I went to an exhibition today at the National Woollen Museum and had to detour on my way home because of roadworks. As I went through town there was a space outside the one charity shop that is usually 'off limits' because of regular traffic chaos so I figured it was a sign that I just had to stop... and I was right because I found the perfect book for me. The Housewife's Guide almost had my name on it. As soon as I saw those pictures on the front cover of hard graft I recognised myself...... or perhaps not......
It includes a daily timetable of chores that makes boot camp look like a holiday and if you look closely at the above it will tell you all the key things we need to do every month to be a good housewife. I see that this month I need to get out my winter wardrobe, especially my furs! I don't know how I will possibly fit it all into my timetable. It seems I also have to inspect the house and carry out small repairs this month! There are chapters telling me how to clean the house efficiently without getting backache, how to wash my chamois gloves and silk stockings , how to entertain and how to arrange flowers to make the house a welcome place for visitors. There's even a chapter showing me how to mend a fuse, change a tap washer and.... lay a fitted carpet!!!
The book is full of sensible advice but I can just see the reaction if I pulled up a stool by the sink after dinner tonight..... mind you, the husband needs to support his wife wherever he can because he may need her ministering hand at some time..... indeed there's a whole chapter devoted to 'the sick room' and 'looking after patients'.
I can't find a date for when the book was printed but it is stereotypical of women's roles in the home looking after the poor chap laid up with a cold or something. I suspect she's giving him a cup of home made beef tea .... or arsenic.....
As he improves it suggests , as you can see, that a rope fastened to the end of the bed will help him pull himself up easily..... hmmm.....I can think of a better use for that rope.... a definite sign that I am not a good housewife I think!
9 comments:
Ha, ha, ha!! What a find Lesley!! Guess I'd better get those winter clothes and furs out ... hope I've stored them properly over the summer months. I know what I'd do with that rope if hubby ever thought he was so sick that he had to be pulled out of bed with man flu!!!
Dan
-x-
I have just tried to comment and lost the lot! Try again. What a hoot - although of course it is no laughing matter that women were expected t behave like this until comparitively recently. I am glad I wasn't born a few years earlier as I'm sure I would never have fitted the stereotype at all! I have however got my winter stuff from the loft all except my furs! I have harvested the veggies - what there were left but I have absolutely no intention of making any Christmas puddings! Like Dab I know exactly what I'd do with that rope too although I thought it was going to be to call his dutiful wife to his bedside being fixed to a bell or something. Have a job to fit the rope anyway as our bed has no foot to tie it to!! Thanks for sharing this with us.
Jane
Sorry Dan - I really must learn to proof read before pressing post!
What an amazing book! But the thing that jumps out is fuse mending and repairs, this book is encouraging an independent domestic role for women. I would like to think that attitudes to the part women play in the home have changed but I fear that super career woman is added to homemaker. Did anyone hear a program on Radio 4 about Feminism, I caught it on Sunday evening, well worth listening to.
I would have a bit of fun with that rope................ imagine if it was cut through to just within a few strands......... and then he went to pull himself up with it........ :O)))))) What a glorious find you have in that book!
What a great find! Perfect material for study, for reflection, for laughing and crying at the same time!!!
Thank you for sharing it with us.
xoxox
That is such fun, Lesley, We have 'How to run your home without help' which is also full of helpful information, including:
'The husband's part and the need for wifely understanding' and 'how to avoid dishpan hands'.
After you with that book Lesley - I was wondering how to fill my days this month!!!
x
Now don't you laugh - we've brought in the veg, pickled the onions and beetroot, made pear and plum chutneys. I turned out a bag of 'shrunk' woollies and we have asked a builder to look at some slipped tiles on the roof. I think I'll take the rest of the year off!(Not that I have done any of this on my own - except the woolly turn out)
By the way, my mother-in-law has a couple of invalid cups with spouts - only for ornamental use I hasten to add - and I can't remember when or where, but somewhere I came across a rope tied to the foot of a bed - in hospital somewhere, and the nurse referred to it as a 'donkey's tail'. It was to help people who had had ops to sit up in bed.
But this book should definitely be kept out of all men's reach.
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