In a message dated 11/2/98 4:36:06 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< >Jean said,
>I'd be much happier having to stay home all day cooking, gardening,
>dozing and breastfeeding than working in a crummy mill or dark
>factory all day, coming home exhausted to my kids at dinnertime.
> I doubt I'm speaking only for myself though I do know that many women
>of today won't admit they feel the same.
"Dozing"? Hmmm. I presume that's in the half hour between breastfeeding
sessions, when someone else is cleaning, doing the laundry, taking care
of the plumber, preparing the meals, changing diapers and bathing the
baby, paying the bills, doing the gardening, changing the kitty litter,
grocery
shopping, spending time with a husband, etc? Dozing? I don't remember
even having a full night's sleep, much less a nap, until I was divorced, and
my children's father took them both overnight. Actually, I'd rather have
had the
children than the sleep...
NOW I have naps - but the children are 22 and 25. :)
On the other hand, the factories must have been hell. And I
think much work is still hell - where "The Boss" largely controls
our lives in too many ways, from how much sleep we get to
where we can afford to live and when we can vacation, etc.
We put our work schedule into our calendars first, and the
rest of our lives have to be squished in around that.
Julienne >>
Once they start school you get to doze, but not if you punch in the time clock
at 8:30 a.m. doing the stimulating work of grinding wheat into flour.
Has anyone seen "Norma Rae" recently? I did and it wasn't my impression
that any man or woman there at the textile mill would have been there if they
wouldn't starve otherwise. Do historians think that men wanted to go the mill
each day?
If you ask a working class woman (I've worked with many): if you didn't
have to worry about money would you stay home all day with your kids or would
you rather work at the mill (diner, factory, toll booth, WalMart) all day and
then come home and help your kids with homework and dinner?
95% of the time the answer is, "Honey, neither one would make me feel
complete and neither one would make my husband complete either. Drudgery work
is not enough to fill a person's life."
Jean
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