the day of rest…

Today I enjoyed my first real s-l-o-w Sunday in a long while.

No pressing commitments at all. It’s Uni break… so no assignments; no huge jobs staring me in the face (because I turned my back on them) and no need to please anyone but myself. ‘Mr 50 Something’ took himself off to watch his old soccer team (oops, re-phrase… ‘ex’ team. Yes they are veterans… but old is probably a bit harsh)… so I was left to my own devices.

I’d love to say that I used my time well and created something spectacular… or wrote something inspirational… but no, alas not…I just pottered!  You know, a little bit of this and a little bit of that…. a few domestic chores, caught up with a friend for coffee and washed the car. A completely stress free day really.

But, having this time to potter did prompt a couple of reflections on domestic life and how it’s change … I seem to recall that growing up in the 60’s & 70’s (back when more Mum’s stayed at home than worked)… every day was allocated to a particular task. There was even a kiddies rhyme to remind anyone who forgot their ‘job of the day’. I think it started something like …”Monday is Washing Day… is everybody happy? ” .. So I googled to find out what happened on the other days… and discovered.

• Monday – Washing day
• Tuesday – Ironing day
• Wednesday – Mending day
• Thursday – Shopping day
• Friday – Baking day
• Saturday – Cleaning day
• Sunday – Day of Rest – go to church

WOW … to be so organised!! but I can’t quite figure what they did with all the other hours in the day … surely you can’t ‘mend’ all of Wednesday  …. Can you?  I mean seriously…. every week ?? who has that many damaged clothes???

Maybe it’s just organisation envy on my part… as I reflect on my style, where it’s more like:

• the washing getting done whenever there’s enough time to complete the cycle and get it hung on the line (where it might stay for a few days)
• the oversized ironing basket contains a bunch of last season’s clothes (well we don’t need them for a few months so why iron them?)
• the mending is limited to replacing a lost button (and can take weeks to get around to it)
• the shopping is a ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ style (grab what you need to cook on the way home from work).
• the baking only happens on special occasions or when I’m bored and feeling inspired.
• the cleaning  is an ‘as you go’ arrangement… if it looks dirty you clean it.

Anyway I’m glad to see that I got today (half) right . PHEW … my dear departed Mum would be proud.

Tags: 50's housewife, 50something, 60's housewife, domestic living, household chores, woman's work