Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ora!daemon
From: rwilson@sol.uvic.ca (Rich Wilson)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: "Household Engineering"
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.124826.1003@sol.UVic.CA>
Date: 5 Jan 91 04:47:40 GMT
References: <randy.662888477@s.ms.uky.edu>
Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz)
Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria B.C. CANADA
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Approved: ambar@ora.com

In article <randy.662888477@s.ms.uky.edu> randy@ms.uky.edu (Randy Appleton) writes:

[in reference to the phrase "household engineer"]

>Oh Gawd, what a terrible euphamism!  I don't mean to come down on what
>my mom would call a housewife, but those duities do *not* fit with
>what I think of when I think of an engineer.

>"Household engineer" sounds too much like "Sanitation engineer"; a
>title designed to add respect to a very common occupation, but one
>that ends up degrading it thru sarcasm.  Not that I think you mean it
>sarcastically, but ....

>Perhaps homemaker is already an honorable profession.

To each her own but I refer to myself as "wife and mother" when asked
my occupation.  I feel very valuable when describing myself as this
because I feel that for myself raising children is THE most important
job in the world!  If someone were to say "just" a wife and mother, or
underestimate the value of what I do then I just think they are very
silly and aren't thinking straight.  I am very proud of what I do and
I think I do it quite well.  My children have no doubt that they are
so very loved and valued and important people.  For them to feel that
way takes continual personal growth and honest self-assessment and
authenticity on my part.  Most other occupations don't require this to
nearly the same degree so no way could I feel that what I do is
'easier' or less valuable.

The rewards are pretty incredible too.  Today I took a nap and when I
got up my nine year old daughter said she had a surprise for me.  She
had tidied up the living room and dining room and vacuumed them.  She
said "I did it for you Mum because I love you so much and you're the
best Mum in the whole world" and gave me a big hug.  My children are
always doing nice things for me because they want to show their love
for me.  I just can't begin to describe how loved and blessed I feel.
Of course the best reward of all is seeing them growing up as happy,
secure, joyful little people.  God they are adorable!  And smart, kids
are so smart and so sharp.  I think they deserve a lot more respect as
people than society generally gives them.

So what I hear when someone says that staying home to raise children
is not as valuable as whatever is that they are really saying that
children are not as valuable as whatever.  Unfortunately our society
at present seems to hold the attitude that property, money, wealth,
power, material things are infinitely more important and valuable than
children are.  What a total load of sad and dangerous crap!

I personally do not feel the need to describe or label what I do as
anything but the incredibly valuable and honorable job that it is --
wife and mother.  Or husband and father in the case of a man who stays
home raising children.
                                     Anne Wilson