The Student Room Group

GIRLS! Would you mind being a housewife?

50s-60s style, stay at home housewife. Being financially dependent on your partner, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kid(s) until your partner got back.

Assume that your future husband is a decent one, who does not take you foregranted, and actually gives you the money for things, plus an allowance, etc.

The values of the ideal 50s-60s era home, just for the sake of this scenario.

Would you mind being a housewife?

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Nope and I see nothing wrong with admitting it. If I could have the chance to never work again, who wouldn't take that opportunity?
Yes I absolutely would mind it. That sounds terrible
Original post by Eva.Gregoria
Nope and I see nothing wrong with admitting it. If I could have the chance to never work again, who wouldn't take that opportunity?


People who like their job...
Reply 4
Avatar for me_aisha
me_aisha
2
Not full time. Would hate being financially dependent on anyone! Part time house wife isnt bad
Original post by Temporality
People who like their job...


But that's very rare. Also nothing wrong with them doing the job as a hobby, jobs tend to become stressful when they actually depend on it for their livelihood.
Yeah, I'd mind it, purely because I'd make a rubbish housewife. I genuinely burn water. Plus the whole idea of financial dependence and overall patriarchy makes me want to gag slightly.
Original post by Eva.Gregoria
But that's very rare. Also nothing wrong with them doing the job as a hobby, jobs tend to become stressful when they actually depend on it for their livelihood.


People liking their job is rare?! I'm sorry but I don't agree, obviously there are those that don't but there are certainly those that do, and those that do like what they do typically tend to be people that have had a passion for something and worked tirelessly to attain their job of choice. They feel that through their job they are having a meaningful impact on others and wouldn't want to let that go to sit at home and twiddle their thumbs and clean the kitchen and prepare casserole.

Additionally when something is just a hobby it can be easy to let it go and become distracted by other interests whereas a job can have a sense of urgency and structure. There are also many roles that can be done as jobs that cannot purely be done as hobbies such as positions of responsibility that wouldn't be given to a hobbyer!
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Temporality
People liking their job is rare?! I'm sorry but I don't agree, obviously there are those that don't but there are certainly those that do, and those that do like what they do typically tend to be people that have had a passion for something and worked tirelessly to attain their job of choice. They feel that through their job they are having a meaningful impact on others and wouldn't want to let that go to sit at home and twiddle their thumbs and clean the kitchen and prepare casserole.

Additionally when something is just a hobby it can be easy to let it go and become distracted by other interests whereas a job can have a sense of urgency and structure. There are also many roles that can be done as jobs that cannot purely be done as hobbies such as positions of responsibility that wouldn't be given to a hobbyer!


I agree with everything you said in your first paragraph but like I said, incredibly rare :tongue:

Also if one has such passion for their job, they'd find it difficult to let go even as a hobby, wouldn't they?
Original post by Eva.Gregoria
I agree with everything you said in your first paragraph but like I said, incredibly rare :tongue:

Also if one has such passion for their job, they'd find it difficult to let go even as a hobby, wouldn't they?

Well what I meant was with a job there is a sense of urgency as well as you know you can't avoid it because you are answerable to other people. When you are answerable to only yourself it can be easy to slip with too much time or freedom, regardless of how passionate you are.
Original post by Eva.Gregoria
Nope and I see nothing wrong with admitting it. If I could have the chance to never work again, who wouldn't take that opportunity?


You're assuming being a 50s-60s housewife is no work. It is actually a lot of work.
Original post by TheWaffle
You're assuming being a 50s-60s housewife is no work. It is actually a lot of work.


Yeah I agree it is.
That's my dream. If I marry my current boyfriend that's the life I want to live because he's in an excellent place financially so my money won't be entirely necessary. I'd still work part time because financial independence is important to me and I don't want to be 110% dependent on his money, but mostly I'd prefer to play housewife because it's so me and I know that I would genuinely enjoy it. :h:

I don't like the idea of working full time while I play wife, mum, chef, cleaner, and therapist. I think the sociological term for this is triple-shift. It's too much for one person. Earlier today I heard my sister on the phone to her husband saying that she has 7 loads of washing to do. (She wasn't exaggerating.) She works 40 hours a week, she cooks for his family of 5, she has a son who she mostly cares for. He doesn't see feeding himself or caring for his son as his responsibility. She has her mother-in-law and sister-in-law to help with the cooking and cleaning, but they do that every single day so it's a lot of work. I can't stand the idea of one day having to be in that position. Just taking care of a kid is too much. (I know, I'm the one who takes care of hers while she works!) Having to deal with work and everything else on top makes her life sound like hell to me. I don't care if I lose the independence feminists push for women to gain, I just don't want to have to deal with all that **** because it's way too much for one person to take on.

People laugh at those who say being a housewife and/or a mother is a job itself. Those people are the most ignorant people I've ever come across. I'd love for these people to try taking care of a baby while dealing with housework and feeding their family and being a therapist to their family. It's a ****ing nightmare. It's a 24 hour job which provides no holidays and no time off. My favourite video on this little rant:



Unless you're in a relationship where your husband helps with the cooking and the cleaning and the caring for the baby, working sounds great. If I marry my boyfriend I know I'll be doing all that stuff because he can't cook, I doubt he cleans, and he made a comment during one of our recent conversations where he said something like if/after we have kids I won't have much time for him because I'll be busy taking care of them. :eek: I am not letting him put me through dealing with nightmare babies on my own. He can go through that **** with me. :eek: I've always loved the traditional gender roles and have always idealised myself as a housewife. Boyfriend has even said that we can get a cook and cleaner if it's too much for me, but I said no. I genuinely enjoy doing that stuff and see it as my role, and I'm more than happy to do it as long as I don't have to work a full time job while I do it. Ideally I would work part time/flexible hours, don't know what that work might be, but there's no way in hell that it'll be a 9-5. :eek:

If I break up with my boyfriend this entire plan will change unless I find someone just like him. If I end up with someone who doesn't earn enough and needs me to work too, then god knows what I'm going to do. :cry2:
(edited 9 years ago)
Yes, I would mind very much. I don't like being reliant on other people and I would go mad of boredom for a start.
And I'm not going to go to university for six years just to waste it and stay at home doing the hoovering. (Minimising a stay at home parent's responsibilities, I know, but the sentiment is along those lines)

Edit: My mum's been a stay-at-home mum for as long as I remember and I appreciate everything she's done for me and the fact that, for some people, it's a great lifestyle. It just ain't me.
(edited 9 years ago)
Nope I'd probably like it.
Not at all.
Reply 16
Avatar for Romula
Romula
11
Yes. Absolutely. If I got married, we would both have a career, and he would damn well have a fifty-fifty share of the housework. I would never be bound to a domestic life and financial dependence on a spouse purely because he is rich and I am a woman.
I don't want kids but I'd happily spend my life taking care of the animals because I want to work with animals anyway and if I could afford to just do that with my own then I would.
This is quite interesting. This being a forum for higher/further education would lead me to assume that there would be more 'no's' than ' yes'. However it actually seems quite balanced
I do. I don't enjoy household chores enough to commit to my life as a housewife. I'd rather spend my time doing something joyful and intellectually stimulating. Then there's the aspect of being independent. First and foremost I should be able to take care of myself, before committing to another person or a family. Being a housewife doesn' allow me to take care of myself properly since the economic gain of such a lifestyle is close to zero. I, unfortunately, do not find it responsable to live a life entirely upon someone else's funds. One should be able to support one self (unless there are exceptional circumnstances involved, of course). Since I also do not find chores any fulfilling, I'd prefer sharing the work with my partner, 50-50. Equal and fair, as long as non of us specifacally would very much like to take a bigger role in the household department.
(edited 9 years ago)

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