These questions are.....interesting....kind of gender specific which in my opinion is sad.....kind of "traditional"...but I do want to answer them.
I'm joining in on the Tuesday 4 meme hosted by this blogger.
Let's talk about Moms and Wives and other unpaid domestic servants.
1. Have you ever found yourself in the same position as this lady? How did you feel about it?
Yes and no. I felt this way when camping BUT...I chose it. I felt like my husband worked so hard to set up the pop up, after working all week (I was a teacher but my hours were fewer and for awhile, I had summers off!) that I should be the one to do the clean up. We had an agreement: he would usually do most of the cooking over the campfire or camp stove and I would do the clean up, giving him a chance to relax, play with the girls, etc.
At home, we share the duties and always have. Typically I prefer to clean up the kitchen myself (yay for dishwashers and for daughters trained to clear their own spots at the dining room table) as I'm kind of picky about how to clean the kitchen. Dave definitely helps though. Marriage, my friends, is all about sharing the load.
2.. Women do the cooking, the cleaning up and the organizing while the rest of the family reap the rewards of that.. is it fair?
If you are a woman who does "the cooking, the cleaning up and the organizing..." and feel resentful about it, then that's on you. Use your voice, train your children to do chores within age appropriate limits, and stop with the old fashioned gender roles. Good grief. Now, if you love doing all the cooking, cleaning, etc then that's fine. I actually prefer to do most of the cleaning my self, mainly because I have more time than husband does. But when it comes to big events, he always helps out. I rarely have to ask.
3. Vacations at air b&bs or rental homes often mean Mom does all the work. What kind of holiday or vacation would be most restful for you?
Thankfully, when we are on vacation, we continue to share the load. We also are much more relaxed about things on vacation. My most restful vacation is when we rent a cottage on one of my fave Adirondack mountain lakes. We always treat ourselves to a couple of dinners out which is super fun and supports one of the mountain town's local businesses.
4. In Proverbs 31, the wife is married to a very prominent man in town. She runs the house, has a cottage industry, owns vineyards on her own and buys and sells real estate.
What kind of woman are you? Do you hold a job.. do you do the housework.. do you find rewards in service to others or do you find it can be wearing on you or perhaps a little bit of both.
I was a full time special education preK teacher when we met, got married and had our daughters. However, I was blessed to have a one year maternity leave. I was also blessed to have our oldest girl in a daycare center which was on the same campus as my teaching job. I stayed home full time with her from when she was 2-6. When my youngest was born, my oldest was 5.5 yrs old and when my youngest was 8 months old, I had her in a private Christian home daycare and went to work 3 days a week. I loved it. Once she was in 1st grade, I returned to teaching full time. I do the bulk of the housework because I'm the one with shorter hours. Now that I'm retired, I'm much more relaxed about the house. I keep it clean and organized so it's easy. Dave does most of the yardwork but I also have helped with that. He has to do the bulk of the snow removal, etc in winter and we both share cooking duties/cleaning up of the kitchen. I do the food shopping although he's definitely helped with that at times. I don't find it wearing at all. It's life! I do find rewards in serving others but it's definitely not my primary love language (Acts of Service). My youngest daughter's primary love language is Acts of service.
What earthly rewards do you get out of the life you are living?
Hm...earthly rewards?? I guess, I'm blessed that I married a man 6 years younger who still has an amazing health insurance plan (totally paid for by the company he is a computer tech for) and that he continues to work full time and will do so for at least another 10 years. Our mortgage was paid off just after Covid. I got to retire a few years earlier than I wanted (due to some spine issues) and feel like my earthly rewards are my husband's love and care, seeing my 2 young adult daughters thriving on keepign their apartments nice, paying their own bills, having good careers. My other earthly reward is attending and being a member of an amazing large church with over 75 different ministries/groups to participate in. I've been blessed to be able to have a MS degree, a job I absolutely loved, money in the bank for emergencies and overall good health and fun vacations. We are fairly frugal so can now do some more traveling as we approach our mid 60s (for me) and late 50s (Dave). We saved money for good quality kayaks and enjoy time with those. We were able to send both girls to colleges (thanks to both earning academic scholarships and my paycheck!) of their choice and now they both have settled for now in the Capital Region of NY so are near by. God has been good to us. there have been ups and downs and I fear for our nation, currently, but we know our citizenship is in Heaven and that reward will far exceed any of these earthly ones.
HAPPY TUESDAY AND HAPPY APRIL!!!