Ah, you’re a housewife!

A young 20-30 girl said this to me on a train! There was much contempt for housewives in her tone. I couldn’t stand the tone of her voice and went to sit somewhere else!

I have been a wage-earner till May last year. In my time I have done busier and more responsible jobs than the young- miss-in-the-train. I have always respected housewives for their tremendous contribution to society, which in my view far exceeds that of a young telemarketer earning pizza money. I was waiting for the day when I could save up enough money to become a full time home maker. My homemaker friends often shared with me the condescending way in which some career women treated them., but this was my first direct experience of it. It is terrible that some people feel they have the right to make other people feel bad about themselves and what they do.

It is around 12 pm and today and besides cooking, I have hand washed two mounds of clothes. I still have the dishes, cleaning, dusting, shopping and evening cooking to do. I take little breaks to read and to write my blog.

The young missy’s comments were in response to my statement saying that I watch at least 1 movie a day. Even when I was a bread-winner, I had to time to write and play and travel and sing and meditate. There were those untalented co-workers who were sure that this was because I was less lightly loaded than them. But the reality was that I was more brilliant and efficient than they were. I could fix bugs in seconds that my co-workers had struggled with for days. I could fix problems from my intern days that others could not fix at all. The VP at Sonata, held up my work as an example to others and told me that he paid me for my ideas, not for my hours.

If I see a movie a day now, it is because I have deisgned my kitchen to have a TV area and even as I clean dishes, cook or have lunch, I can watch TV. A nice TV that I bought myself just before becoming a home maker so that I could precisely do this, and out of my own wages.

I have enjoyed my career and may even resume it at some point. But that young girl’s dismissive remark still rankles.  I like having a clean home, serving freshly cooked meals and being there to listen to my family, when they want to talk to me. I like reading and writing extensively and this blends well with being a home maker. Making a bed or cleaning one’s toilet are just as important as filling out a spreadsheet and far more useful to society than promoting consumerism in these days of global warming. And being a home maker is far more sweeter to me than to anyone else, because I earned it.