The Good Wife Guide!

The Good Wife’s Guide

As I browsed through my magazine I came across this little piece that really made me sit up and take note. It appeared in HOUSEKEEPING MONTHLY 13th May 1955.….how times have changed since then.

I quote word for word:

The Good Wife’s Guide

Have dinner ready on time for his return.

Take 15 minutes to rest.

Touch up your make-up and put a ribbon in your hair.

Be a little gay and more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the house just before he arrives.

During the cooler months of the year, you should prepare and light a fire for him.

Wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and change their clothes.

Eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum.

Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - his topics of conversation are more important than yours. Make the evening his.

Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to places of entertainment without you.

Try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.

Your goal: make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquillity where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a chair or lie down in the bedroom.

Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes.

Speak in a low soothing voice. Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgement or integrity.

Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

A good wife always knows her place.

This piece was written before I was even born. A few of the points reminded me of my mother and the way we had to behave when my father arrived home.

Eric ‘s culture in his country, Lebanon, tends to lean very heavily this way. To Europeans they appear to be living in ‘olden times’.

In our marriage we have compromised, we both have different ideas about “the woman’s place in the home” but we live with it.

I laughed a lot when I was writing this blog, I would have failed miserably if I was a wife in 1955!!

….offer to take his shoes off???? Huh ? I am laughing again now!

Do you have any views on this subject…?
Do you live like this?

I am interested to know, as we now live in a much more multi cultural society, here in the UK with many different ways of life.

Thanks for reading.

Sue-Raphael’s Mum