Happy Housewives

Happy housewives are not a rarity. When I was in school, I was told that motherhood is the most fulfilling profession in the world. Certainly when one considers how challenging and difficult it is to bring up children, especially in this day and age and how rewarding raising a well-behaved child is, one can’t help but agree. Many wives believe that one can’t be a great mother and full-time career woman at the same time.

“I worked before I had a baby, but once I did, I gave up working,” says Shobha Jayakumar. “I didn’t want to leave him in a creche and I wanted to be around when he got back from school. Kids deserve attention and you can’t give them that when you’re all tense from a job.” Shobha says she enjoys the home life and likes to cook. “It’s wonderful not having to suffer from the pressures of work,” she adds.

I myself gave up my half-day job as copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather Direct to look after my baby for two years.

Vanitha Rangan, free lance writer working from home says emphatically that she is a housewife first and foremost and has taken up writing so that she doesn’t stagnate mentally.

“Being a housewife is a most varied and multi-faceted job,” she says. “You’ve got to know how to handle people right from your ‘Gurkha’ to your milkman and your maid. You also get to express your creativity in the way you decorate your home.

And I’m very organized as a cook. I like to tell where the chilly powder is in even in the dark. I’m fussy about health and hygiene and try not to keep left over food since it’s not good for you physically or spiritually.”

So is she house-proud? “Yes, but I’m not fanatical about being neat and tidy. You won’t find cockroaches in my house though.”

And motherhood? “Right from the start I thought that being a good mother is very important. I was always available for my kids when they needed me. I can choose the jobs I take up and that is real liberation.

Says the young homemaker Arthi Shrinivas who has no kids yet,”I was working with a computer firm and when they closed down, I stopped working too. I enjoy life at home. I get enough time for my husband and relatives and I love to cook all day. I spend two to three hours with housework in the mornings and half an hour in the evenings. I have no maid and I prefer not to.

Maids are most unreliable and never do things the way you want them to be done. In my free time I like to read comics – I’m still a kid that way, and I love to talk to my neighbours and sometimes do some knitting. If I had a kid, I’d definitely stay home and look after it, no question about that. ”

So you out there, reading these words – if you’re a housewife, remember that it’s as challenging as any other job.