Having It All

This will be an ongoing theme in my blogs, as it both inflames me to anger (well being rather peeved actually) and yet I want to try and understand it better.  I am not a big fan of Ms Greer, I know she fought hard for women to have it ALL .. but do you know ... I don't damn want it ALL.  ALL means going out to work, having my own money to stress about, pay my own bills, come home, clean the house, cook the meals, wash and iron.  Gee I am really loving having it ALL.  Look after the garden, live a life on full speed but never being able to stop long enough to enjoy any of it.


Sorry, today is a bad day .. feeling like the weight of the world is on my shoulders alone. 


What did Ms Greer think was going to happen?  Did she think that the housewives of 30 years ago really wanted to double their workload?  Did she have a rose coloured view that men would equally share the household duties?  Did she REALLY believe this?

Why is it so shameful to want to be a housewife?  To do one job well. To be creative and cook and sew and garden. Why does the western world see this as so demeaning?  To be a good housewife means mastering the art of cooking and baking.  Its a good knowledge of chemistry as you remove and clean stains.  Its being a CFO and running a household budget.  Its being a gardener, a maintenance master, vet nurse.  Oh, then if you have kids a whole new world of skills opens up. 

There are days when I just want to do the washing properly .. Martha Stewart style.  To have time to soak the whites in Napisan for a few hours.  To wash until I have reached the bottom of the basket (have you ever looked down there?  I found socks that belong to my sons who moved out of home 6 months ago, a pair of trousers of mine when I was 2 sizes smaller!).  Or even, shock horror, empty the bin and wipe it clean!!!  To be able to peg all this on the line in the fresh air instead of throwing in the dryer and feeling guilty for the waste of electricity.  To iron the napkins as soon as they come off the line ... hell to be able to use REAL napkins instead of paper ones would be a luxury.

When I talk of this to ladies and girls I get an automatic reaction of they love being a career woman ... but slowly as I talk, they soften and blushingly agree with me.  Quietly, so no-one can hear their confession.  Why is that?