Kept man?
I was reading the paper (well actually not the paper paper but the online version !) today and there was an article in it about allowing our husbands to be a kept man. Apparently this is happening more and more these days with more women being the breadwinners and keeping their husbands - even to the point of giving them pocket money.
Now as you all know Neb lost his job a while ago (3 years to be exact!!) and since then I assume I'm keeping him. And having thought of it he also gets pocket money - ie the money I give him to leave the house to play pool so I can get some me time! Except when is it I go out and with what?
I think he seems to be getting the easy side of the bargain here - apparently being a house husband (what his title would be - if he tidied!) or stay at home dad has risen to 80% in the last 15 years. There are more women breadwinners than there where in the days of Maggie herself!
But am I missing out on something, yes, I think I am , I would sometimes (when I'm a good mother and love my kids dearly and not like now where my kids are eating crayons and annoying me - see bad mother !!) love to be a kept woman - to be at home with my kids, to be more creative, to get the house sorted, everything I could do but to be honest would probably send me doolally and would send me running at high speed back to work.
So kept husbands, love or hate them they seem to be here to stay - so does anyone want to keep mine for me?
This post was written after I read this article! All views are my own and not the paper/journalists view
BNM
Now as you all know Neb lost his job a while ago (3 years to be exact!!) and since then I assume I'm keeping him. And having thought of it he also gets pocket money - ie the money I give him to leave the house to play pool so I can get some me time! Except when is it I go out and with what?
I think he seems to be getting the easy side of the bargain here - apparently being a house husband (what his title would be - if he tidied!) or stay at home dad has risen to 80% in the last 15 years. There are more women breadwinners than there where in the days of Maggie herself!
But am I missing out on something, yes, I think I am , I would sometimes (when I'm a good mother and love my kids dearly and not like now where my kids are eating crayons and annoying me - see bad mother !!) love to be a kept woman - to be at home with my kids, to be more creative, to get the house sorted, everything I could do but to be honest would probably send me doolally and would send me running at high speed back to work.
So kept husbands, love or hate them they seem to be here to stay - so does anyone want to keep mine for me?
This post was written after I read this article! All views are my own and not the paper/journalists view
BNM
In most cases (like yours and mine) I think it is less of "letting our" husbands be kept men and more having no choice in the matter! My Ovver Arf lost his job in February, and as you can imagine with the current state of the Greek economy, there has been little sign of a new one to come along since then (hopefully that will change some time soon!).
ReplyDeleteI think we tend to pussy foot around our men when they find themselves out of a job, thinking that they have to deal with both the normal blow to their ego and the hit their male pride takes as well.
Trouble is, in doing so, we sometimes short-change ourselves by trying to be everything: the breadwinner, loving wife and confidante, the strong organised one, devoted mother, chief cook and bottle-washer...
...and then our kept men sometimes get all offended when it all gets too much and we have a go at them demanding they do too much. Or maybe that's just me?
"...demanding they do too much"? of course, I should have said "...demanding they do more"!
ReplyDeleteThere's me thinking you'd lost it. I know the feeling well - and then its ok for a bit until they lose the will again. I even try and ask things in a "would you mind doing.. such and such now?" and still we get nowhere.
ReplyDeleteOne hopes he'll get a proper job sometime but I think to be honest that he's given up due to so many rejections. Ah well, hope yours finds one soon.
BNM
Mine's at home for now as well and though he will do things around the house - it's only if I ask! WTH! If (and when) I was at home no one had to ask me once (much less twice) to do chores around the house. Drives me batty. Hmmmm, think I'll be doing a lot more asking around here.....
ReplyDeleteI think I'm detecting a common thread here ladies....
ReplyDelete...and when they DO do something wihout being asked to, don't you have to heap praise on them, pull out the bunting, strike up the brass band, and shower them with praise - all for emptying the dishwasher or putting a pot of pasta on to boil?
god no, I just thank him and then I get the 4yo look at me face that all men (boys) have !!!
ReplyDeleteI had a house husband for over a year once, but it was before kids. He did keep the house and cook me dinner, so I didn't mind all that much, really. He did get depressed about it, which made me sad.
ReplyDeleteHA. Am too busy keeping MINE. This recession thing is just crappy. After all of those years when he bitched about how little I made, and told me I might as well quit my pathetic NHS Speech Therapist job, and now it is our income...UGH. He is no more cut out for househusbandry than I am for housewifery, but I would really not mind quitting my job and writing full-time...SIGH. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI didn't do a very good job of keeping my own husband let alone anyone elses!
ReplyDelete