A Woman with 10 Horsepower

We, as women, must be proud of our gender and all opportunities that we have in this 21st century. Recently, there is big news that spread all over the world. It was about Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin as the candidate for President and Vice President in the United States 2008 presidential election. Many women in the U.S. and abroad are impressed with their efforts.

If we observe our history, there were also many famous women who played important roles in their countries like Indira Gandhi from India, Golda Meir from Israel, and Margaret Thatcher from England. These women were fantastic because they could stand side by side with men and even led their countries into prosperity. Even if they were famous, they were still women. Women that had to wake up early in the morning and take care of the children, preparing food, washing clothes, ironing, cleaning house, shopping and other normal household things to do. They might have many assistants to help them at home but they did these routine jobs previously. Even when they have become famous, they still had to control all of these house works.

We may not be as famous as Palin or Clinton, but in daily life as a wife and mother, we are the same. I feel very amazed with the life of one of my friends. She has to wake up in the morning and prepare her children for school. Afterwards, she prepares herself to work until evening. From evening until midnight, she does house works like cleaning the house and assisting her children in home work or school test. She has no maid at all in her house. She usually has her night sleep after midnight once all duties are completed. While she does the entire house works at night, her husband is already having sweet dreams. I do not know how she has power to do all these things.

In Bali, when I was working as a project manager for a Spa project, I noticed that women worked very hard there. Besides doing the house works, they also worked in the rice field. Some of them worked in the construction sites, carrying stones or bricks. If we are having trip to village areas in Bali, we can see women picking and carrying stone from river as part of their job. Balinese women always work very hard while their husbands stay at home playing with cocks and gambling (a traditional gambling by fighting cocks). Instead of grumbling and be angry, Balinese women accept their fate and always smile in their daily life. Maybe we have to be grateful like Balinese women and thankful that we were born as women. A woman with 10 horsepower.

Sometimes I ask myself, is this a woman born for? The answer is YES. If we return to what Bible says and see the history. As a modern woman, you may not agree with this fact. However, I have some advices that we can improve our current path. We can make a change!

ľ One of my advices is to have a house work schedule with your life partner and your children (only when they are old enough to do house chores). Teach your children to be independent at home. Cleaning their own room, clean dishes after eating, watering the garden (if there is) and so on. Make schedule with your partner to assist your children in doing their home works and do other house works. Some men love to cook, so let them do the cooking sometimes.

ľ Make at least 1 day in a month to spend the day for yourself. You can spend it for visiting your friend, getting a haircut, shopping, or going to SPA. The most important thing is that you have to enjoy the activity; out from your routine life.

ľ In daily life you also need to spend some spiritual time with God. Read your Bible and pray. The best time is early in the morning or night time. It is very helpful to refresh your spirit, power and relieve your stress.

ľ Keep your relationship with your friends and it is good if you have friend for sharing. Sometimes we fell stressed out in doing all of these routine house works and caring our kids (besides job at office) and we need someone else than our partner for sharing our lives. Sharing all of your problems with your trusted friend will make you feel relieved from stress or depression.

ľ Eat right and healthy to keep your body stamina.

ľ Try to not bring your work to home because it will disturb your schedule and make you stress and sick. If you have to bring your work to home, you may need to discuss in advance with your partner and try to modify the schedule.

ľ Make schedule once a month for spending time with your life partner. We should take care of our relationship with our partner because sometimes routine parenting and house works can dim the fiery love that we used to have with our life partner. You can have a candle light dinner at romantic restaurant or go to cinema.

We, as women, should have our own enjoyment of life. God created women to be happy and enjoy their lives. It is a great job to be a house wife or working woman or both, but we need to have spare time for ourselves. We may not be as famous as Palin, Clinton, and Thatcher, but we can be women who have smiling happy faces and 10 horsepower.