handhwa.blogg.se - How to Run Your Home Without Help by Kay Smallshaw

Image: One thing the husband can help with. Passively accepted misogyny and strict gender roles versus equality: a wife must defer to and pamper her man, but also have her own “ time for talk, for outside interests, and for plain fun”, and when giving chores to children (from the age of five!), " Don't differentiate between boys and girls".

Men are necessary (breadwinners, advisors, and for occasional help with washing up) but also pretty useless: “ A man about the house usually makes more work than he performs”.

Making necessary drudgery empowering: careful planning to ensure efficiency, but with adaptations for different circumstances and tastes.

Aspiration (“ It’s rather pleasant to get a reputation for doing one or two dishes extra well.”) versus trying to be realistic about when and where you can cut corners.Nostalgia for domesticity in days of plentiful help and supplies versus excitement at technological improvements to the tools of housewifery.What I found so interesting was the competing demands of a society in transition, on multiple fronts: “ Who wouldn’t rather be bodily tired out than mentally exhausted?” It’s comical from a distance of 70 years, but shocking to contemplate for real.

“ Bedmaking can be quite a pleasant interlude from the dusting and sweeping.” The tone is relentlessly cheerful about the daunting, exhaustive, and exhausting regime of solo housewifery. “ Those who must be both mistress and maid.” These women now had to run a home to high standards, unaided, during austerity and rationing, and they hadn’t been taught: The author was a former editor of Good Housekeeping, which has always tried to add glamour to domesticity, and many of the line drawings show women dressed more for allure than chores. It was for a very specific readership: middle-class women, raised with live-in staff or daily help, who have silverware, furs, and maybe a little chandelier to care for, and will be familiar with the works of Dickens. “ In some ways it has never been harder in others it’s much simplified from the days of plenty.” And is the rest of the day yours? Well, don’t forget the ironing, and mending or knitting. “ You should be free of the kitchen between 8 and 8.30pm. “ 1-2 ½ hours for the daily tidying 3-4 hours for shopping, cooking and washing-up, and 2-3 hours for house-cleaning, washing and other big jobs.