I was not cut out for this generation. I do not desire to be a part of the workforce nor the school world. Here I am almost a senior in college, and I would quit school altogether if I had grounds for doing so. And I wonder, do I really? I have recently become fed up with college. I have no ambition, no inspiration, no reason, or joy in proceeding forth in the process. From the time I was a little girl, I had no great ambitions or great ideals for my future. I have never seen myself any place except in "motherland." Why I am in college, do not even ask.
We live in a world where the words "housewife" and "homemaker" are considered archaic and something only grandmothers are familiar with. Homemakers are scrutinized and mocked these days. Profanity is even used on vintage images of housewives to advertise that homemaking is just something to make fun of and is just for wimps and brainless women.
Visions of women donning freshly pressed aprons in their kitchens baking are replaced with women wearing power suits sitting in dull, cold offices taking orders from men. Women today have traded in their cutting boards for a motherboard. Where has our world gone wrong?
I would say our world has crossed the line, and should be sorry for it. People talk about homemaking today as though it should be something to be ashamed of and replaced. Our world talks about moving forward and always will, but for what? What does it mean to move away from wives world? What will happen to household etiquette? What will our future ladies teach our future daughters when all of the home economics skills have been cast aside? Our colleges have already replaced the home economics department with family consumer sciences, which is not exactly the same thing. Our country has done away with finishing schools and I have to wonder why.
There is hardly a single girl left in this world who desires to be a housewife. Our culture has crammed college ideals down girls throats with the impression that working in the world is all there is to offer. But I ask, "What ever happened to June Cleaver?" Sure, people make fun of her and Leave it to Beaver, but I don't care. That happens to be one of my favorite shows, and I rather like June's way of running a house. In fact I recently told a friend, "I just want to be June Cleaver." In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, Julia Stiles tells Julia Roberts "To you a housewife is someone who sold her soul for a center hall colonial. She has no depth, no intellect, no interests. You're the one who said I could do anything I wanted. This is what I want."
These were the days when the reality of cooking was actually an art, and not a recreational activity. I'm tired of our society's view of running a house. They consider a complete meal to be a frozen dinner thrown into the microwave and a school lunch to be Lunchables with GoGurt and Hi-C. The focus today is on quick, fast, and time saving. Quantity of food is now more important than the quality, and easy is now more important than taste. As long as you can slip it into a microwave, toaster, or plastic bag, then it is the way to go. After all, it saves the Dr. Mrs. Jones 15 minutes each day if she can 1) remove from the freezer, 2) tear the open here tab , and 3) slip into microwave. "Stouffers. Let's fix dinner." Notice any irony in that phrase?
I'm sorry, but I will be a June Cleaver while all the rest of the women are Desperate Housewives. Many girls have dream jobs, and mine just happens to be homemaking. The ironic factor that I have to mention is that while the world scrutinizes housewives, they're forgetting major considerations--it takes talent, practice, brains, and strength. Cooking is not something that happens to you overnight. Any mother, like my mother, could tell you that. Many of the people who slander homemaking have never even picked up a measuring cup before and they call it a job for sissies. Think again, rather? Our grandmothers didn't learn how to feed their families by sitting in a corner knitting. They mastered the art of cooking because they stood in the kitchen for hours. They weren't concerned about how fast something took so mommy had time to run to the gym on the way home from the office, or if it was an organic product from Whole Foods because that is the current trend. These ladies were frugal and took pride in their cooking.
While I do not want to work in the real world (I know that makes me sound like a lunatic in this culture), I do not harbor hard feelings against the women that do. If you're single, that's one thing. But if you're a mother, why are you working? Yes, I understand single mothers. But the women who have a complete family are the ones I sit there and think, "Your husband is able bodied, so why are you both working?" Is because you have to live in the latest suburbs and have that massive SUV just so you can say you're keeping up with the Jones? I sure hope not. I can hope that it merely means that you just like working and want to do both. I can understand a mother wanting to work, but before you step out into the working world, do not take for granted that you chose to have a family.
I just want to turn my head the other way when I see power suit clothed mothers strolling down the aisles of Publix, with a cellphone in one hand plugged to one ear, and the other hand struggling to steer a grocery cart with her day care children hanging on for dear life. I will never place my children in a daycare, and my mother never did either. That is unthinkable in my logic. I adore the idea of playing and reading with my children, and nurturing them at home. My decisions about homeschooling my children, like I was, are definitely considered. I believe that I it is more beneficial for children than most people realize. I do not think I will home school them through high school though. I want them to experience what real school is like before they go to college, as I did.
I want to live a life that consists of living in a house that I have put hours into making our home, mornings at the park with my children, and me realizing that this is the life I always wanted. My home won't be all perfect, but will have perfect imperfections, like a squeaky screen door and sections of creaky wood floors here and there, just because. I want my children to discover what childhood means, and that they will never have to go to a day care where germs are spread faster than cracker crumbs at snack time. I want to do the things my mother has always done. I want to make cups of tea for my daughters and friends when they come for visits. I want my guests to realize that my home isn't made up of perfections, but of a mother's touch. I want to my daughters to come begging me to play with their dolls, and to order a plate of plastic food in their restaurant. I hope to be a mother who cares enough to stop what she's doing to spend a little "kid" time with my children because they admire what I do for them. I will play action figures and matchbox cars. I will play whatever my children ask. I want to have sewing, knitting, quilting, and needlework circles who chat about their homes and sip coffee and tea. I want to be able to make meals that I place sincere thought into that display how much I love what I do.
I do not understand why I continue on with college. I dislike being forced to read things I completely have a problem with. I love children's literature more than adult and find the process of studying for hours on end to be a cruel punishment. I will never remember and care if I know how to say I'm tired in French, or what the square root of 567 times 80,790 is, or what does this simile in Hamlet imply, or why is Virginia Woolf considered to be a modernist. These are things that I will never use again, except for maybe the French if I ever travel to the French Riviera...cough, cough...right! I am going through all of this to attain a B.A. in English, and for what? I can only pray and have faith that God will bring these hopes of homemaking into reality and that I will never have to worry about working among the frenzy of people. College degrees are quite an accomplishment, but it is sad to think that I will do all this work to never really do anything with the degree.
Homemaking isn't an easy task. It takes a lot of strength and diligence, and I admire our mothers and grandmothers for it. These women should be praised and not ignored. Why is it that a madwomen in the workforce is rather praised than a housewife who actually takes pride in her family and home? Is it because women today are afraid of being called old-fashioned? I say, more power to me if they mark my views of life as archaic. What do I care? It's life I have always admired and have always seen myself a part of. I am taking my Singer under my belt and darn it, I'm bringing back homemaking all the way! I want to be a June, a mother who says, "we have tunafish."
