Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Becky Home Ecky

I'm not Martha Stewart. I'm the first to admit it.

Right now, my job is being Becky Home Ecky and writing. I have the opportunity to be home with Mia, to put her on the bus in the morning, to pick her up after school. (The Hamilton SE School district only transports kindergartners one way, the most ridiculous thing I've come across in Indiana, other than not buying booze on Sundays.) I didn't get much of an opportunity to do that with my son; I was a single mother when he was born and went back to work when he was nine months old.

I do things like plan a week's worth of menus for dinner and organize my coupons. I use Real Simple's cleaning checklist to keep the house tidy. I do endless loads of laundry, which are the bane of my existence. I don't mind sorting the clothes, other than my husband's balled up socks, it's the folding and putting them away that stymies me. I loathe mopping floors.

Sometimes, I even bake. From scratch.

Twenty years ago, even ten, if you would have told me I'd be a housewife, I would have laughed myself silly. But here I am, and it's not so bad. I am glad to be able to do it. That also means living frugally, but I'm a pro at that. Will I be doing this ten years from now? That I don't know. Definitely not, if we could afford live in help at our oceanfront Bahamas home.

Hey, a girl can dream and if you're going to dream, dream big.

4 comments:

Judy said...

This will be nice for Mia--to have Mom around a lot--or at least know that Mom is at home if she gets sick at school and they have to call you to come pick her up.

Being a housewife CAN be very rewarding--you just gotta look at the little things you do everyday and find your rewards in a gleaming kitchen sink or the clean smell of freshly washed and dried clothes.

(Stick finger down throat at this point)--well, anyway, there are some things that are nice about staying home all day. I kind of like it, of course, back in the olden days when I was a mother/housefrau, I didn't have many choices :-)

Ronni said...

Lisa, if more people could do what you are doing, I wouldn't worry so much about the future.

Happy Housewife said...

I have never been more content or happier than I am since I decided that staying home taking care of the guys was more important than the bullshit pay I was making.
I am happy for you (and Mia and Martin)that you can do it too! If you are up for it, volunteer in Mia's classroom. There are so few moms that can these days!

Nadine said...

It's so cool that you love being a housewife and Mom. That means you're actually Superwoman. I think there's a lot of jealousy from women that don't have that option. Years ago when my son was little I was bullied by quite a few with pointed questions like, "just exactly what is it that you DO all day?" like I wasn't as important as they were.

Eventually I learned to say, "bite me" among other phrases. I finally graduated to, "I do for free what a housekeeper, a cook and a nanny would do for a pretty good salary so snotty b*tches like you can go to work and pretend you're better than me". Ha!