So what if "the person in the kitchen"?

(Baonghean) - If life forces women to choose between going to work to earn money to "contribute rice to cook together" and staying at home to be a housewife with the reputation of "depending on husband", "standing in the kitchen" or even "lazy, useless", then I would like to say, after all the experiences I have, I still choose to stay at home to be a housewife, rather than going out into society to earn money.

Illustration photo.

I - a housewife can proudly declare that I am the master of my own time. I don't have to wake up early to prepare meals or clean the house, take my children to school before... going to work, so the morning is not a hard work for me, cleaning the house every day is faster and easier.

I don't have to ask anyone for permission to take time off work when I feel unwell or my children or family members are sick.

I don't have to stay up all night with work from the office and forget that my kids need me to read them a bedtime story.

Because I live at home, I have more time and opportunities to take better care of my family and myself. Family meals are more carefully prepared, everything is neater. In addition, I can also take advantage of my free time to take care of my skin and exercise to improve my health. This is difficult to apply for busy working women.

Housewives are not as “pitiful” as many people think. Housework is also considered a profession. In Japan, a dynamic and developed country, after marriage, most women want to become a solid support for their husbands. They are supported, and their salary is deducted from a portion of their husbands’ salary. So why do people say that they “sit around doing nothing and depend on others”?

If you have a young child, being a housewife and taking care of the child is even more meaningful. It is like the glue that binds the family together, strengthening the mother-child relationship. How would a mother feel when her child is closer to the nanny than to herself? I have a friend who is a kindergarten teacher, just finished her six-month maternity leave, the child was often sick, so she asked for unpaid leave to stay home to take care of the child for another month. When she went back to work and left the child with the grandmother, she still felt uneasy, always looking forward to the time to go home to the child and could not concentrate on work.

Some people think that if you don’t go out into society and interact with other people, you will become outdated. Housewives in the 21st century will only become outdated if one day the internet is shut down globally and never recovers. In the age of technology, if you want to learn anything, just search Google, do you think that if you don’t go to work, you will become outdated?

Housewives today decide to be a solid support for their husbands, not because they are incompetent, incapable of working, unable to earn money, but simply because they understand, know what is more necessary for their family. Obviously, it is not a sacrifice, but a division of labor to achieve efficiency, more importantly, they feel happy.

Money and spending are always a headache for housewives. They always complain that prices are increasing while their husbands' salaries are not much. This is understandable, but if they know how to spend reasonably, it will not be a problem. Therefore, women are better than each other in knowing how to save money reasonably so that money does not stress them out.

As a housewife, I am not afraid to say that I feel comfortable because I do not have to wear an extra mask on my face. I do not need to be a hypocrite to this person or that person, nor do I have to be wary of colleagues who are mean to me, nor do I have to be “all in” with my work relationships. I am at home. I am the boss. I just have to learn how to please myself.

Happiness is when you are satisfied with your life. I am satisfied with my position as a “female general” at home. I am confident that my husband and children are well taken care of, and that the house is neat and tidy. Above all, I am able to do the job I like and know how to love and cherish myself more. As our ancestors said, “Never know how much is enough”, so I arrange and cultivate my own life, whether it is leisurely or “disheveled”, “overworked” is up to me.

Of course, the perfect woman is one who can both take on social work and take care of the house. But if I had to choose, I would choose not to fight for gender equality in the kitchen. Because besides my husband and children, I think I love my kitchen.

An Nhien