3 ms·

I had a period of time where I had to stay with my folks because of a period of not quite making enough money following Hurricane Katrina, so because of the shi

I had a period of time where I had to stay with my folks because of a period of not quite making enough money following Hurricane Katrina, so because of the shift work, I got a first hand view of my mom's routine as a housewife. Basically, she'd mop, do some laundry, and start cooking about 4pm. Her overall labor took about 1 - 2.5 hours a day, maybe a bit more if she needed to go grocery shopping. Essentially, not much more than any single person would do anyway, with a bit maybe shifted toward the weekends. So then my dad retired, and he expected to behave like a retiree. He helps out: mopping, washing clothes, even cooking occasionally. She's constantly trying to find him extra stuff to do outdoors. Why? Because she enjoyed the domestic side of the domestic life of a housewife: spending hours watching tv and / or gossiping with her friends in the comfort of her home. For 30 years, she had a routine, and was essentially married to the routine as much as the man.

mooreds 7y ago
To be fair, things were probably a bit different when she had kids at home.
- MisterBastahrd 7y ago
  Well, sure during the summer. But then the fall would happen and she would have the place to herself again. The neighborhood was full of single-paycheck households and the women were almost all the same age with similarly aged kids, so the families basically all bonded through the mothers first, then the kids, and finally the fathers. The women largely learned how to get along, the kids all did, and the fathers did to a degree but they had the largest separation in personality and past times, probably because they had the least free time / most money and wanted to make it count.