The Good Wife's Guide (5/13/55 Houskeeping Monthly)

Housekeeping Monthly May 13, 1955 | May 13, 1955 | Un-Named

[Go Gordon]

The Good Wife’s Guide

1. Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

2. Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

3. Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

4. Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.

5. Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper etc. and then run a dust cloth over the tables.

6. Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

7. Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

8. Be happy to see him.

9. Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

10. Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

11. Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.

12. Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

13. Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.

14. Don’t complain if he’s late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

15. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

16. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

17. Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

18. A good wife always knows her place.

[LizardQueen]

Hah, garden club, right. More like working 60 hours a week because his salary doesn't cover the mortgage, after taxes. I'd happily be a smiling 50's housewife but there'd have to be some financial miracle that would make it happen.

LQ

[ladyinred]

Pinocchio would be proud.

What? You mean you don't believe me? :-)

[Trinity_Tx]

"Tough to do anything on this list when he gets home from work before the wife."

Excellent point. I would say that it's even too much to ask if she comes home before he does, if she's been working all day as well.

I'm all for most of the suggestions, but I think wives working outside the home is the biggest culprit in the breakdown of the traditional (and IMHO appropriate) roles.

Who's to blame is hard to answer - like the chicken/egg thing. But both men and women have dropped the ball, neither fulfilling their proper roles. Who pays? Men, women, and most of all, the children.

[Go Gordon]

Then you don't know Mr Tiggywinkle. :o) He's wonderful and awesome! I'm a blessed woman.

Touche. But I'm not sure I want to know what a "tiggywinkle" is :-)

[BossLady]

They forgot this one:

19. Greet him at the door wearing nothing but red 4 inch pumps and a martini in hand....

[Go Gordon]

Wives didn't go to work because their attitudes changed, their attitudes changed because they went to work. More's the pity too, IMO.

Some would argue the cause was the women's movement. Others would argue that taxes got ahead of the cost of living, making it a necessity for most to have a two-income family.

[mrs tiggywinkle]

**But I'm not sure I want to know what a "tiggywinkle" is :-) **

Silly rabbit. My homepage explains who Mrs Tiggywinkle is.

[Go Gordon]

Uh, I'm Southern Baptist and believe in being submissive...but I ain't no slave!

Thats why I suggested a compromise between the 50's and today would be perfect. Hopefully, my son ultimately ends up with a woman that thinks the same way.

[ladyinred]

A man had to have written this list. That was my first thought, too! LOL

I don't think so! This sounds like my senior Home-Ec class to me! :-)

[mrs tiggywinkle]

**Probably one of the reasons that many "Good Wives" became feminists. Apparently the 1955 "good wife" didn't feel like passing the rules on to her own daughters. The hand that rocks the cradle... **

My mother was the 1955 'good wife' but didn't encourage her daughters to be the same. Quite the opposite actually.

I'm the one daughter who turned the clock back. I'm the 'good wife'...and am teaching my daughter to be the same. :o)

[Tax-chick]

Excellent way of putting things! I guess the kids and I do a few things right, because my husband looks back on being unemployed for a year as a really positive experience :-). Our 7yo son asked me recently if Daddy would lose his job again, so he could spend more time at Cub Scouts.

We don't manage peace and quiet or cleanliness very often (not that he would notice if the house and kids were clean), but they all yell DAAAADDDYYY! when he comes in (or even when they hear the garage door opener) and he knows he's the most important person in the world to 7 kids. And when I say, "How was your day with nerds?" I'm really interested, and always take his side on any issue at work.

The details may be different from one family to another, but I guess the important thing is for everyone in the family to know that nobody cares as much about them as the people at home.

[Go Gordon]

What? You mean you don't believe me? :-)

Lets put it this way: If your ole man stayed out all night, I'm not so sure your screen name wouldn't have to be changed.

[Judith Anne]

We have been so blessed, and I think you have the right idea there...Our wedding rings had a braid of gold on them, to us it symbolized the three elements of marriage--God, Hub, and me. Without all three elements, no marriage.

We have other rings now, but nothing has changed in the braid.

[mrs tiggywinkle]

**The women in our office building (not our company) have gained an average of about 35 pounds a piece over the last couple years. The majority are mid-40's. What attention do they expect to get from hubby in the evening?**

Hmmm. I wonder what their hubbies look like. Gut? Remote control glued to his palm? Greasy hair? Strange odors emitting from his direction?

Walk carefully on the mid-40 thing there, Gordon. I'm there and haven't had my hormones today. ;o)

[fish hawk]

You are so right. This is why Dr. Laura wrote her new book.

[familyop]

Then the socialist Betty Friedan came along and propagandized women into being more "independent" from marriage.

Now most women are brainwashed into expecting to have unobtainable perfection in husbands and no responsibilities to their marriages at all. When they find their next men, they may file accusations against their husbands to have them removed from their kids' lives, public life in general or even unconstitutionally imprisoned for no more than debts or accusations.

Both political parties subscribe to this and believe men to be responsible for their children by their wallets. This includes waffling Wade Horn and his boss.

Our country is quickly becoming a ghetto with children being relegated to lifestyles of illegitimacy while their fathers are alive. It's a country that promotes adultery and pays for it with money extracted from enslaved, alienated fathers.

Begin, after all of these years of immorality, to teach our daughters to do what's right in marriage. Repeal the VAWA, the Child Support Act and all no-fault divorce laws.

Stop allowing our media moguls who pretend to be conservative from projecting their filthy lifestyles (trading their wives in on new models) and false accusations (that all husbands are evil fools) on good working men. Our leaders are, for the most part, not morally fit to be leading us.

http://familyops.us/columns/lemasters/Driving_the_Divorce_Rate.html

Otherwise, young men will be increasingly and rightfully afraid to marry or identify themselves to young women. Our resulting nation of singles will vote perpetually Democrat, sooner or later. Mao, Engels, Marx and Lenin knew well wrote of the necessity of feminism to precede socialism. Stop spreading the romantic, pagan filth of Henry and Harriet Beecher, Susan B. Anthony, and all like them. Find and elect politicians who have absolutely no illuminist, northeastern heritage--not even through their grandparents.

http://familyops.us/anthonyproject/

http://www.marx.org/archive/marx/works/subject/women/index.htm
Karl Marx On Women and Frederick Engels

Mao's Little Red Book on Women
http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Documents/Mao-31-Women.html

Some of Lenin's words on women
http://www.marx.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/nov/06.htm

[Go Gordon]

They forgot this one: 19. Greet him at the door wearing nothing but red 4 inch pumps and a martini in hand....

I'm lucky if there's a beer (domestic and in a can, no less) in the fridge. As far as wearing nothing but shoes? The army boots would definitely be a turn off.

[proud American in Canada]

I've seen this before.

As a wife, I have no problem with this. What is wrong with trying to make your spouse/partner's life happier? What's wrong with trying to make others happy?

I don't mean people need to subject themselves to abuse, but it's also true that there is nothing wrong with making an effort to make those close to you happy and comfortable.

[Judith Anne]

Your home sounds joyful! And you are so right, details can differ but the foundation is the same.

I love what you posted about always taking your husband's side...we do that for each other, too...;-D