Planning is Management

Now, where were we?  Oh yes!  We were going through The Home Economics Omnibus by Harris & Huston!

Planning is not cooking but it is management.  Mother gets her day’s work done because she has learned to plan.  In her day, planning or management were not taught in school.  This is where you have an advantage.  (Page 9)

When I read the above quoted passage, it reminded me of something Kathy had mentioned in the comments section a while ago.  She said that her mother viewed being a housemaker as her job.  She writes,

My mother made lists in order to keep herself focused on what she needed to do. She treated homemaking, including her sewing and handwork, as her job.

This has me wondering, how many of us view homemaking as our job rather than a chore?  Thanks to the media trying to sell us stuff to rescue us from our “daily drudgery,” chores have a rather negative connotation.  What if we thought of homemaking as our career and not “just a job?”  Would we go about our day differently?

When I was a new school teacher, I had to submit my weekly lesson plans to my principal.  He wanted to make sure that the new teachers had plans in place to ensure that our students would meet our learning benchmarks.  As a new professor, I didn’t have to turn in my lesson plans but I carried over my habit from when I was a schoolteacher.  Since then, I have led countless workshops teaching new professors and graduate students how to plan out their courses so that their students learn without too many “uh-ohs” happening during the semester.

And, isn’t that what planning is about?  If we plan, we can manage the daily ups and downs a little easier.  If we ask ourselves, “What can go wrong?” we’ll already have a plan in place to manage the “uh-oh” instead of it turning into a disaster.

What does home management entail?  I think it includes things like financial/money management, physical upkeep of the house and ourselves, meals, vacations/days of rest, and education.

Education?  Yes, education.  Many professional careers require their practitioners to acquire professional development hours in order to renew their license.  And, yet, we don’t necessarily think about professional development when it comes to home management.  But why not?  That “hobby class” offered at the recreation center may provide you with skills that will help you grow as a home manager.  The big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot offer do it yourself workshops.  Even if you aren’t planning on redoing your bathroom, just having an understanding of how the bathroom plumbing works will enable you to save money because you will know when you can unclog that drain yourself (instead of needing to call a plumber).

Many young mothers write to me, wanting to know about resources so that they can be like a 50′s housewife.  I think the unspoken plea is that they don’t feel in charge of their home and want some guidance on how to be an ideal homemaker.  I think a first step is to view homemaking as a career and see both the daily and long-term in our planning.  That way we won’t be buffeted about like a ball in an old pin-ball machine.  Planning means that we are in charge and can remain (relatively) calm and productive no matter what happens.

PS: Click here to read my blog posting on my favorite organization tools