Homemakers: obsolete or indispensable?
Are Homemakers No Longer Necessary for Modern Society?
Moms, do you ever feel like your occupation as a homemaker is considered second rate, that you need to apologize for wanting to stay home with your kids?
Read what Dr. Leila Denmark says about homemaking: read and be encouraged!
Hi, I’m Madia. I have eleven children and one of the greatest privileges of my life was to know Dr. Leila Denmark. She practiced pediatrics for over 75 years and was my mentor for 32 years.
I can hardly express how much she helped me, both with the children’s medical issues and family life challenges. I would love to share what she taught me with you.
The Vital Job of Homemaking
Said Dr. Denmark:
“Today women have been brainwashed into believing there’s some job in the workforce greater than being a wife and mother at home. Women have made and trained every man on earth except Adam. As women think and conduct their lives, so goes the country.
“We’ve taken the baby out of the cradle and put the economy in it, setting him aside to make money. We’re going to make careers and all kinds of things, but we’re not making people. Somebody has to be willing to stay home and do that.
EDUCATION
“The theory is that if you have a wonderful education, you should go do something worthwhile with it and let other people rear your children. It won’t work; it has never worked. A cow never neglects her calf. It would be enlightening for people to study how animals take care of their young until they are grown enough to take care of themselves.
“There’s never been a woman too educated to take care of her baby. My mother cared for me, and I didn’t have a bit better sense than to take care of my daughter. My daughter, Mary, had an excellent education and could have been a successful businesswoman, but she too stayed home and reared a couple of fine sons.
DAYCARE
“America today is a wrecked nation. Eighty-five percent of our children go to day care and learn to fight their way through life. In daycare a child tries to build something and the other children snatch at it and tear it down. He, in turn, begins snatching and fighting. There is no peace for him. He’s not able to have a quiet time at home. He’ll not learn to do things by himself or learn self-discipline. He can’t develop confidence in anyone because his mother has deserted him. Rejected youngsters will one day ruin our country.
FREEDOM?
“You hear about so many women entering the work force. They think they’ve found freedom but don’t seem to realize they aren’t free at all. How is working eight hours a day for someone else or getting fired translate to greater freedom? If they’ve earned a million dollars by the time they’re sixty-five and never know the joy of rearing their children, what have they accomplished?
FULFILLMENT?
“I spoke with a woman not long ago whose baby had been in day care ever since he was six weeks old. Daycare cost her hundreds of dollars a month and she spent more money every week to ten days in doctor bills. The baby was constantly sick. She said she had no choice because she and her husband were buying a house. I asked her how long it would take. They had a thirty-year loan.
“That poor woman comes home every night tired out, to a tired husband and a sick baby. After thirty years, what will she have? She’ll probably lose her husband, her house will be out of date, and she’ll never have developed a good relationship with her child. She’ll never have any of the wonderful pleasures of living. It’s better to live in a lean-to and have some of the fun. We’ve somehow convinced working women they’re having a good time. There’s no good time to it at all.
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME!
“I see so many women who simply don’t want to focus on their homes. They find something outside that they want to do. They’ve got to go do something ‘worthwhile.’ They are quite willing to teach other people’s children or do volunteer work for a children’s hospital, but they just don’t want to be ‘tied down’ with their own children…the mother is out working for some other person, in an office, school, church, child guidance organization, child health organization, doing P.T.A or club work, or engaging in many other endeavors. She is giving her time and thoughts trying to make a better world for her child to live in, but is missing the only chance she will ever have to mold her child who is to live in the world she is trying to make. It is like a hen that will leave her little chicks out in the cold while she goes off to build a nest and finds, after the nest is built, her chicks have died from neglect.
THE TRUTH ...OUR WORLD DESPERATELY NEEDS HOMEMAKERS
“There is no more important job on earth than rearing children. The direction a person takes depends to a large extent on the training and leadership he has from birth through childhood, and even after becoming an adult. Our world desperately needs mothers-- mothers who will take the time to help their children develop healthy bodies and souls, so as to enjoy full, happy and useful lives.”
For more of Dr. Denmark's insights, read Dr. Denmark Said It!
