Tips to Look After Your Husband - Part One

Like the majority of people on the planet, I'm a Facebook user.  Facebook is the hub for anyone that wants to connect with friends and family, share every detail of their lives, find out the latest news, and read really funny memes.  Most of traffic I get and will get to this blog will come from Facebook, because it's where I share my posts.  I'll admit, the majority of my Facebook usage comes from scrolling through posts to get a little chuckle from funny videos and memes. 

Even though it's hard to see, the photo above is one of those funny things I found on Facebook.  It's entitled "Tips to Look After Your Husband", and it's an extract from a 1950 Home Economics Book.  Boy, have times changed.  In the 50's, men went out to work, and the women stayed at home to take care of the house and children.  That was her job.  She was required to take care of cleaning, cooking, doing whatever the kids needed done, and then taking care of her husband when he got home from work.  There are many women that have the privilege of having that job, nowadays, but life is still far, far different from the "wife requirements" of the 50's.

Going through each of these "tips", I couldn't help but compare how it was then to how it is now.  During the summer, I'm a housewife/ stay-at-home mom.  One of the perks of being a teacher means I get to spend a little over two months at home, while my husband is out in the blazing heat working his rear off.  I consider myself a pretty good housewife, and my husband tells me all the time that he feels very spoiled about how well I take care of him.  Which got me thinking... how does the way I take care of my husband compare to how women did it back in the 50's?  Today and tomorrow, I'll dissect this article and compare myself to a 1950's housewife. 

1.  Have Dinner Ready

Good place to start, being that I blogged about this yesterday.  "Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal on time".  HA!! You're joking, right?  My idea of planning ahead is grabbing something out of the freezer in the morning, and then around 3 PM deciding what I'm going to do with it.  Most nights, I try and have dinner ready when Casey gets home.  Some nights, I call him and tell him I've ordered a pizza and he needs to pick it up on the way home, or he needs to pick up some take-out because I don't feel like cooking.  But, for the most part, there is food when he gets off work.  I think about him, I know he's going to be hungry, but as long as there's something to eat, he's totally fine.  

2.  Prepare Yourself

Seriously?  Prepare myself?  My poor husband is lucky if I've made it out of my pajamas when he gets home.  And most of the time, he's not lucky.  Why on earth would I wear make-up when I'm home all day?  I understand that my husband has spent his day with a bunch of sweaty, dirty, stinky guys - no offense to any of those people, I'm talking about the line of work - but, I'm not going to doll myself up because of it.  I'm perfectly happy and interesting without make-up on and my hair did.  There are days when I wonder if my husband thinks I've totally given up on myself, being that I look exactly the same as I did when he leaves the house.  I guess I could work harder on making sure I at least get dressed each day.  However, I'm pretty sure if Casey came home and I was in make-up with my hair fixed, he'd wonder what the heck I'd been up to all day.

3.  Clear Away the Clutter

OK, so finally we find a tip I actually follow.  Every day, Casey always lets me know when he's on his way home because it's a different time each day.  I use his little head's up as a great opportunity to run through the house to make sure it looks decent.  I have to confess that I don't spend all day, every day cleaning.  I make the bed each morning, I wash dishes each day, run the vacuum around every other day, and do laundry when it needs to be done.  About once a week, I'll dust everything, and I scrub my bathroom every couple of weeks.  My "daily duties" take me anywhere from half an hour to a couple of hours, depending on what I do.  The rest of the time, I'm working on my writing or watching Judge Mathis, The People's Court, Fixer Upper, Chopped, Dr. Phil, and Judge Judy.  However, I do like Casey to come home to a house that looks and smells clean.  While he's driving home, I'll do a quick run-through to make sure that everything is straightened up.  It makes me feel good when he comes home and says "the house looks great, babe", when all I've done is straightened and got rid of any clutter.  Sssshhh... don't tell him my secret, though, cause I know he thinks I spend WAY more time cleaning than I really do.  HA!

4.  Prepare the Children

No, no, and urm...no!  My kids are all old enough to clean themselves.  Now, eventually there will be another little one running around the house, and I'll do my part to make sure that little one is clean, but I'm not going to go out of my way to make sure our child is "presentable" just because Daddy is coming home.  If Casey gets home and our little one has food on his/her face or clothes, or his/her hair isn't combed, oh well.  Our children are OUR little treasures, and I know Casey will be much happier knowing our child has eaten well and had a fun day than looking all squeaky clean.  That's just not even realistic.. psh.

5.  Minimize All Noise

This one doesn't really count, because our house is pretty quiet most of the time.  By the time he gets home, there's no vacuuming and if the washer is running, he won't know because our washer and drier are pretty quiet.  The only noise he's going to come home to is the TV.  That's not because of me trying to make sure the house is quiet for him, it's just the way our house is.  It's nice to see that women were allowed to use dishwashers back in the 50's.  Did you know there were dishwashers in the 50's?  I didn't.  I thought the women WERE the dishwashers.  I guess they have one up on me, because even though I have a dishwasher, I don't use it.

And that's the first five tips to looking after your husband.  Tomorrow, I'll go over the last five from the article.  What do you think?  How much different is being a housewife now compared to back then?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!!