“But they just get dirty again!” wailed the seven-year-old when he was reminded that he still had his weekly chores of sweeping the porches to complete.
And therein lies the first lesson of housework.
There is much to be said for a house well scrubbed and polished. It generates a good feeling both for the owner and the visitor. It is then that all agree that cleanliness is next to Godliness.
I truly enjoy those rare moments when the house is clean from the closets out. There is a real sense of luxury to know that all is done. It is then alone, that I can curl up with a good book free of all guilt feelings about what I should be doing.
But too soon the morrow comes and there is sand on the floor, dust on the table and clothes overflowing the hamper. It’s all to be done again…and again…and again…
Recently, a national woman’s magazine carried the results of its survey about homemakers’ attitudes about housework. Typical of such surveys, the magazine ran a questionnaire in one issue and tallies were made from those returned. While such statistics depend entirely on the reader’s willingness to answer and mail back the questionnaires, over 50,000 women chose to respond. (As one who has a hard time getting a stamp on the letter she’s finally written her mother, I’m overwhelmed by people who actually return such forms.)
The general consensus of the modern homemaker is that of one who runs her house rather than letting the house run her. I think the modern machines - the washer, the dryer, the dishwasher, etc. more than anything else, offer the luxury of such an attitude. I’m certain that our foremothers who had to boil the clothes to clean then often felt ‘ran.’
The magazine editors admitted that “one of the most astonishing revelations to emerge…was the absence of any clear-cut difference between full-time homemakers and full-time working women insofar as their attitudes toward housework were concerned. Both groups were equally relaxed about their standards of cleanliness…and felt that time with their families was the most important time.”
To me, the best part of the article, the most enjoyable, lies not in the fact that so many others feel as I do about this thing called housework. Rather I was most impressed by the creative thrust which emerged in expressing these ideas. Some were so well said, that I almost felt as if I should take on their household chores and let them write the weekly column.
Of course, many described housework as a “necessary evil.” (I think I can still do better than that.) My three favorite comments which I would like to call my own (and probably will in a few years include the one from a California homemaker. “However, like death and taxes, there it (housework) is.” A woman from New York writes, “My basic theory is - If I don’t do it today, it will be there tomorrow. And if I do it today, it will be there again tomorrow.” And also from the California lady, “I say no one likes housework, but you know when the copper gleams and the tables glow and the house smells fresh and the fire the fireplace reflects the polished floor, I do get a smug feeling of accomplishment and a lovely camaraderie with women over the years.”
So there we have it. No one probably really enjoys the labor, but the fruit is sweet.
And so, come Saturday, I will remind the youngest that he still has the porches to sweep and he will complain, as usual, “but they just get dirty again!”
And they do.
1976
Comments