ON BEING A GOOD WIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20217, 30 March 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

ON BEING A GOOD WIFE.

THE VIRTUE OF TIDINESSE" KATTIE?.:K2 CAP.?.. I hate to confess it, but tidiness does j rot come naturally to me. Rather has the . habit of it been imposed upon me in youth i v mv elders and later by socia: j tion. ' House-pride forbids that we should | disclose a scene of disorder wnen we open _ the front door to the clergyman or a lady j visitor or the back door to the milkman j cr the chimney-sweep. lit is pr.de that . urges us' on to the achievement of a spick , and span appearance in the first place and i pride that keeps us up to the mark all j through life. Our carpets must be swept J clean, our floors polished and every j vagrant speck of dust banished from sight. ; i • * j There must be fresh i.owers in ..-e living ; rooms, order and cleanliness in the bed- j rooms and no dirty dishes around the scui- j lerv sink. And when a wcrnai: can attend j regularly and cheerfully to that daily j routine, provide her family with three < good meals a day and enough darned j socks to keep them out of disgrace—and j ttill find time to enjoy the society of her friends and keep her mind ana her figure a little younger than her years, she is ful- j filling her part of the. domestic contract quite creditably. There are numberless women, however, Who, all too soon after their marriage, just'sink into social oblivion. This type of woman, whose excessive housewifely virtue is her curse, is overwhelmed by hei home duties and anchored to her dwelling just as securely as the snail to its shell. Cleanliness, with her, all too often becomes a fetish. Whether it hails, snows, rains cats and dogs or blows a hurricane the washing must be done on Monday and the clothes ironed, mended and hidden from sight as fast as human hands can accomplish the task. She may be dead weary after the day's work, too tired even to be civil to her husband and much too irritible to be bothered with the children's noise and chatter, but whatever the family may have to suffer in consequence, the domestic time-table must be adhered to; nothing "must upset the routine of clothesvashing, window-cleaning, cupboard-tidy-ing and the hundred and one other soulcrushing labours that burden the days of the over-zealous housewife. Is she, a comfortable person to live with Don't ask indiscreet questions, but ju't observe for yourself. Husbands whose homes are obtrusively tidy and who?." wives are too busy to grant them any real companionship usually have extra v.-or.-: to do ih the evenings " at the office " or wherever else the daily bread rnav be earned. They are often detained quite late at right. Do they take their wives out? Well, not very of tec. How can they when the wives are too tired after the day's cleaning to be bothered getting into a pretty frock or so anxious to set the ironing done the same dav as the washing that they prefer to stand arid perspire over the ironing-board for the whole of the evening instead of a little wellearned rest or recreation

In theory men admire the good wife ■who lives for her homo, who cooks and sews, makes and re-makes her frocks, arranges her hair sedately and is devoted, dutiful and dull. In reality their sincere?,t glances of admiration fall on the far-less-virtnous one* v/ho have wit enough to remeinben than ;-.an wants a companion, not « drudge. And if the woman whom he has chose*, for his mate forgets that being a good housewife is not the complete fulfilment of the domestic contract she will probably never even suspect him of stealing £a occasional kiss elsewhere.