Somehow this phrase popped into my head as I cleaned the bathroom basin yesterday – thinking of something else entirely, probably. But there it was, this phrase, sticking in my head for the rest of the day and recurring today much to my amusement. “You’re a domestic powerhouse.” I had walked to the nearby shops for milk and vegetables, and done the usual morning routine of hand washing Mum’s things, getting breakfast, giving Mum her calcium injection and put out two loads of her washing. I went on to make Anzac biscuits before I headed off to play Rummikub with friends after lunch (homemade minestrone). Then came home to bring in the washing, sweep the driveway, pick up cabbage tree leaves, get the fire going, give Mum her cheese and crackers and do the ironing before getting dinner.
Today, I decided, would be just for reading – apart from the usual routines of morning, lunch and evening. There was only one thing on my list:
Now, at the end of the day, I have read only a couple of chapters of my book. I made bread, cleaned the bathroom, washed the shower curtains and bathmat, washed the floor and the front porch and steps. Before long, it was time to set the fire and fetch in kindling and wood. Is ‘retirement’ a misnomer?
I began to make a list in my head of the things I do about the house each day. I thought how weird it is that I tend to think about what I haven’t done (washed the inside of the windows, sanded and polyurethaned the window sills, cut back perennials…) rather than what I have achieved. I imagine this is typical. It reminded me of Flip Grater’s recent column in The Press where she wrote that the unpaid work of women in caring for family, children, the elderly, the disabled, and general voluntary work, is what supports our economic system, namely capitalism. And what about the women who do all that and still do paid work? Marilyn Waring has long since argued that unpaid work should be factored into our Gross Domestic Product. I agree.
Anne-O-tations 