Modern Life

So, I get these ideas, but I hesitate to share them, because I don't have solid data to back it up. I base my thoughts on observing those around me, and on my reading, which hasn't been prolific for a long time. But I'll throw an idea out here that I've been pondering and see where it goes.

Even though there currently seems to be an increase in the popularity of being a stay-at-home mother, at least while children are young, I'm not sure that we will ever see moms staying at home with children again at the level of, say, a hundred years ago. Now, I would like to see mothers staying at home with their children, and, horror of horrors, maybe even staying home just as wives to maintain the home with no kids around. I don't want to thrash out here all the reasons it is best for moms to be at home, just that why I think many moms still won't do it.

For me, it's all about how people will avoid everything they possibly can. As humans, we take the easy way out, even if the harder route is better. That's a duh moment, really, but I think it is behind so much. Take cooking. Lots of people don't like to cook. I'm not particularly fond of it. If I could ever afford it, I'd hire a cook before I'd hire a maid. Now, my husband is a born cook. He loves to tinker around with recipes and flavors. I've increased my cooking skills because of my husband, which gives me more enjoyment, but I'd probably scarcely do it all if I didn't have to do so. But I do cook because it is healthier and less expensive. With today's options, however, people don't have to cook, so many don't. That is, unless you call warming something up in a microwave, "cooking."

Or take sewing. Did you know that Laura Ingalls Wilder did not like sewing? And neither did Ma? But in those days, unless you could afford a seamstress, you did not have a choice. Ma had a family of six to clothe, and so she had to sew, and she taught her daughters to sew, because they would need to clothe themselves and their own families someday. Some writers, like L. M. Montgomery, decried the sewing machine as impersonal, arguing that clothes were more special when made by hand, that one could imbue the garment with loving thoughts as one made each stitch. Ma, on the other hand, was thrilled with acquiring a sewing machine, because it made the process easier and quicker. She looked at it purely from a practical viewpoint. Today, people don't even need a sewing machine, and of course many people don't know how to sew. Any type of garment today can be purchased, at all price and quality levels.

Just as new advances enabled people to give up household tasks they did not wish to perform, women today can almost completely give up the household. I don't pretend to know all the reasons why women working out of the home became such an approved option, but most of the mothers of today I personally know who are working, do so because they prefer it. Yes, they also enjoy the bigger home, the newer cars, the fancy vacations and so on. But many women just don't seem to want to be at home. I do think many could be happy at home just the same, if they chose to be. That sounds sanctimonious, but I think it's true. I don't believe women of yesteryear always enjoyed every task they had to perform, but at that time, most of them had no choice. If you were going to be happy, you had to decide to do so in spite of circumstances.

But today with so many more options, we women (and men) don't often have to live with things that we don't enjoy. I'm guilty myself, of course, of wanting to avoid unpleasant tasks, and not being content with the incredible gifts I have. I do enjoy staying at home, and it's what I've always wanted. In a world of fallen humans, however, I'm not sure that enough women either want to do it, or will choose to do it.