Housewife one of the most important jobs on earth

Housewifery: it's a word we don't hear very often today. The first reason is that the word has fallen out of common usage. The second reason is that among so many in our "advanced," "enlightened" society, housewifery, or the function and duties of being a housewife, or being a stay-at-home mom, are more often than not disdained.For example:OK, it's a trick question, but in my Women's Studies classes when we come to the chapter on "Women and Work," I always ask my students to raise their hands if their mother's work. About half the hands go up. I'll be at a social function and I'll hear someone ask a woman, "So what do you do for a living?" Too often I hear these replies, "Oh, I'm just a housewife," or "I'm only a stay-at-home-mom." A college dance troupe recently performed a modern dance routine. Energetic, emotive young women dressed in leotards and aprons — with dusters in their hands — simulated the drudgeries and the stifling and mundane horrors of housewifery. In the media I frequently hear vicious attacks leveled against a prominent politician because she's only "a soccer mom."Excuse me!How did we become a society that scorns housewifery, and why? Mothers that choose to stay-at-home and provide hands on care for their families have NOTHING to apologize for. They should all get GOLD MEDALS — DAILY — for the work they do. They should be lionized and feted and revered for their willingness to sacrifice self in behalf of others. Oh, how pedestrian a thought: forgive me. That's right, women should be out in that work-a-day, dog-eat-dog world earning a paycheck, because as we all know, what matters in this life is "ME," what title I hold, and how much money I make.BALONEY, and:When my students say their mothers don't work, I want to grab each one of them by the throat and scream, "Are you insane? More than likely your mother works longer and harder than any other person in your home. She's the glue that holds it all together." But I don't. I want to shake the apologetic mother who goes to bed late, gets up at night to care for sick children, crawls out early to get breakfast on the table, gets everyone off to school, and when the last one leaves resists the temptation to collapse back into bed in favor of cleaning the house, doing the wash, and fixing dinner. But I don't. She's been told far too long that unglamorous selflessness counts for nothing when so often it counts for everything.When I see energetic dancers prancing and mocking, rather than applauding their performance I want to yell out: Who washed your leotard? Whose apron are you wearing? Who endlessly drove you back and forth, back and forth, and gave up lunches with friends, weekend getaways, and fancy vacations so you could have dance lessons?Certainly there are plenty of women who engage in housewifery and hold a job outside the home as well. I fell in the stay-at-home category when my first five children were young and with my sixth I now fall in the latter category. Often the only difference between these two groups of women is that the woman that works outside the home now has TWO FULL-TIME JOBS.So the point of this column? To alert critics and denigrators to the vital role housewives play in society. To argue that CEOs have nothing on housewives except, perhaps, their job is easier. A housewife more often than not shops, cooks, cleans and chauffeurs for the family. She manages schedules, maintains the budget, oversees medical and dental care, tutors, organizes, orchestrates, nurtures, sustains and inspires. She is the most influential teacher her child will ever have. And the CEO? Well, could be he has a private secretary who is a woman trained in housewifery and able to apply that training to the job. It is not just housewives but society that is greatly harmed when we malign housewifery. These women are integral to an orderly, well-functioning society. We need to praise housewives and when we hear a cutting remark or apology, to challenge it and speak in their defense. Additionally, women in the home need to praise themselves, all they do, and all they are.Housewives, the next time someone asks you, "So, what do you do for a living," answer boldly and proudly, "I have probably one of the toughest but most important jobs on planet earth. I am a housewife."