Here’s another story from Changing Every Day. When you finish reading, take the quiz to test your understanding!:
Housewife
Yi Juan Lin
Last Saturday, I took my children and went shopping with my friends. On the corner of the street, we saw a bunch of people we didn’t know. We went over to see what was happening. It turned out to be a couple engaged in a quarrel.
The man looked very fierce, the woman looked very poor. The woman said, as she was crying, “Do you think I was willing to be a housewife? I gave up my favorite work to take care of our children. I concentrated my time and youth on you. What is the result? You dislike that I got older and got ugly now.”
Many people hate to see the man’s behavior that she accused him of. A thought suddenly flashed through my mind: I was also a housewife. Would my husband dislike me if I didn’t have abilities?
When my husband got home from work, I told him what I had seen. I wanted to hear what he thought about it. Was it the same with all men despising housewives?
I was surprised. My husband’s opinion was completely different than the other man’s. He said, “A housewife is a very important post. If no one takes care of the children, the children don’t know how to behave. A successful man must support his woman.” I listened, very moved, because I gave up my favorite work also and chose to become a housewife.
In China, many men look down on housewives. They think housewives are not cultured, and do not understand anything, and can only wash clothes and cook, and take care of children. I don’t know how American men evaluate housewives.
In my opinion, I consider occupations unimportant. Whether homemakers or not, as long as someone contributes to the family and society, it is worthwhile.
Some people say, “First you should have a warm and sweet family, and after you will have a powerful country.”
