Chief Executive…Housewife?

by Kimberly Palmer

Many women of my generation–a generation that went to school years after home economics classes were abolished–were never taught how to efficiently perform such basic and essential tasks. Housework was never part of the curricula–although I am grateful for the fact that my parents pushed me to get a good education and to learn how to support myself. But once the work day is over, somebody needs to make dinner. And wipe down the countertops. And make sure the bath towels aren’t smelly.

To fill this gap in my own life, I decided to teach myself, and to at least temporarily take over all of the cooking and cleaning duties at home. I turned to the experts: Martha Stewart, Barefoot Contessa’s Ina Garten, and even Dr. Laura Schlessinger, author of The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands.

I found myself in good company: 64 percent of the Food Network’s viewers are women, and of the over one million subscribers to Martha Stewart Living magazine, 79 percent are women. Dr. Laura’s book is a bestseller. Clearly, I was not the only woman looking for a little advice on how to tackle this unfamiliar role.

My husband, Sujay, I should mention, did not entirely welcome my plans. He was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy doing the housework, and that it would make me grumpy. As a product of the same generation, he never expected responsibility for housework to rest entirely on my shoulders. He was also petrified that other people might think he was the one encouraging this return to traditionalism. I promised that I’d explain to anyone who asked that it was my idea.

With Sujay then on board, I decided to go cold turkey: One Saturday morning I woke up, armed with a Barefoot Contessa chicken and garlic recipe and Martha Stewart’s two-inch-thick homekeeping manual. To give myself extra motivation, I had invited our friends Mike and Pegg over for dinner. By 7 pm, I had to have a clean apartment and dinner ready, or I wouldn’t just be a bad wife–I’d be a bad hostess, too.