I was reading an article in the newspaper a couple of days back that set me thinking - according to the census stay-at-home moms or housewives come under a generic "unproductive" category. My first reaction was "What!? Me unproductive?! - do the people who came up with the categories have moms/wives - wonder what those ladies feel about this labelling.. and so on and so forth...
Then after some cooling down time.. I realized that when financial output or contribution is the easiest way to categorize, there is no choice but to include people like me in such a category. The article by Santosh Desai was about how he felt it was unfair for moms/housewives to share the same category as prostitutes and beggars, but honestly - I didn't feel any indignity in that. After all it seems like we all come under the same umbrella of not making a "viable" contribution to society!
this word 'unproductive' bugs me a lot...why are housewives labeled in such a way? So many times I'm bugged when ppl ask that what do yo do at home the whole day...no value for taking care of the kids or even the elders. at time it feels that you are wasting an opportunity but when you see a smile on your kid's face or be part pf their valuable childhood all is forgotten.
ReplyDeleteYes Anon I know what you mean. Even though none of the people close to me ever make me feel like this, and I have been totally comfortable in my role for years now - Seeing something like this still irritated me and I just had to vent my feelings here! Thanks for reading and leaving your note :).
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