The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-01-11
Time for Recreation.

llne IOr ReCTeHllOHs
There is a class of women who never
seem to have time for anything outside
of housekeeping. Their whole minds
are centered on their household duties,
or supposed duties, for no household,
unless where there is large family
and the mother the sole housekeeper,
should be allowed to occupy the whole
attention of the housewife. To be
sure, it is the duty of all housewives to
see that the house is kept in proper or
der, but to do this they need not, surely,
give up all their time. They are in the
habit of saying, whenever you chance
to meet one of them: " l am all the
time cleaning and still am never clean"
You feel little twinge of conscience
at her words and wonder if you left
your house in as good order as you
thought you had She has such an
exalted idea of cleanliness that she
does very little else than clean. If her
house is not considered clean you don't
like to imagine what she would think
of yours should she happen in some
day when you were not feeling well.
1t must have been woman of this
kind that the old story tells about
scrubbing the floor so often that one
day she scrubbed through and fell to
the story below. 1t is all very well to
be clean, but to be this there is no ne
cessity for woman to be all the time
working, leaving no time for recreation
or study, if she is so inclined Such
women are fond of being called sys-
tematic housekeepers. Each day and
oh af no &c 1ni e.,
some task which must be accomplished
at any cost. No matter what may oc-
cur, this programme must be carried
through. A systematic housekeeper is
all very well if she does not 90 too far
with her system, which too often is the
case, and deviate into a systematic ma
chine. If each hour in the day is
arranged for some kind of work one
hour at least ought to be set apart for
recreation, and that hour of all others
rigidly observed. 1t is an actual ne
cessity that all housekeepers should
have some time set apart for recrea-
ton, but more particularly should this
be the case with the above kind of
systematic housekeepers, who never
think of such thing as resting from
work, for, according to their minds,
time spent in recreation is just so much
time thrown away. CAN work and no
play makes Jack a dull boyn is an old
adage known the world over, and could
be equally applied with truth to many
of our household James," who are so
wrapped up in their housework that
they don't seem to have an idea outside
of it. They never think of such a
thing as reading the daily papers to
learn from them what is taking place
in the world, of which they are so
small a part. They like to listen TO
other peoples tales, but never think of
informing themselves by reading or OBJ
servation. eve have so much to do
that we don't have time to read" they
say " 1t takes all our time to keep our
house in order" Yes, and if they had
double the time they would occupy it
in superfluous duties. There is no sense
in working like this. A woman can be
a good housekeeper without taking all
her time to do her housework, but if
she can't then she should be satisfied
to be an ordinarily good one and take
time for recreation. A wife and mother
needs to be more than good house
keeper; she must be in all things the
mistress of the house, the companion of
her husband and children. Now what
kind of companion to anybody is a
woman who is all wrapped up in her
housework. The children ask her ques-
tons about something that has taken
place, probably in her own vicinity,
that any one would be supposed to
know and are sent to the father for in
formation? They very soon come to
the conclusion that mother isn't sup
posed to know anything outside of
housekeeping and do not trouble her
with many questions. The father comes
home with a glowing account of an
event that is taking place in which he
is very much interested, and is all en-
thusiasm over it. He wants somebody
to talk about it, but he has learned long
ago that his wife has no interest in any
thing outside her housekeeping, and he
soon learns to find his entertainment
elsewhere. Visitors come to the house,
very often women, who are familiar
with all the passing events, and she
wonders why her husband and children
are so much brighter and interesting
with company than when alone. These
women very often are not what she
would call model housewives, yet their
families are, as a general thing, more
contented with their homes than all her
housekeeping ability can ever make
hers. People who have known her for
long time, remembering how enter
tanning she was as a girl, wonder why
il is that she is so much different. They
ask her to sing or play, but she excuses
herself with, 81 haven't played for