Monday, April 23, 2012

Hot Dogs and Hampers

This weekend I watched a movie that took place in the 50’s. The movie left me contemplating how the role of the Lady of the House has changed over the years.  In the 50’s most women did not work outside of the home.  They spent their days caring for their family and their dwelling.  They made careers out of gardening, ironing, and meat loafing.  They were there to make their hard working husbands a high ball after work and help their children with homework.  Then one day- someone had a brilliant idea that women too should be working outside the home- expanding their skills and contributing financially to their families.  Genius! 
But what happened to the ironing? The homework? The meatloaf?  Did the need for such domestics dissolve?  No- the need is still very much there.  The need stares me in the face from the over flowing laundry hamper.  The need wakes me up at 6 am on Sunday’s expecting Cheerios and snuggles.  The need suggests I try a new recipe tonight when I am done watering the plants. 
I take my role as Lady of the House very seriously.  I try daily to do a little something for the better of my family but after 40 hours at the office sometimes the best thing I can muster for my family is to allow them to live another day.  But I am WOMAN- I am strong, I am multi-tasker capable of taking care of the world, and the house and the never ending laundry pile…right?  That is how I should feel and yet most days I just feel tired. 
Am I turning my back on the generations of women who fought so that I too could go to an office everyday and bust my hump and then go home and play June Cleaver- if I throw in the towel?  Am I less of a woman if I feel that I would be fully satisfied as a 1950’s housewife? 
Being the Mom I want to be…the woman I want to be for my man takes a lot of time.  It takes a lot of work and often I don’t have the time or the energy after a 40 hour work week.  The type of mother I want to be does not feed my son hot dogs for dinner three times a week but makes him nutritionally balanced meals from the heart.  The type of mother I want to be does not tell her son that she is too tired to go for a bike ride because she has been dreaming of putting her feet on the coffee table for hours.  The type of partner I want to be, that I know I have in me does not have to send her Hubby to work wearing miss- matched socks but instead would like to send him to work with a packed lunch.  Even typing this I know how I must sound to many women out there?  Seriously? Satisfied with the old, traditional housewife life?  Yes, yes I think I might be. 
To those of you that are thinking that I am underestimating the work entailed and the commitment it takes to be a self proclaimed domestic goddess are wrong.  I am a hard worker- I always have been and I am not looking for an excuse to eat Bon Bons and watch The Young and the Restless.  That is what weekends and DVR are for.  I just feel that I am not a star performer in the role of Lady of the House at the moment.  I am not performing to my fullest potential and that leaves me feeling like I am failing my family-one micro-waved hot dog at a time!  
What are your thoughts on my dreams of domestic conquests?