Homemaking is one of the most under paid, under appreciated jobs. With little immediate return on your investment, you may wonder why homemaking is important anyways.
I get it. In today’s society homemaking is not a popular topic of conversation. It isn’t a career for climbing the corporate ladder. It isn’t a “path to success” in the world’s terminology. And it most certainly isn’t going to make you rich quick.
College Doesn’t Have a Course “Why Homemaking is Important”
Ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be a wife and a mother. I pictured that I would follow the typical Mennonite pattern of marrying young and not have to finish high school. And I wouldn’t have to think about college because I most certainly would be married before then!
Ha! Was I wrong!
Towards the end of my junior year of high school I realized I better make some college plans because there was no hint of marriage anywhere near.
I decided to go to college because that’s what you do after high school. I didn’t know what I wanted to be in the work force and “Homemaking” wasn’t a major. So, like many other wandering teens, I chose a very expensive private college and started taking general courses.
After floundering through my first year of college I decided that it was not for me. Why go into thousands of dollars of debt for a degree I probably wasn’t going to use and I most certainly was not passionate about?
So I quit.
And I finally had the guts to tell people my real desire in life: to be a wife and a mother. To be a homemaker.
Let me tell you, this did not go over well with people.
“A wife and a mother!? You don’t even have a boyfriend!”
“You should be in college. You are too smart to be a stay-at-home mother.”
“But you could be anything you want!”
And to that last reaction my response became, “Thank you. A wife and mother is ‘anything I want to be.'”
Still there was no husband on the horizon for me.
Over the next few years I rediscovered my passion for farming and took a job milking cows. Again, the reactions! And again I would respond, “Thank you. I am ‘doing anything I want.'”
A Man Who Understands Why Homemaking is Important
Finally, after I had long been deemed “an old maid” by all my Mennonite family, I fell in love with and married the most wonderful man. A man with a similar background as mine who did not think I was crazy for wanting to be a wife and a mother. A man who fully appreciates my contribution to our family as a homemaker. [Related Post: About Me]
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Why Homemaking Is Important
Picture all of society as being one of those old fashioned wagon wheels. Now picture the home as the hub of that wheel. The central location. The solid, central piece that anchors all the spokes. The most important part of the wheel.
If you think about it, the wheel can function for a short time if it is missing a spoke or two. The wheel could even function for a bit if it was missing an outside rim section between two spokes.
But if that center hub was missing, the wheel could not even make one rotation without crumbling to bits.
The home is the place every member of society is born into. The structure, stability and atmosphere of the home will, for the most part, determine what quality of member is sent out into society.
Children are raised, nurtured and have their world view shaped in the home – the hub of the wheel. Then as they get older, they start venturing out into society by going to school or joining sports or other clubs. Just like the spoke of the wheel is tethered to the hub, children are still tethered to the home at this point, but have a larger range to discover and explore.
When a child becomes an adult, they fully join society – the outside rim of the wheel – but can still find their way home through a spoke. If they choose, they can begin their own family and form their own hub of a wheel.
Depending how a child maintains their connection (spoke) to the home (hub) will determine the strength and integrity of the wheel. A child raised to be confident, hard working and taught to dream will add to the strength of the outer rim of the wheel because they won’t have to look to peers for approval and acceptance. From any point on the wheel they can look home for a reminder of who they are. They can be sure of their course and achieve great things.
Consider the importance of your mothering role through this poem by William Ross Wallace:
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Rules the World
by William Ross Wallace (1819-1881)
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace.
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy’s the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mothers first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow —
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission,
Here upon our natal sod;
Keep – oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky —
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Homemaking is Not Just Cleaning and Cooking
Homemaking is the art -Yes! it’s an art – of creating a warm, welcoming, comfortable atmosphere for the family. Usually this involves cleaning and cooking, but there is so much more to it.
It is making first-time discoveries with your children. Homemaking is teaching life lessons. It is creating a safe place to fail in life lessons.
And as much as you want your children to think for themselves, homemaking is also shaping and teaching world views: the lens through which your child will see the world. What a great responsibility! What power!
The Practical Side of Why Homemaking is Important
As a homemaker, you are in charge of all the practical, mundane aspects of the home as well.
You are a:
- Wife
- Mom
- Doctor/Nurse
- Accountant
- Cook
- Cleaner
- Chauffer
- Counselor
- Mentor
- Referee
- Frog Catcher
- Life Guard
- Entertainer
- Teacher
- Rule Enforcer
- Protector
- Gardener
- Toy Fixer
- Bargain Hunter
- Money Saver
- Laundry Boss
- Seamstress
And so many more roles that I haven’t listed! If you are a work-outside-the-home mom, you are even more! You. Are. Everything!
I can think of no other career that is as diverse as homemaking. Homemaking is indeed an art to be learned in the school of life. We will mess up. We will second-guess ourselves. We will get scoffed at for our “career choice.”
But no matter who you are, it is the most influential career that shapes society. And that is why homemaking is important.
Thanks, Kim! Yes! I, too, need to continually work at being less judgmental in lots of areas! I think me wanting to milk cows was the most bizarre for my friends to wrap their heads around 😉
I love this! I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom too. It’s a demanding job that doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. Thanks for pointing that out. I love that woman have choices these days on what they want to be. I just wish we’d all be a little less judgmental with one another if our choices are different.(not saying that you are at all) How simple is it to let people be what they want and be happy for them.