Long story short: I am in my early twenties, I live with my mother and so far when it comes to housework all I am in charge of is cleaning my bedroom and the occasional pitching in when cleaning the rest of the house (seldom). Yesterday, my mom went on a 10 day vacation/family visit (abroad) for ten days, leaving me in charge. Now my older brother also lives with us, but in true "50's fashion", I am expected to keep the house "together". Just so you don't think I am a complete spoiled-twenty-something-brat, In my defence, I am NOT used to cleaning the whole house or doing the majority of the chores. Obviously this explains my personal "bratty-ness" at the age that I am... So the coming days will be awesome! Not.
To explain/complain further: Already today I have washed some dishes, actually a lot of dishes thanks to my two friends peeping in yesterday demanding food and cake (not that it wasn't ok, it was nice ya'll (; ). And after that I have scrubbed the kitchen floor, folded laundry and whats yet to come: buying groceries and making dinner. Did I mention how excited I was about this?
Even if I am found of complaining, I can say that I have already after one day started to get more respect for my mother. She has done this way too long, especially for her two (grown up) lazy kids. And she does it with so much grace. All I can say is that these ten days will just be a "taste" of how real "adult" life is. Although, I do not plan on marrying someone who wont participate in all the household chores, so doing everything will not be an option! So in this day and age, we might claim to consist of 50/50 households, but is it really that "fair" in real life? I am not sure. I can't speak out of experience, but I personally think that women still do more household related work. And by looking at the "baking-trend" that has taken over large parts of Europe and America, the ideal of the traditional 1950's housewife can be claimed to have returned. So what does that say about us with all our feminism and gender equality knowledge?
I for once can't or wont try to answer all of these questions, and we are all aware of the huge development that has occurred in most countries. The overall social situation is significantly much better for both sexes, especially for women than what they were 50-60 years ago, but it also seems like some traditions and gender roles haven't changed much, even in these "feminism" days. I could go into a huge discussion about whether or not women are naturally more attracted to caring for others, housework and so on vs. Culture and its impact on training women to be more like this or that. But I wont. I have an exam in a couple of days, and (sadly) my own dinner to make.
So until my mom comes back, I will probably be more turned off at the prospect of marriage and so on, but I will definitely help out more around the house once shes back. And then I can maybe live up to the name of actually being an adult (an adult that lives with her mom, that is), cause clearly a "formal" age of legal majority isn't enough.
And just because google seems to be my best friend these days, I'm posting some fitting pictures and a link to Beyonce's song "Why don't you love me". If only the "1950's housewife" look came without the actual work... Then I bet we all would look like her...haha.
"How to be a 1950's houswife": http://missretroblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-be-1950s-housewife.html
<3
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