For those men who think a Homemaker's job is a breeze...

And for those women who face that attitude in their daily lives.....

My hubby was one of the staunch - his work and her work type of guy when we got married. Please notice the 'was'!!! He was the type who would try and scuttle a discussion in the early days by saying "I could manage the house better than you but you couldn't last a day in office". As a homemaker with not 'office' experience, I would fume but keep quiet - I knew what he said was bunkum but had no way to prove my point.

So how did the 'was' in the previous statement come about? There is a small story behind it that I'd like to share here.

When my children were 7-1/2 and 3-1/2, I pulled the long muscle in my back. The long muscle is the one we use without knowing for each and every action we make from lifting a hand to turning our head to walking. This muscle is used even in the act of breathing. Pulling it means that you can't even lie down without pain because - you guessed it - this muscle is used even for lying down, turning over etc.

The pull was so bad that the doc threatened hospitalization if I did not take strict bed rest. With two small children and a hubby with such archaic ideas, I refused to be hospitalized. My hubby too must have been scared at the thought of being left alone to deal with two kids with whom he had at most played and whom may be he had put to bed or very very occasionally given a bath. He promised the doc that I would get strict bed rest and will not be allowed to do anything.

The real fun started after the weekend passed and both kids had to be woken up, bathed, dressed, breakfasted, packed off to school by 8:10! Hubby hates bread for breakfast and preferred the traditional south Indian breakfast eats to start the day. But with no experience of cooking or of getting the children ready in the mornings, being expected to do both simultaneously was ...... I don't think 'tough' covers that situation at all! :rotfl

I managed rudimentary cooking with the help of the maid for the lunch and dinner but mornings remained hubby's domain for the next fortnight. By the end of the week, the guest bedroom bed was piled with unfolded laundry that the maid pulled down from the clothesline everyday. On maybe the 10th day, when I became slightly mobile, I reached the guest bedroom door just in time to see two children freshly showered and standing wrapped in towels, and my husband tossing - yes tossing - as in picking up a bundle of clothes from the bed and tossing them high, to search for the tiny under-wears! It seems (and he explained this to me very seriously) that it was so difficult to see the small underwear in a pile of mixed clothes that he had been doing this in the hope of catching a glimpse of them as the clothes fell back to the bed!!!!:drowning

To cut the long story short, the fortnight was probably the longest in my husband's life and he was a changed man at the end of it!

Needless to say, I never heard that particular statement about "I can...." ever again. In fact I once heard him say to one of his friends "No man, it (home making) is not as easy as you think".

15 years later, I am working full time from home and still managing the home making part - easier now with adult children of course. And my hubby is all admiration and when my parents visited us last, I heard him say to my dad, "She would have been as terrific Senior level Executive". :biglaugh

Do any of you have interesting anecdotes that changed peoples' attitudes? Not just hubbies, but InLaws, parents, bosses too? Love to hear them here....