BabyLovesChelsea is a light-hearted account of life as a housewife and new mum living in Chelsea. On the blog, she shares the best of London SW3 and surrounding areas and all she has learnt so far about being a mum and a wife – from the fun to the practical. You can find her on Facebook too. Here she writes about being a housewife and the misconceptions.
It’s not infrequently that someone pops the question at a cocktail or dinner party: ‘As a housewife, what do you do all day?’ And then, crickets.
I immediately wonder about the source of her question. Is she curious, concerned, or condescending?
Somehow, over the decades, we’ve witnessed a subtle yet inevitable schism and what we have now are two factions.
One. The women who work. And two. Those that don’t.
Some (consciously or subconsciously) wish they were on the other side, and some straddle both hemispheres, but most are suitably contented with their decision in their eternal quest to ‘have it all’. By the way, I looked up what the phrase ‘having it all’ entailed, searched high and low. Nothing. I decided ‘All’ was something unique to every woman, an ideal formed in our minds somewhere between the fifth school grade and the present. So, we get to choose. Yep. Great. That works for me.
So why the question, so often laden with passive disdain, from our sisters, the office bunnies?
Well, one of two images is conjured up when the word housewife is thrown around.
One is a sweatpants and t-shirt wearing housewife, where days are spent crawling on the floor with her kids, picking up rattles, walking the dog and unsurprisingly, barely has time to wash her hair.
The other is a lady of leisure who spends half her day at the gym (followed by a champagne lunch, of course) and the other half chatting away on the phone, baking sugar cookies, while her nanny raises her kids and housekeeper mops the floors. The former breeds pity, the later, envy. The truth, for most of us lies somewhere in the middle--and then some.
The biggest misconception is that housewives are unfulfilled.
So to answer the questions, ‘what do I do all day?’ Frankly, everyday is different, but typically it’s a mix of walks in the park, a bit of yoga, cuddling with my daughter, lunch with the girls, a trip to the V&A, reading, writing, cooking, shopping, and yes, lounging around the house. I wonder, does it get better than that? Possibly. But one thing it’s not, is unfulfilling.
Stay safe. Keep smart. Be happy.
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