Change Our Attitude Towards Housework

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Day 3 of #Write28Days Challenge

Yesterday, we thought about our motivation behind wanting to manage homeschooling and housework successfully. I hope your why is a good why because that will be what keeps you going day-after-day.

Negative Attitudes Towards Housework

The way I see it, there are two main reasons many of us struggle with housework: our negative attitude towards it and a lack of skills to handle it efficiently.

I will cover our lack of skills in #Write28Days – Day 4

Today, I will focus on how we need to change our attitude towards housework which is coloured by our background and upbringing.  

How Do You See Housework?

I dare say that if you grew up not being required to do any housework but now you have to do it, it will be more challenging than if you had grown up doing housework as part of your life.

And if you had a live-in helper that did all the chores around the house, your reluctance to deal with it may even be higher. You may see it as something done by other people.

My Pampered Upbringing

While my family was not dirt poor, we were not swimming in cash either. We did not have the resource to outsource household chores or cooking or laundry duty.

Yet, I grew up not knowing how to perform basic household chores. My parents believed that as children, our priority was to study hard. Education was of utmost importance to them.

And so, that was what my brother and I did. When we upgraded to a larger flat, my brother and I got a bedroom each. We were required to keep it clean except that we didn’t.

Every once in awhile I would dust and mop the room. I don’t recall my brother ever doing his room at all. Clean laundry would magically appear in our wardrobes.

Housework was never on my radar of life. I didn’t think about it and I didn’t have to.

Disdain Towards Housework

As an adult child, still living at home I remember an incident in the kitchen with my mother watching me as I struggled to hang up the wet laundry.

In those days, we hung our wet clothes on bamboo poles using clothes pegs. And then I would have to lean half my body out of the window to hang the bamboo poles out of the flat, always fearing that I would either fall out of the kitchen or drop the bamboo pole on someone’s head. This would be especially terrifying on windy days.

Anyway, on that rare occasion that I was doing laundry (I have no idea why), I remember her telling me that I would suffer when I move out and stayed on my own because I had no basic housework skills. I answered her loftily that I would “just get a maid”.

Hmm…

That one comment showed the disdainful attitude I had towards housework. I wasn’t willing to learn how to do it and I thought I would just outsource it to someone else.

Ugh!

The Struggle

And then I got married, moved out and had children. Oh, how I struggled to get on top of everything.

Thankfully I am married to a man who does not mind living in a mess. Interestingly though, the more I stayed home, the more I minded the mess.

It bothered me a lot.

The mess and clutter made me feel claustrophobic and it also made dusting and cleaning very difficult. So I started poking around the internet for help. And I found Flylady.

Housework Blesses Our Family

One of the things she wrote which impacted me is that a clean and organised home is a blessing to our family.

And I thought – wow! That is so true.

So I started to challenge myself to learn to do housework properly (more on that in the days to come). So that I can offer a clean and organised house to bless my family and all who step into my home.

People can pop over anytime they like because the house was generally clean and organised, bearing in mind that there are nine persons living here.

Adjust and Change Our Attitude Towards Housework

The best bet to handling housework well is to change our attitude towards housework from a negative to a positive one. To learn to sees it as one of the ways to serve and bless our family.

Are you up to it? Yes?

See you tomorrow!

Related Links

Do I Have to Cook and Clean to be a Good Mother?
Never Be a Stay-At-Home-Mother

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