I have been reading the book Radical Homemaker by Shannon Hayes.
Well actually this is my second read, as this time I am reading it and making notes as I go.
As the blurb on the back of the book says:
” Radical Homemakers is an inspirational book featuring stories of people who’ve cast aside the pressures of a consumer culture and quit their jobs to live a simple life of self-sufficiency and foster relationships within their own local communities.”
At times it is a bit tedious to read with some very ordinary verbatim quotes from people in her study which would have been better to paraphrase!
But she has a very strong message.
Personally I’ve always struggled with the housewife thing. The author distinguishes between being a housewife of the 50′s and 60′s where the role started to be about home being a consuming entity instead of a producing entity. Hence the emptiness of the role and women being isolated and alone in their shiny new homes in a subdivision with no community infrastructure . I could relate to that as I experienced that myself for a couple of years after my daughter was born and I stayed at home after being a career woman.
Shannon instead promotes the idea of being a Radical Homemaker, which involves a lot of making meals from scratch, producing or growing, making many things we need in the home, or sharing or exchanging goods and services within our community of friends and family, rethinking how we educate our children, learning new skills and connecting with family, friends and community.
This is what I am aiming for in my simpler living journey.
