

But in the end, it's really hard to be a housewife today - life is expensive and most households need two incomes. And now it's the exception rather than the rule for a career woman to give up her job when she has kids.

Miss Dallas said...

This thought started turning over in my mind because my sister and her husband are going to start trying to conceive and one of my childhood friends is also trying for a baby, so it's like, everyone's multiplying and going in different directions. I was wondering what I would do if I ... well, let's not go there, shall we?