So it turns out, I must retract an entire blog entry for fear my mother will disown me. We were chatting the other night and she told me how offended she was by my blog entry "The roles of Man and Wife" because she did in fact work once we were in school....I guess I forgot? I didn't feel too badly though, because I truly didn't remember her working...what I remember is mom sending us off to school every morning with a kiss and pat on the head, and then we would come home for lunch most days and she was there waiting with smiles and hugs at 3:30 when school was out, ready to give us an after school snack. So it sure felt like she didn't "work".
But she corrected me saying that she went into the office (mom and dad own a company) and did all of the admin work as well as book keeping...now I remember her doing that when I was older...so perhaps I just got the time lines mixed up. Needless to say, now I am even more impressed because not only did mom work at the office she really made it feel like she was always home to care for us as well. Not only that, but when we started elementary school, she would volunteer in our classrooms! Even when we were in Jr. High and High school, she was home to see us out the door (or drive us to school), and packed our lunches everyday with yummy things, and my favorite part was the notes she would draw on the napkins for us: "have a sunshiny day" "Love you" "have fun" always with a little drawing of a smiling sun, flower, rainbow, butterfly or something equally as sweet....what a way to make your kids feel utterly loved.
So even though they did both work, I will still maintain my title "The roles of man and wife" simply because I did not see dad ever do any "domestic duties" in fact I am pretty sure he still does not know how to turn on the washing machine...and probably has never heard of an iron! One of my favorite memories of dads attempt at domestication was when mom was out of town for a week and he had to take care of us. Thankfully we are still alive today! His first task was to make our lunches. Mom had bought some deli meat to last for the week. School rolled around on Monday and I pulled my ginormous sandwich out of my bag...two slices of white wonderbread, smothered in butter and mayo and about a pound of meat inside. He had used up all of the meat in one sandwich...total Lornie style...bigger is better. Shayne, who was at a different school experienced the same thing...we came home and laughed about it together afterwards. Neither of us could even eat the sandwich because it was just too damn meaty. We were thankful when mom came back home.
Perhaps we adopt certain male and female "roles" simply because we are better at performing those tasks. I certainly don't fix the plumbing, or cut crown molding or lay tile like Ivan does...but then again I know quite a few women who do....I guess it is up to us to find out what we are good at, yet to always be open to helping or learning a new skill. Two years ago I painted the ceiling of our home...never done that before...and quite frankly, no need for me to do it again...that can be the man role...as can emptying the trash...tried it once or twice and it sucked. I will stick to my role in the kitchen....I like it there..it always smells good. Enjoy!
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