Becoming Domesticated
May 4, 2010 at 9:14 am | Posted in Life and Living, Playing with Food | 2 CommentsTags: apartment, cleaning, cooking, domestic, housekeeping
“What do you want for dinner tonight sweety?” “Honey, can you take the garbage out?”
Woah – when did I become a Stepford wife? I don’t even live with my boyfriend (technically speaking) and these phrases (among others, some more disciplinary) come out of my mouth on a regular basis. When did this happen?
I wasn’t a messy child growing up, but I sure as hell didn’t have OCD so in my adult life this has translated to a fairly clean, but not spotless apartment. I wash dishes every day, cook, vacuum, sweep, mop, go food shopping, fold laundry, the works! None of this is an accomplishment, but it is definitely a sign to me of growing up.
My family wasn’t super wealthy, but we had enough money to have a cleaning lady come to the house every week. This was not uncommon where I grew up. But jeez, you really don’t realize how much work it is to keep house until you have to do it yourself. The cleaning is not my favorite part, but I do love cooking. I just bought the original Hungry Girl cookbook and was super excited about it. When did buying a cookbook become exciting? Who am I?
In college you start getting a taste of all of this responsibility, but you still have the dining halls (and Easy Mac) to lean on, and as long as your bed is not covered in clothes, who really cares if you clean your dorm room? College life may be different than high school life, but it is still not real life. Oh, how I miss the days where I’d come home and my room would miraculously be clean. Those were the days.
But with great freedom comes great responsibility. And with building your own life, your own family, your own future, come Martha Stewart tendencies and the Food Network… and hopefully a few vacations.
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Very true. I hadn’t realized how domesticity was such a vital part of growing up… and it happens without you even knowing it! I was abroad for a few years recently and it’s funny how living on your own for the first time forces you to become the domestic goddess you never knew you were. My parents were pretty terrible in cleaning up after me, however, I was never slob. Guess I just took it for granted!
Some might argue that it’s ultimately a woman’s characteristic to want to play house but my boyfriend was pretty good about helping me out, without me even needing to ask.
Not a big fan of this part of growing up, but it’s something we can’t avoid! Unless we want a nasty house.
Comment by Diana O— May 4, 2010 #
Yea, it’s definitely not one of the most fun parts of growing up. If only life was fun 24/7!
Comment by danablair— May 4, 2010 #