The term 'housewife' makes no sense, do you agree? Well it annoys me....

Something ate my response! I still say housewife is a silly term with no meaning and I don't believe that I (or anybody) who chooses this as an occupation/profession is any 'less-than' someone who goes to school and takes out loans to become an attorney or a doctor. They learn to do and love what they do, so I have learned and loved what I do. There are sacrifices inherent to all jobs as well, it just isn't as hard when you have truly chosen what you end up doing.... Also, as far as a profession, someone whose 'job' is caring for a family is an accountant and bookkeeper, chef, taxi, teacher, psychologist, coach and cheerleader, doctor, housekeeper, among other things. That should fetch quite a salary on the auction or black market!

I don't think that any way you say it is any less of a job then that of a person who works outside the home. You still have a house to take care of, a child, and grocery shopping, balancing the checkbook, etc.

I have seen discussions here where someone titles it 'are you JUST a housewife' or 'how would you like to be only a housewife' or something like that. As you see, I obviously have some problems with the way it's represented, as well as the choice of word which I do not feel represents women or men who are the primary caretakers.

This term seriously makes no sense. I am tired, sick and tired, of seeing this word used all the time by people I would THINK are socially conscious, decent, educated individuals. Now I don't know, maybe some of them are not but one thing I very much dislike is the attitude some people have that goes along with the term. I have seen people say 'just a housewife'. JUST?! As in 'only'? Well that makes it sound like a low-down worth nothing job. On the contrary, this is a pretty IMPORTANT job. Listen up you CEOs, attorneys, doctors, and scientists! YOU might make a lot of money but does your job really do anything important? A small child cannot live without someone to take care of them. Your job would continue on without you, someone else could do it. Not so with a family. When someone else takes care of your family all the time, you have failed. It's called a divorce, abandonment, etc etc lol. Like I told someone else in another discussion, I am totally behind the idea of equality. I am totally for a single dad or a single mom, and a dad who takes care of the family and home while the mom goes to work is JUST as cool as a mom who takes care while the dad goes to work! This is not what I have a problem with. What I do have a problem with is anybody who looks DOWN on someone who chose to be a caretaker of their family AS a profession. That's all. I also would like the general term people use to make some solid sense, not just be a stupid made-up word that has a definition which is clearly not... meaningful.

Well like I said originally, the word is still dumb because I am not a housewife, and any woman who primarily takes care of her family and home is not a housewife. If you ARE one, then I guess you don't have a husband lol. There are actually some men I know who are the primary caretakers of the households. They take care of the kids and they cook and clean and pay bills and entertain and discipline everybody. I realize that it's much more likely for a woman to do that but that doesn't mean men cannot be excellent at it. Do I think in general it is HARDER for them to do it, even if they wanted to? Yes, I do. Men think in different ways and have to come up with ways of reminding/remembering to do many things women just do without thinking. I mean I'd make sure my daughter got a shower and didn't have her shoes on the wrong feet and wasn't wearing an orange tshirt and a maroon skirt... but there are days when daddy probably wouldn't notice, nor care lol. Men and women have different priorities, even as far as caring for kids.

Oh, you look really really really angry. That can't come overnight. Something must have happened in your personal life to give fire to your thoughts. Seems that you don't have a problem with the term 'housewife' but the way people look at wife who is taking care of her family. It is being said that behind every successful person there is a lady. It is a lady who gives strength to a man to become a business tycoon or become a world class player because it is the wife who sacrifices in her life. The other thing is that I don't think a guy can do house hold job better than a girl becaues men aren't that patient to take care of his children, belive it or not but we find it difficult.

Absolutely! People who believe there is nothing wrong with the term STILL think that it's a job low on the totem pole, as in 'just' or 'only', and they will cite things like you do cooking and cleaning and lousy chores that a lot of people really don't like doing. It would be nice to sit and do nothing, and that's actually accomplishable now and then but not consistently unless you employ someone to do all the stuff you're not doing lol. I guess that would defeat the purpose of you being there to do it, right?

My best friend and I make jokes about this all the time. As IF either of us get to sit there and watch soaps and eat bon bons. I can also tell you that I do NOT wear a dress, I don't go and put makeup on and get my hair blown out before my hubby gets home, nor do I wear an apron or say 'yes dear'. Puh-lease. I am as against the whole 'june cleaver' idea as you are, and I am as un-fifties as they come. However, I believe that any choice is acceptable, and should be. I also believe people should tailor their lifestyle to their priorities, so if you LOOOOVE your career and want to chase after it your whole life, you obviously don't want to have 10 kids. If you love kids and have enough money and have no interest in a career, maybe your chosen career is... to have 10 kids. See what I mean? All I'm saying is don't have a bunch of kids and then go to work for the next 25 years and never see them, or don't stay home and grumble for the next 25 years because you never wanted kids. Make your personality work with your chosen lifestyle and you'll be happy. I'll be honest too, I really dislike cleaning. I would take a housekeeper in a heartbeat. If I ever find someone cheap enough, I would even get someone to come weekly or twice a month NOW lol. If I work part time in the future, ONLY while my daughter is at school, I would definitely be able to hire somebody. It's not even that anything is messy, I just prefer to do other things and it's such a waste of time lol. I generally make plans of some sort every day. The few days I don't are usually days when something happens, so even a quiet day can easily be spiced up just by the luck of the draw. I know my sister doesn't like cooking, she probably feels it is as much of a waste of time as I feel about cleaning, but somehow both of us manage to do a passable job of both fairly often. Of course I should be sleeping too but I had something else to do online which is why I got up to do it real quick and look where that got me... back here again!

house slave... ha ha ha ha! Maybe in someone's messed up alternative dimension.

I once got all over my older daughter and reminded her that mom is spelled MOM and not SLAVE lol. Zookeeper of small poopie animals? I like that. So.. no, I didn't marry a house, I'm not a slave, and it's really silly to say i'm not employed either because I am - my boss is five years old...I don't tell her that part though.

Yep! Nothing wrong with being a wife - but a wife to my husband. I am not a wife to or for anything or anybody else lol. Also, the idea that people who don't leave for an office, plant, or some other location to punch into a time clock in the morning actually stay at home is completely ludicrous.... some people likely do but the assumption and thus the term 'stay at home' or a question of 'oh, you don't WORK so you stay at home' is a load of crap. Of course I work. I don't get a paycheck signed by a company every week though.

Totally! I'm sure that along with stilettos and bras, corsets and other torture devices, men were responsible for the term 'housewife'. Or perhaps it was one of those bra burning 'i'll never be barefoot and pregnant' women from the freedom movement that swore she'd climb to the top of the corporate ladder before the men! Stupid woman lol. I read this hilarious email once... about a man who arrived home late from work one evening. He pulled into his driveway to see his lawn littered with toys and his children running around half dressed outside. Horrified, he rushed inside. The front room was a mess, unvacuumed, clutter everywhere. He began to be worried about his wife. Rushing through the kitchen, he encountered dishes and mess everywhere, the trash overflowing, the pantry ransacked, and no dinner cooking. There was dog food all over and dog hair as well. Heading past the bathroom he noticed magazines on the floor, towels strewn all over, toilet paper wadded up and trailing down the hall, toothpaste in the sink, and fingerprints on the mirror. Upstairs there were dirty clothes on the floor, cups and napkins, a stack of bills unopened by the computer, etc. Going inside the bedroom, the bed was unmade, blinds unopened, laundry overflowing the hamper, and he could hear water running in the bathroom. He ran inside and there sat his wife, soaking blissfully in the bathtub reading a novel. WHAT HAPPENED?? he asked her. You always ask me what I do all day - she said. Well, today I didn't do it. That sums up what 'just a housewife' frigging DOES ALL DAY quite nicely. lol.

Well, if someone thinks so little of their profession or occupation that they WANT to be called 'just a plain (insert word here)', that's fine with me, but I will not sink down to that level myself. I take pride in what I do and I do love it most of the time. There are little irritations of course but none of them are as bad as having to deal with employer-related things. Even having a super cool boss did not make me LOVE my job, it was still a job, which to me meant a simple means to an end. It was something I had to do in exchange for money which gave me a nice life. It was nothing more, nothing less, I was good at what I did but in terms of fulfillment, there was ALWAYS something missing. Now that I get to spend time with my daughter, whatever was missing is not. I'm not super young any more and I really don't think I will ever find any sort of 'job' that rivals what I do now. It's too bad I don't get paid, I mean that would make it just about perfect. I guess since there's no monetary compensation, the least we could EXPECT from people is some respect and gratitude for the 24/7 hours, having to still perform when we are sick, and all the honors we should get for major multitasking! I daresay most executives would probably run for the hills after ONE day being the 'ceo' for a family of 5! Bye bye hour long corporate lunch break, leather chair, and quiet office. Bye bye associates and underlings who hang on your every word and try to impress you. Yeah right. Life isn't like that in the real world.

Well actually we do often hear the term house husband, at least in the West, to describe those men who have ignored the cultural gender roles and stay at home doing the domestic duties. Of course the macho crowd call them SNAGS (Sensitive NewAge Guys), although I always referred to myself in that role as a WIMP (Well Integrated Male Partner). Lash

The person who defined the term is clearly not familiar with the language. Regardless of how they wrote the definition, the word still smacks of... well something wrong. I have another discussion that talks about the whole 'stay at home' concept, another misconception. Not only do people who choose to take care of their families NOT marry their house, they don't STAY IN IT ALL THE TIME. I really am not sure what to think about all the responses from people who believe there is nothing wrong with the term. Of course, those are probably the same people who actually DO stay home all the time and get bored, OR they are the people who would never stay home and they work 85 hours a week instead. One more thing - no other job - as if a wife ought to have TWO jobs to be equal or 'compete' in society? Is that where people are truly going with this? Sometimes I almost feel like that's what people think, that in order to be on equal footing, women, especially MOTHERS - are expected to not only be a good mother and wife but also to work for an outside employer full time? Give me a break. How many MEN are expected, even underhandedly, to work TWO fulltime jobs in order to be considered a good man, husband, father? Heh. But people routinely almost expect a woman to have a career on top of taking care of her family. You can't imagine how much this attitude disappoints me, it's 2009.... everything ought to be acceptable, from a woman on the moon, fighting on the front line, to a Mr. Mom with 10 kids and no wife or a man who works and a woman who takes care of her family. Seriously.