Radical Homemaking…

Saturday is newspaper reading day. Yes, it would be nice to read it more than once a week, but… one is better than none, right? Anyway, there was one especially interesting article describing a trend toward “Radical Homemaking”…

“radical homemakers, women and men who are reclaiming the traditional role of the homemaker as part of their desire for a less materialistic life. It's a social movement that's drawing a small but growing number of people - many in their 20s and 30s - who measure their lives not in terms of money, but in such aspects as relationships, ecological sustainability and happiness.”


Finally, a job description I love! From now on, when someone inquires as to my “profession,” my answer will enthusiastically be, “I am a radical homemaker.” You see, for the past few years, I have had a hard time finding an appropriate label for my occupation… When unable to avoid the “what do you do?” question, I reluctantly ramble about being a mom, and my “side business” making children’s clothes, and then there’s my part time hobby of seminary… so… I… kind of… do a lot of stuff… but don’t really “do” anything.


For some crazy reason, I seem to have trouble admitting that I am, above all, a homemaker. Maybe that’s because I feel like an inferior homemaker… My floors seem to be dirty more than they are clean, the laundry piles up in the chairs (but at least its clean!), dinner often consists of the oh-so-delicious (and easy) frozen pizza, and the play room looks like a small herd of very playful animals passed through.


But now, I feel I have a renewed sense of purpose. I feel somehow validated by this radical trend… this crazy idea that being “employed” is overrated… that living a happy and fulfilling life does not depend on the title I have or the amount of money I make. But is it really even radical? Didn’t our grandmothers and great-grandmothers understand this… They weren’t radical. They were just doing their job.


Of course it’s not like I didn’t already know that jobs, money and things aren’t at all what matter in life, but let’s be honest… in our society, it takes a bit of humility and a lot of courage to break the norm and be a radical… HOMEMAKER. That’s right… I’m a radical. Maybe this will be the push I needed to get that (clean) laundry out of the chair & into the closet… maybe