Here's the Secret About What it Takes to Be a "Good" Homemaker
You already have everything it takes...
Today’s journal includes a guest article by , a homemaker, homeschooler, and writer living in the Ozarks with her husband and two boys. Her work has appeared in several conservative and faith-based outlets and focuses on recovering the beauty and order of traditional femininity and family life. I have been a personal fan of Isa’s for a while. Thank you for this beautiful article, Isa!
Here’s the secret about what it takes to be a “good homemaker.”
In the world of homemaking content, it can often feel utterly overwhelming to consume content aimed at helping you improve.
Routines. Meal planning. Hacks. Content designed to encourage can often leave us more aware of our deficits than encouraged to develop new strengths.
The plethora of videos and photos circulating around online can often seem tailor-made to make us feel terrible about our own homes or convinced we’re just not cut out for homemaking, since other women often seem to have things that we sorely lack.
When our day-to-day reality often feels like we’re Sisyphus (or the subject of Paris Paloma song), sometimes nothing can feel more demoralizing than trying to improve.
Pretty soon, we’re fully convinced that maybe we just don’t have the skills, resources, time, or support to be a “good homemaker.”
And while much could be said about the characteristics of a “good homemaker,” this term is incredibly relative at best — and toxically problematic at worst.
Do you want to know a secret?
You already have everything it takes to be a good homemaker.
This is because your most valuable asset as a homemaker is you, babes!
You, just as you are, are a complete, full, made-in-God’s-image human being, and a female human being at that. Woman was given to the human race to animate and perpetuate it, just as we are. What a blessing!
When God created Eve for Adam, He put the final, crowning, glorious touch on humanity and thus, fulfilled and completed Adam’s otherwise lonely life.
“And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken from man,” an elated Adam said of his wife in the first recorded human words in Scripture. Isn’t that amazing?
The fact that you are a woman, even if you’re not a wife, is more than enough to qualify you as a “good” homemaker. Trust me.
No, I’m not saying all you need to do is show up and sit around being female, by any means.
What I am saying is that you can’t be disqualified from any of the factors that you believe are holding you back from being a “good” homemaker.
What’s more, no matter how solid your routine, big your house, or wealthy your family is, the most important aspect of being a homemaker is your presence in and commitment to the home.
Productivity, space, and routines can never replace the warmth and humanity of a loving wife, mother, or female family member.
Greeting your children with love when they wake up in the morning, welcoming your husband home after a long day, pitching in to help your parents around the house, or just being there as a listening ear to your roommates is worth more than all the homemaking skills in the world.
The reason that homemaking is so important is that when a woman decides to primarily focus on the time-honored art of creating a home, she commits to animating it with her presence.
Your dedication to creating a home, your belief that this work matters, your understanding of what a home really is, these are the things that make for a “good” homemaker.
These are the things that will continue to motivate you to tend to the mundane, daily tasks, to put love and attention into your recipes, to be a loving wife, mother, daughter, or friend.
As author Sally Clarkson writes, “Today when you nurture, love and meet the needs of your beloveds with beauty, it will make a difference in how they face their whole day.”
The most valuable asset you have as a homemaker is the heart you have for your role and what that means to those who dwell in your home.
There’s lots of time to improve your skills, learn more hacks, grow in self-discipline, and these things will come with time, patience, and practice.
But every single day you are more than equipped for the role you’ve been given.
You are an image-bearer of God, a woman, a homemaker.
Keep house accordingly, sisters!
By
, A Homemaker’s Manifesto
Classic Homemade Apple Pie
The scent of cinnamon, butter, and baked apples — a reminder that the best homemaking moments are found in simple, loving traditions.
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