Taken from Housekeeping Monthly - May 13, 1955
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* Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favourite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.
* Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
* Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
* Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables.
* Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
* Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
* Be happy to see him.
* Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.
* Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
* Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
* Your goal: To try and make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquillity where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.
* Don't greet him with complaints and problems.
* Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
* Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
* Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
* A good wife always knows her place.
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27 comments:
I have seen this before, and every time I still am amazed at how different things were not that long ago. Thank goodness I was born in the 70s.
I've seen this before also, but I read it through every single time. Wouldn't it be GREAT to have a good wife waiting for US?
Did you get this from .... someone whose name begins with a 'D' and ends with a pain in the @$$?
Good lord ... I can't believe there weren't more lesbians that came out back in the day!!! Being a wife would definitely not have been an option for me if those were the expectations.
If those are the credetials for housewifery, then I'm failing miserably (except for the 'happy to see him' part... that one applies!) Thank God!
Clutter and dust bunnies rule at my house!
Oh how I wish! How I wish! I need a wife now more than ever!
yuck.
The only one I agree with :
"- Don't greet him with complaints and problems."
No friend does that. No matter married, in a couple, simple friends. DON'T do that.
Here's how it should go :
kiss_hug_Complaints and problems.
:)
Weird huh... no wonder our grandparents didn't have sex.
Amazing really. Imagine being a human being and being limited to that... Sucks. What do you have to expect in your day? Pleazing someone. UGH.
Modern women shun this stuff...but, what WAS the divorce rate back in the 50s???
Where can I find one of those?
Now that you put it like that Tai, I see their point entirely! x
gack... i... ack... can't.. speak... too... indignant...
I have a wife, and mine doesn't do any of that! LOL!
Seeing that kind of stuff makes me understand more why Betty Friedan's book was so important.
It truly boggles the mind.
On the other hand, if each person did nice loving things for each other, that would be okay, I think.
I'd happily do some of those things if it was returned (I mean, who WOULDN'T want their shoes taken off for them!)
HA!
According this this I suck as a wife;p
Good!
Although,I'm always telling mine that he can move to Bountiful so *I* can get a second wife to help me with all the boring stuff.
May be I'd find this wonderful woman there??
It's a two-way street. Guys, if that stain has become indelibly imprinted into the shirt, time to throw it away. And baseball caps never, ever look good, backwards or forwards.
You know - it's never ever a bad thing to paper your spouse as a nice surprise. But the article kinda describes a sort of domestic slavery dealio.
Hey Tai!
Ah...The good old days...*sigh*
Time to get back to work on that time machine, I guess...
But I kid of course. Though reading this rather dated document with modern eyes made me laugh a little, especially at:
Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
Some things never change, I guess...
(And yes, I know I'm immature)...
Great idea for a post, Tai.
Take care out there!
Your Pal,
Zambo.
You know, there was something to many of these things back in the day when men were the sole breadwinners, and a lot of society was generally focused in that culture of thought. I'm with you Tai - it would be so nice if the genders both took love, considertion and caring more seriously.
Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
My Bear makes me a fire in the garden rain or shine, and we sit outside on the bench shoulder to shoulder, smelling the sweet wood smoke, listening to the birds and talking :-) Doesn't get much better than this.
Hmmm.... I have a wife.... however, I do all the cooking and I do make sure I am 'freshened' up before she comes home.
But.
I'm always right.
She's never right.
I'm never wrong.
So I'm wondering how it affects my lifestyle...? *scratches head*
Was definitely a different time back then!
If I gave that to my wife she would hit me so hard in the balls that I would qualify for the lead in the Vienna Boys Choir.
Hi Tai
I wonder how many women were really like that and how much of that was the Media. I know that societies "norms" were much different 50 years ago than they are today. When people look back at us in 50 years will they perceive a "norm" (from seeing our media) and think we were "all like that" (I couldn't imagine what that "norm" would be). Who knows Tai "they" may even find your blog in an archive somewhere. You could be speaking for us to future generations (a fine spokesman...excuse me...spokesperson)
ms.l read my mind! I have been whining in a most un-wifely manner to my hubby for us to get ME a wife for YEARS now! Ah yes, I could keep my career, and she could help with the child rearing, and cooking and housework. And maybe T would "get some" more often 'cause there would be 2 womanly companions and neither of us would be quite as tired all the time!!!! Sigh, sounds heaveny in theory.
Where do I get a wife like that? Any volunteers?
Damnit -- I should have known I had married the 'wrong' women all those times. I didn't get one with that 'Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.' Actually, dear Tai, such behavior on the part of any wife of mine would utterly creep me out.
kill me now if that's what a wife is supposed to be like.
That's fascinating. But I don't think I'd really want to be that babied. Were I married, I'd want mutual realness tendered by love on the part of both spouses.
My initial reaction was: "Oh, I want a wife, too." But then I wondered what a good husband should do. I imagine he had a list as long and as rigid.
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