Doofy Husbands

Have you ever heard of doofy husbands?  They’re the guys in commercials who are always incapable of doing anything around the house.  They try to do the laundry, clean a room, or cook a meal, always to hilarious failure.  Their long-suffering wives come into the room and shake their heads, then proceed to use whatever product is being shilled to accomplish the task with ease. The concept of doofy husbands is problematic for a couple reasons: it doesn’t give men enough credit, and it perpetuates the idea that men aren’t good at performing many household, traditionally feminine tasks.  It implies … Continue reading

Could You Do Things Ahead Of Time?

Today, as I was looking around online to see how other home – based professional parents manage to balance family, home, and business, I came across a very interesting tip on the Simple Mom blog. According to Mandi, who wrote the blog post, the secret to success for home – based professional parents is getting things done ahead of time. Of course, this advice had me scratching my head for a good few minutes while I let the idea sink in. Get things done ahead of time? As in having all of my blog posts written before the last day … Continue reading

What It Means To Be Head of the Household- Part 3

In the last two blogs I have made the point that being head of the household does not mean the husband dominating his wife but them working together as a partnership. So if we make decisions most of the time through discussion and by talking things through together, how can I say that my husband is head of the household? How exactly does that work out in practice? Let me tell you. He is the head of the household because ultimately he is the one who will make the final decision. If we talk things through and can’t reach a … Continue reading

What Does It Mean to Be Head of the Household? part 2

Yesterday I looked at what I believe it doesn’t mean to be head of the household and some of what it does. Here are further ideas on the subject. Beliefs, values, priorities, family ideas and spending in a marriage ought to be along similar lines, not just what one person decides. The person commenting on the original blog suggested that the husband was in charge of finances and the wife needed to justify all expenses to her husband. What about working out together what is needed and how finances are spent? As for the husband being free to spend as … Continue reading

What Does it Mean to Be Head of the Household?

What does it mean to be the head of the household? That’s the question someone raised recently in response to an earlier blog written by someone else on this site. In this blog I’m going to try and answer what it means for a marriage for someone to be the head of the household. Let me start by saying what I don’t think it means. It doesn’t mean that one person is in charge and rules everything that happens in the marriage. I don’t believe, as the last person who commented did, that it means the head of the household’s … Continue reading

More Tips About Protecting Your Husband’s Health

Here are some more tips to help maintain your husband’s health. Watch the cholesterol. Encourage a regular check and if it is high look at changes that will need to be made. Visit the sites below or a dietician if you’re not sure what dietary changes you will need to implement. Another problem that has occurred these days is the number of people with allergies. Some times they can be linked to certain foods, even to migraines. Some triggers to migraines are, cheese, red wine, chocolate (sorry all you chocoholics) oranges. Other health problems can be caused by preservatives. Preservative … Continue reading

Marriage Tips: How to Share Your Household Chores

We talked earlier about not asking for help, because asking for assistance implies sole responsibility rather than shared responsibility. A marriage is a partnership and like any partnership, it requires a sharing of responsibilities and more. Here are some tips to help you and your spouse to share your responsibilities and to avoid the disagreements and arguments that come from pointing fingers and accusations and hard feelings. What are your priorities? What are your spouse’s priorities? You need to answer these two questions. You need to know what is important to you and to him or her. You need to … Continue reading

House Husbands – Emasculated or Enlightened?

How many househusbands do you know? Consider it and don’t be surprised if you know a lot more housewives than you do house husbands. There’s a reason for it, our society doesn’t endorse the idea of husbands staying at home and being Mr. Mom. Just rent the Michael Keaton film to get an idea of the perceptions – weirdly enough – though that movie was made in the 1980s, the perception of househusbands has not changed all that much in 30 years. I know three couples that have househusbands where the wife goes to work and Dad brings up the … Continue reading

What Husbands Need

While most marriage discussions may center around who did what wrong or who is doing what right, few seem to address what we as individuals need from each other and fewer still talk about what men need from their wives. On the other hand, I may be biased since I’m a woman and I may just not be looking in the right places. But I think as a wife, it’s important to investigate what our husbands need as much as it is to look at what we need. Why? Because when our husband needs something – he usually needs it … Continue reading

Snowing in Spring…Adjusting Our Frugal Plans

It is a few days past the official start of spring, and I am looking at a wintry wonderland just outside my window. The salt trucks and plows have been by, but they have to be diligent. Already the driveway and roads are covered with white. Despite about three inches of snow on the ground already and more to come, schools are not closed today. There is no excessive wind, and we are used to snow. The weather has been wrecking some havoc with our spring frugal plans. We can’t get started on our garden, and may lose out on … Continue reading