Dear old mom and dad.

So I am doing a reaserh paper on Sex roles in my written comm class and my introducton includes a little Anecdote about my life. So I thought I would share it with you .

Growing up my mother always taught me that education is very important and that it’s an important tool that I ill need for the rest of my life. My father encouraged me to get an education but it was not something that we talked about very much. As I got older and started dating my father took it upon himself to have what he though was a very important conversation. My father told me that having an education was important but that I also need to really learn how to keep a clean house and cook all kinds of meals. I told my father I already knew how to do these things and following that I asked myself why this was important. My father proceeded to tell me that when I finished school and found myself a husband that I would need to make sure the house was clean every day and that my husband had breakfast waiting when he woke up and dinner ready when he came home every day after work. I sat there is silence and thought about what my father had said to me and decided not to take it to heart, after all its 2008 and I’m not June Cleaver.

Needless to say my dad is an old school southern man who still thinks June Cleave is the modle wife , and my mom is a former teacher and a feminist . Needless to say they are not together any more because my mom decided that men were not her thing any more if you know what I mean.

Tell me about your Parents and families.

Leave a Comment

Fleur on

I meant to comment sooner.

My mother is a fierce rebel. During my youth, she didn't cook at all, not for her kids, not for her husband. She worked a lot, because she liked to work, and we rarely saw her. Her actions spoke for her, they said "Take care of yourself." Regardless of gender roles. Ironically, I'm a very domestic lady. I cook for my significant other almost every night, keep the house clean, do the laundry, grocery shop. But I do it because a) I don't mind doing it, b) I lke things done MY way, and c) I always know things are handled. And also, if I wasn't cooking/cleaning/handling things, I'd go crazy. I also work full-time, and I love my work. But this is what works for my relationship, I wasn't told to do this, and if I was, I wouldn't have listened - the fierce rebel of my Ma is in me too. If the Man decided to clean the house and do the laundry and cook the dinners, we wouldn't work out. I don't do 'down time' well, so I'd have too much and be crazy. We have a balance that works well with us, and ultimately, it's not about a female's role or a male's role or what your parent's have decided are those perspective roles, it's what work for you. You gotta live your life, regardless of if you are a man or a woman or what your parents think.