Working Women: A Changed Picture

Her life was not wrapped up entirely with her housework.

"Financially I need to work, but I would love to stay home with my child," bemoaned one housewife. "It is very hard trying to be wife, mother and homemaker after working eight hours." She echoes the plight of an increasing number of women.

However, when the wife works outside the home a number of hours similar to the workday of the husband, there is a real need for understanding and help from the rest of the family. "I am very fortunate," boasted one young housewife with a full-time job, "in having a husband who believes that one adult should not have to clean up after another adult, and that housework should be shared." The children also can, and should, help. Especially so if theirs is a single parent who must work full time.

If others in the family are not over demanding, but instead join in doing the work together, it can almost be fun, as one homemaker wrote: "Every day my husband scours the bathtub after his shower. After dinner, he cleans and scrapes the dishes, while I wash the stove, counters and put away leftovers. . . . Three nights ago my husband ironed while I prepared the dinner. We were able to talk about our day while we completed these tasks. . . . We often share cooking and make it fun-drink a glass of wine and talk. If I had to do housework alone, I'm sure I would consider it drudgery."

Such a husband not only proves his love for his wife by such assistance, but also shows consideration for her as a "weaker vessel, the feminine one."

How A Balanced View Brings Joy to the Family?

"It's balance that's needed," concluded an experienced housewife. "Your attitude can't be too meticulous, or it's uncomfortable. Or if you're too sloppy there's irritation on both sides. You're irritated because of guilt for not doing it, and then the family is irritated because the dirt must be endured another day."

Proper balance creates a clean-as-I-can-make-it home, but with a relaxed atmosphere prevailing inside. So keep housework in its proper place-not first, and not last either. Balance is the key, or as one proverb well states the principle: "Let your reasonableness become known to all men."