Okay, this article hits home. I'm not Generation X but I'm close.
Ever since I was a small child, it was always my dream to marry and be a housewife. Maybe some call that unambitious or exploitative. But I always wanted to cook and bake all day, manage the finances, basically, to run a home. I think I'd be really good at it. I've never wanted to do anything else.
Yet at the same time, I've never really wanted to have children. Just never felt much of a connection to them. I am not permanently opposed to the idea, however.
I'm also very religious and conservative.
Does this make me a user? If I find a man who wants a traditional woman like me, one who doesn't work outside of the home, do people think there is something wrong with that? I'm not lazy, I'm a very hard worker. It's just always been my dream to do my work by maintaining our home.
BTW, of course if I have to work outside of the home to build our finances, I will. But ultimately, my dream is to be a housewife.
Just a word of encouragement -- I never liked kids, was never the girl volunteering in the church nursery, and I don't even think I had ever changed a diaper before I had kids. Now, I have four kids, 7 and younger, and I would take a bullet, get hit by a bus, or whatever it takes to take care of them. HOWEVER, just like getting married, having kids was a decision (in the pro-life context, mind you), conscious, deliberate, and we should remember that many things in life worthing doing aren't necessarily easy.
What I am trying to say, is, women in America have so much freedom to make so many choices. So, make the right decision about chosing your husband, and that will give you a lot of support when you contemplate children -- if you have a husband who is a servant-leader of your family, you can forge ahead with confidence. It's a big help.
Also, remember that women in the workforce are also taking on many of the vices that men have picked up from the pressures - smoking, drinking, etc. There are trade-offs.
As a matter of fact, I believe that the effort I put into my children, even on tornado days, will be more worth it than a Bar membership, court case won, issue lobbied, brief written. I'm not picking on those who chose to do those things instead of have kids, I'm just explaining my rationale. Much is required of those to whom much is given, and my kids will indeed have much required of them, based on how much I've chosen to give them. At least I don't have to walk two miles to a well, or drop a baby while planting in the field....there are a lot of things to keep in perspective.
Finally, one more thought on men and their wives. I know a lot of American women who are afraid of suffering the divorce their parents did, and who think they ought to find a "beta-male" who they can push around, as opposed to a meat-eating, alpha, yet are attracted to the latter, yet, they quickly stereotype the alpha (caveman, etc). Look, there are alpha males out there (for lack of a better term), who are honorable, strong leaders, and who also deserve a wife who will be good to them (think, George Bush, Pat Tillman, Mel Gibson, and, sorry gals, my husband is taken), not a bratty, sex-in-the-city, immature self-worshipper. It takes two. I am happy to work myself to the bone for my family, set aside my law degree, and invest where I chose -- at home. And I ain't apologizing to Patricia Ireland or Gloria Steinem (sp?).