If I were running for Governor of CA, I would run on one platform only:
Women, on the day after retirement, will no longer do housework.
Along with retirement benefits, every woman will have a housecleaner for as long as she wishes.
The minute I could reach the kitchen sink in our plantation home, I began doing dishes. My sister loved to bake with Crisco and we had no electricity so I, being the younger slave, washed those pans and bowls by first heating water over the kerosene stove. I mopped the wooden floors and cleaned grease off the stove.
I started college by working as a live-in maid for room and board and since then, I get nauseated whenever I plug a vacuum cleaner into the socket or the word “housework” comes to mind.
And I haven’t stopped doing all of the above. There is electricity today and I do enjoy trying new recipes so the kitchen is not a problem but a vacuum cleaner, toilet bowls, dust rags and Windex are worse than a toothache. Housework has always sank to the bottom of my To-Do List.
Last month, we hired a house cleaner. She does windows, screens, floors, counters, stoves, lifts everything off the floor and waxes and scrubs. The house is clean for the lst time in eons. And I sit at my computer. read novels, or even sit with a cup of coffee and watch her. I no longer need to think, “This weekend, I need to clean house. AAAGGGHHH.”
What a load off my shoulders. Last week, she even cleaned all my cosmetic brushes, jars and bottles that are increasing in number as I age. She also sews and does carpentry work.
Most women live in every room of the house since birth and by living, I mean they do chores in every room. When women become caregivers, they continue to live in all those rooms in addition to being a caregiver. But this is for another blog.
Women, if you don’t have a house cleaner, vote for me if I’m running for governor. You don’t know what life is when Housework is deleted from your list of chores.
Nice idea, Frances, you have my vote and I’m SURE you’ll have my wife’s vote. We are both working professionals that have determined that it is less expensive (we divided our annual incomes by 40 hours/week) to hire somebody else to do the routine, deep cleaning, around the house. We are both quite clean and just found out that the housekeepers fight to get to come to our home–how flattering. This isn’t a sexist thing, I also hired gardeners to do the mowing and edging of our lawn (though I still trim my own roses–must be the Irish in me.) It seems to be a matter of priorities (and resources). When I was younger, our older home had 1/3 of an acre that took hours to mow and edge every week–the sweating was physically and emotionally therapeutic for me. Now that I’m older, it seems more valuable to play with grandchildren than to do yard work.
You have my vote and I will even put your political sign on my lawn. I am predicting you will win hands down.
Bob, just be careful that you don’t hire someone to write your next book.
And Alva, I love that…my political sign on your lawn. You’ll be the first to receive an invitation to the State Ball for my inauguration. Bring your house cleaner.
oh oh, someone’s at the door. I think they came for me, I see a strait jacket.