Courtship and Marriage, and the Gentle Art of Home-MakingSwan, Annie S.
General
Courtship and Marriage, and the Gentle Art of Home-Making
Swan, Annie S.
Family life; Home economics; Marriage
It is very reprehensible conduct on the part of such mothers, and if in
a short time the bright sky of their daughters' happiness begins to
cloud a little, they need not wonder or feel aggrieved. A man is quite
justified in expecting and exacting a moderate degree of comfort at
least in his own house, and if it is not forthcoming may be forgiven a
complaint. He is to be pitied, but his unhappy wife much more deserves
our pity, since she finds herself amid a sea of troubles, at the mercy
of her servants, if she possesses them; and if moderate circumstances
necessitate the performance of the bulk of household duties, then her
predicament is melancholy indeed.
To revert again to our Angelina and Edwin of the comic papers, we have
the threadbare jokes at the expense of the new husband subjected to the
ordeal of Angelina's awful cooking. At first he is forbearing and
encouraging; but in the end, when no improvement is visible, the
honeymoon begins to wane much more rapidly than either anticipated.
Edwin becomes sulky, discontented, and complaining; Angelina tearful or
indignant, as her temperament dictates, but equally and miserably
helpless.
The chances are that time will not improve but rather aggravate her
troubles, especially if the cares of motherhood be added to those of
wifehood, which she finds quite enough for her capacities.
True, some women have a clever knack of adapting themselves readily to
every circumstance, and pick up knowledge with amazing rapidity. If they
are by nature housewifely women, they will triumph over the faults of
their early training, and after sundry mistakes and a good deal of
unnecessary expenditure may develop into fairly competent housewives.
But it is a dangerous and trying experiment, which ought not to be made,
because there is absolutely no need for it. It is the duty of every
mother who has daughters entrusted to her care to begin early to train
them in domestic work. That there are servants in the house need be no
obstacle in the way. There are silly domestics who resent what they call
the "meddling" of young ladies in the kitchen; but no wise woman will
allow that to trouble her, but will take care to show her young
daughters, as time and opportunity offer, every secret contained in the
domestic _répertoire_.
One of the primary lessons to be learned in this housekeeping art is
that of method; viz.--a place for everything, and a time. It is the key
to all domestic comfort. Most of us are familiar with at least one
household where the genius of method is conspicuous by its absence;
where regularity and punctuality are unobserved, if not unknown. The
household governed by a woman without method is to be pitied. Her
husband is a stranger to the comfort of a well-ordered home; and her
children, if she has any, hang as they grow, as the Scotch say; while
her servants, having nobody to guide them, become careless and
indifferent, and so suffer injustice at her hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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