In my mind a “housewife” is a very specific role, largely influenced by the Nick at Nite shows I watched growing up. Housewives wear aprons around the house - to keep the unseemly muck from cooking and cleaning off their dresses. They wear heels 80% of the day. They have no spending money of their own and have to concoct schemes to loose money from their husbands’ hands. Housewives often get into humorous jams as a direct result of their poor spatial reasoning skills. And although the kids are a job all their own, when the kids are gone there’s plenty of leisurely time to read Better Homes & Gardens.

Granted, I recognize that this perception is wayyyyyy off - and pretty offensive. Still, having grown up a tomboy-only-child-of-a-feminist-father, it’s hard to reconcile myself with what I see as my new role of Housewife. After all, I do work during the day, but I work from home and I consider a large portion of the household chores to be my responsibility - if only because they’re more convenient for me to take care of.

And so I am a House Captain.

I do “housewife” things: cook, clean, garden. I get groceries and daydream about area rugs. But I also research deck staining and lawn care, fix broken screens and mow the yard. And the bottom line is this: My husband didn’t ask me to do this. If I woke up one morning and knew that the path to my happiness was a 60-hour-a-week-job, he’d drive me to the interview.



Even past all that: I love to be in charge of things. I am a curator. The idea that it’s my responsibility to make choices about the projects we work on, the food and art and manufactured goods that come into this house, is very compelling. And being helpful is my favorite. I am so excited to have this job.