Advice from Miss Reed

"Let me give you this advice. It is the first and last I shall offer you. If you divide each day into sections and perform some useful task to timetable, the day will be over before you know it. You will be dependent on your own senses and not have to be flattered and admired in order to know that you exist." 

I knew I had read Jane Eyre multiple times for a reason.  And here it is, the useful tasks I aim to perform each day.

Monday: Load of laundry, scrub bathrooms (including floors)
Tuesday:  Load of laundry, scrub kitchen floor
Wednesday: Load of laundry, dust and vacuum living and dining room
Thursday: Load of laundry, dust and vacuum bedrooms
Friday:  Load of laundry, sew
Saturday: Read, Relax, Rest
Sunday: Church, make something fantastic for Sunday dinner
Everyday: Wash dishes, declutter rooms of toys, shoes, books, and mail, make lunch and dinner

Children as Idols

Issues, Etc.'s roundtable discussion on the challenges and joys of motherhood made me wonder how I would respond to the same questions.   Are children idols? From my classroom experience, yes, quite often.  Parents run their lives according to their children's sports teams and spelling tests.  It's no wonder we often choose to limit our families to one, two, or three children.  They seem more like personal assistants, neatly scheduling their children's lives, being careful not to double-book practices with family dinners or neighborhood playdates; gathering needed items for these neatly scheduled appointments; and personally accompanying them to every activity, checking with the adults "in charge" to be sure that they didn't forget anything their child might need.

What happened to responsibility?  When did we decide that children were too young to think and make decisions for themselves?  Our schools bend over backwards to deliver homework lists to the parents, rather than having the students write the homework in the assignment notebook.  (Surely you remember those- handy little inventions of spiral-bound calendars, plenty of blank space for filling in assignments, due dates, and lunch money reminders.)  We forgive late grades on assignments parents forgot to do.  We put the "OK" on the assignments done in (rather obviously) adult handwriting.  We call home when the child forgets the permission slip for the field trip, or the much-needed lunch money.  Why? Becaue parents always come to the rescue.  And if we don't give them that opportunity, we are to blame.

I just have a hard time picturing June Cleaver or Clair Huckstable running forgotten lunches and backpacks to the school to save their children from grumbling tummies or late grades.

And so it goes . . .

This is my attempt at a testimony of my life as a housewife.  May we all be that excellent wife who sees well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.