Opinions on housewives ?

**Teutone** · 09-13-2021, 07:42 PM

Most honerable women for me, living like god commands.

All my female ancestors were housewifes.

**Finnish Swede** · 09-14-2021, 05:04 AM

Originally Posted by Breathe

Well you should understand that money isn’t everything. I don’t understand why some people look down on women to choose children over making money. It has been the norm for thousands of years.

I? Just said how people generally will see that here (North Europe). If you do not want to hear answers, please do not go to ask.

I do not think anybody will look one down as such (not here anyway), but they might wonder/question will that really be the wisest decision at longer run? Just as conditions & circumstances can change (in lifetime). Most of the mothers who are staying home today are immigrants. Maybe they want that? Maybe that comes from culture? In the end for many it is also the only option. Not enough skills in local language, no education => they could not find jobs even if wanted.

Over all nobody can decide behalf of you. It is yours call. I would never go to ask this kind of questions. I will (and can) make my own decisions.

Money can be almost everything, if one has it too less (today's societies). Much too often money is also partly behind of divorces, or fights of it. If one has it enough or even too much, it looses its importance. What is enough is personal issue.

**~~Komintasavalta~~** · 09-14-2021, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by sean

A typical housewife 100+ years ago would have spent the majority of her time cleaning the house and preparing the food (domestic chores).

I think women spent more time producing textiles than cleaning. Spinning alone took a lot of time, even though at least in Finland it was work that was given to children.

And it's not like wives had to do all womens' jobs themselves, because they had children or female servants or older family members living with them.

So if a wife was awake for 16 hours per day, there's no way she spent over 8 hours making food and cleaning alone.

Other jobs that women had to do:

Spoiler!

In order to make a linen yarn, first the flax seeds are sown. Later weeds are removed from a flax field. Then flax plants are pulled from the ground with their roots. Then they are put to dry for about a week. Then seeds and leaves are extracted. Then the flax is soaked until pieces of the flax rot and become separated from the flax fiber, after which the flax is taken to a sauna to dry. Then there are about three different steps where further parts of the flax are mechanically extracted (in Finnish loukuttaminen, lihtaaminen, and häkylöinti). Then the flax still needs to be spun, which takes forever.

At least in Finland, it was also common for people to walk to church even if they lived 10 or 20 km away from church, so some people might have spent 5% of their weekly waking hours just walking to church and back. Or even if they rowed a boat to church, a typical rowing speed is around walking speed or a bit faster.

**KirillMazur** · 09-14-2021, 02:46 PM

The best occupation for women. My wife, my mother and one of my grandmothers are all housewives, they all worked in their lives purely symbolically - six months or a year. In Russia, the attitude towards housewives is on the verge of envy and respect, many women want to be them, but not everyone has the opportunity.
As for degradation, degradation (+ wear and tear of the body) in monotonous hired work is noticeably greater, since less time is left for oneself (+ stress).
Plus, a housewife wife is an additional motivation for me, any man who has a backing and is expected at home will be happier and achieve more than a loner.
According to my observations, a woman who works in a women's team often becomes a bitch (the influence of bitch colleagues), while a woman working in a men's team becomes rude and sooner or later will cheat on you. In any case, it would be unpleasant for me if at work to my wife some colleague or boss would try to crawl into her panties.

**Dušan** · 09-14-2021, 03:00 PM

Professional achievements and career of woman is not important for me. I wouldn't mind if she is housewife, it's nice.

**Ylla** · 09-16-2021, 01:50 PM

People here seem stuck in the past, with a romanticised view of life. Nothing wrong with that, but how are we supposed to discuss any subject that is relevant to us today? I really struggle to talk openly about modern problems.
There is little incentive for women to be housewives after their children reach a certain age. In my opinion, as long as what they do is in service to their families and God, be it careers or otherwise, then it's not our place to have an opinion about it.

**Oneeye** · 09-16-2021, 03:26 PM

It's a privilege that most don't have.

**JosephK** · 09-16-2021, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by Oneeye

It's a privilege that most don't have.

Yep. Housewives are a sign than an economy is functioning well.

**Bassel** · 10-07-2021, 10:44 PM

I think everyone has the freedom to choose the lifestyle that suits them the best, but I think that people should generally try to have a greater purpose to achieve in life, something that's beyond just reproductive biology as it wouldn't be very different from the other members of Animalia. When children are involved in relationship matters though, I usually take a different approach, but in this case the prolonged involvement of a mother with her child can't be negative to the child's healthy development within normal standards. When no child is involved on the other hand, I think it's quite difficult to relate to a housewife on a mental level, as the dedication is now fully to the husband, yet - it leaves a gap on the wife's side, considering her role outside of the house and to her community. Life is fairly easier when there are two source of income in a house rather than the balance of the scale tipping only towards the muscles of the husband, and this accounts for something especially in less-fortunate economies where the husband often has to work twice as much to provide for what's now plus-one mouth and body next to themselves, much worse in the presence of a child as now the count rises up to three, and the time the child spends around their father is perhaps reduced as much. Society-wise, if all women were to become housewives, that would effectively render half of the population non-productive, and seen from an economic POV, that is -50% the workforce, and a great potential wasted. I personally hold it in an unfavorable light, as the benefits of the alternative outweighs the benefit of being a housewife. I mean, can you imagine how unstimulating it must've been to be a housewife to a low-mid income household in the middle ages?