Ever not known how you feel about something?

[santaman2000]

I suspect that's one of those cultural mores.
I heard it described as a "domestic engineer" once.....and I thought,
"But it's G....who fixes the hoover and the washing machine "

M

LOL. I've heard that term too. But not for a spouse; rather that's the term for a paid housekeeper/maid.

"Home-maker" is a term that gives deference to a good wife who makes an ordinary "house" a true "home."

 

[widu13]

The term home maker is an Americanisim. You speak and write American English, we speak English.

 

[Stringmaker]

I consider myself a reasonably intelligent fellow. I just don't understand this though. We cannot feed ourselves in Britain so we import food by burning fossil fuels. We then grind up food that we grow right here to make energy - that we burned importing food.

All this whilst people in the world starve.

I must be dumber than I thought.

That makes two of us then; I'm with you.

 

[Ecoman]

"Home-maker" is a term that gives deference to a good wife who makes an ordinary "house" a true "home."

So where does that leave me?? My wife is the bread winner and I'm the house husband? Home maker? Babysitter?

 

[widu13]

So where does that leave me??

Lucky.


I'll get me coat.

 

[Stringmaker]

Lucky.

What he said

 

[Ecoman]

Pahaha thanks guys

 

[andybysea]

Toddy i shop at Sainsburys,Asda,Morrisons,Marks and spencer,tesco,the village butcher, i go to the supermarkets and get home deliverys i do look for bargins and reduced price items but i still stick with my initial post that our household weekly food bill has risen by 150% in 6 yrs.
We have 5 in the house and we consume fresh fruit,veg and meat daily, cant say anymore only that the weekly cost of food is our single biggest outgoing.

 

[Toddy]

I can only sympathise Andy; we can each only report as we find things; my own experience is that the food portion (despite my quirky diet, this gluten free stuff is a ridiculous price ) of my budget hasn't changed.
Have you had a look through some of the British prepper sites ? They're hot on planning and thinking ahead a little with lots of good ideas on how to make the most from a tight budget.
Off the top of my head, British Red and Rik-uk3 are probably the best ones to suggest where to look for those kind of links.
My greengrocer's bill was the biggest part of things when I had children in the house, but he did stock most of the stuff that Holland and Barrett carry too.

atb,
M

 

[British Red]

Happy to offer any advice I can to anyone suffering. I have certainly seen a rise in grocery prices since 06 which was about the low point of the trough by my calculations, but food prices (as a proportion of income) are still way below what I can remember them being in the 70s and 80s (again as a proportion of income).

I remember my grandfather (who had a "normal" job - a train driver) saying that his bills were easy - a third of take home was food, a third was mortgage (he was unusual in owning his terraced house amongst his workmates) and a third was fuel, clothes and other expenses. He had no car, phone, TV, central heating etc. Not that such things weren't available - they simply couldn't be afforded as a normal working guy. I fear we will see life like that again in the not too distant future.

 

[santaman2000]

The term home maker is an Americanisim. You speak and write American English, we speak English.

Not really. The normal term here is (or at least was) housewife as well. Home-maker was an attempt to put a more positive spin on it. Like Toddy implied with the reference to "domestic engineer" there are loads of such attempts that are just overglorifying ordinary jobs. Not sure if "home-maker" is overglorifying though.

I suppose it depends on whether you have a spouse truly worth the term or not. Does she concentrate on the housework at the expense of the family? That would be a housewife. On the other hand, if the housework is for the benefit of the family rather than an end in and of itself, then she just might be a home-maker.

 

[Toddy]

It really is a cultural thing. Here all the things you mention are considered just part and parcel of being a housewife.
I can lay slabs, do roofing, plumbing, glazing, (I don't do electrics :yikes plastering, gardening, fencing, general joinery work and decorating.....I also cook, clean, shop, sew, do the washing, budget, plan and prepare, fuss over family (son2's comment on son1 moving out into a flat with his girlfriend was a droll, "I take it I'm going to be severely over-mothered then )....I'm just a housewife .....with some very interesting friends

cheers,
M

 

[andybysea]

Thanks B.R. and Toddy, im lucky we are not suffering, we can accomadate the increases, but im sure alot of people must be, i cant really comment about food prices in the 70's and 80's as i was still growing up,living at home(well until the late 80's) i was merely replying to the cheap food, cheap meat comments at the begining of the thread, as to me from the time i started to fend for myself/and have a family i find them to be constantly rising and not just by the odd penny here and there, and especially in the last 6yrs or so as i have stated there has been a marked differannce as far as im concerned.

 

[British Red]

to me from the time i started to fend for myself/and have a family i find them to be constantly rising and not just by the odd penny here and there, and especially in the last 6yrs or so as i have stated there has been a marked differannce as far as im concerned.

Yep, taking that as the "zero point" you are spot on - food prices have risen considerably. I guess my zero point (and Mary's) is earlier and so it is still (relatively) cheap to us.. I think there is a lesson in that too - things tend to move in cycles so it would be far from unusual for food to get back to say 25% of a "normal" families take home pay. Worth considering!

I recall having a similar conversation with a young married guy who worked for me who could not conceive of a mortgage rate where 10% was "normal" - he didn't believe me that for decades 1% of what you owed was the rule of thumb for your monthly repayments....and got a horrible shock when the rates went up. I fear many now think of 5% mortgage rates as normal and will scream blue murder when they return to double or even treble the current repayments which is far from unheard of when taken over the last fifty or so years.

I think we have experienced a real luxury time in recent memory - but with sadness doubt we will again any time soon!

 

[santaman2000]

It really is a cultural thing. Here all the things you mention are considered just part and parcel of being a housewife.
I can lay slabs, do roofing, plumbing, glazing, (I don't do electrics :yikes plastering, gardening, fencing, general joinery work and decorating.....I also cook, clean, shop, sew, do the washing, budget, plan and prepare, fuss over family (son2's comment on son1 moving out into a flat with his girlfriend was a droll, "I take it I'm going to be severely over-mothered then )....I'm just a housewife .....with some very interesting friends

cheers,
M

Oh I agree it's a cultural thing. Just don't believe it's a difference between US and British culture so much as it's a difference between past and current generations. And yep, I was being a bit sarcastic when I commented about the peripheral duties. But not much. Barbara, my daughter's mother (don't ask) is an aircraft electrician as well.

 

[Toddy]

Among my immediate neighbours I have four young, stay at home, Mums. Blethering to three of them a few weeks back Claire commented, "I'm a housewife, at least until the kids all go to school ", and the other two nodded in agreement. I don't think that much has changed really with the terminology here.
That said, the 'stay at home Mum' is relatively new; I think it was my generation who really coined and used that phrase.

This housewife's had a busy day; I'm tidied up and my fingers are sore quilting; so I'm sitting with a cuppa and a new book and the forum in the background

atb,
M

 

[santaman2000]

LOL. Sorry we've hijacked the thread BR.

 

[British Red]

That's okay - I'm still marvelling at you coming over all politically correct and girly

 

[Toddy]

I've just picked the thyme I hung up to dry clean of stalks, and stowed it away in little jars, and as I worked at it I thought about your original post BR.
I think it's to do with scale. At the domestic level, the smallholding level, we're careful, we pick over and store the best and use up in timely fashion the crops that are either bruised, or they've been got at a wee bit, or even that there's a glut or the season's by and they're not quite ripe (tomatoes ) but to see entire fields just grubbed up and pulped with not a thought to the variety of use and foods just feels totally alien, wrong, not right.

My tuppence hap'worth

atb,
M

 

[British Red]

The one that makes me laugh is the idea that being a "Home maker" is a full time job! I've done it - it isn't! Even when raising small children it isn't. Oh sure you can make it occupy the time, but if you are up, dressed and breakfasted and getting on with it before 7am (as I was working), running non stop like a demented thing (as I was when I was working), you soon run out of things to do. There are only so many cupboards to clean, walls to paint, clothes to wash, stories to read etc.

Before I hear the howls, bear in mind I'm not saying it is important - it's just not that time consuming if you really go at it. Look how many hours a week it takes a cleaner to look after the average house. Throw in some laundry and cooking and there you have it. Looking after kids? Well teachers manage to look after 30 at a time - it hardly needs one on one attention all the time. So, as I say, great job, valuable job, fun job - just not hard.