I really need to stop watching TV comedies from the 1950s and 1960s that I watch whenever I get the chance.
As a teenager, I bought into all that brainwashing hogwash of what a perfect housewife was. I dreamed of getting married, having children, and having a happy home. I didn't realize at the time that it would take so much work. None of the programs showed the drudgery required to achieve the lifestyle. I aspire to a 'clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy' credo. I just don't look upon it as a lifelong mission.
On the comedies the dads were the all-wise, all-knowing breadwinners who the family turned to for advice. Mom's contribution to disciplining the children was admonishing, 'Wait until your father gets home!' The alternative was dear old dad was a buffoon. That was not a good example to my pliable mind.
Have any of you vintage seniors like me noticed that the little lady of the house was always a stay-at-home mom who took great pride in her spotless house? It brought her great joy to see the men in her family glow with pride at her housekeeping and cooking skills. Aunt Bee on the ‘Andy Griffith Show’ was a prime example. She plotzed at the thought of another woman (and Andy and Opie) touching anything in her kitchen. Heaven forbid! Why couldn't we housewives have been blessed like Samantha on ‘Bewitched’? Who wouldn't love to be able to twitch her nose and have the housework done, and dinner on the table without breaking a sweat?
I think most of yesteryear's commercials were superior to today's as far as being relevant to the product and sometimes making us cry a little. Some chided us if we dared not have sparkling clean laundry. Remember ‘Ring Around the Collar!’ mocking a housewife for her poor laundry skills? Do you remember Mr. Clean? Even then the men in charge of programming thought housewives needed a man to keep them from humiliating their husbands.
I'm glad I'm not a 50s housewife. When David and I first married I always said, 'If I could make the kind of money David makes, I'd go to work and leave him home to keep the house.' Now that he's retired, he still helps a lot. I haven't shampooed the carpet in years. If he'd learn to cook and pay bills, I'd have it made