"I'm just a housewife"

I was watching Perfect Housewife the other night, and it struck me how often we put down our occupation, and therefore, ourselves. One of the hapless housewives featured on the show was asked how she described herself to people, and she shrugged, looked down at the floor, and said, "I'm just a housewife." How many of us have been guilty of this? I know I have, on numerous occasions, said exactly this, accompanied by an apologetic little shrug of the shoulders. I foudn this especially true in the period after I left paid employment. It was as if I had defined myself by what I did for a living - I wasn't Sarah, the person; I was Sarah, the 'merchandise manager with Australia's largest department store'. Suddenly, I was at a loss, as surely being a housewife could not measure up to that.

After a few months of being at home and being unhappy, I stumbled across a book called Happy Housewives by Darla Shine. While a lot of it is a little too"perky" for my taste, it did make me realise that I needed to take pride in what I do - surely creating a happy and healthy home and life for my husband and child was just as important - no, make that more important, than anything else I could be doing. Now when people ask me what I do, I say with pride, "I am a housewife".

Today, I encourage all of you out there to banish the phrase "I'm just a housewife" and start saying what it is we do with pride, because we're not just housewives, we're fantastic housewives!!

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