Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they get home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.
Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables.
During the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
Be happy to see him.
Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.
Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
Don't greet him with complaints and problems.
Don't complain if he's late for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through at work.
Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or lie him down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
"Not everyone is cut out to be a person (mom OR dad) who stays at home while their spouse works."
I think part of this is the affect of our culture, though, v. how we're actually made. Biblically, the wife is given certain responsibilities in the home. A lot of women buy into the lies of the women's liberation movement, and it doesn't help that so many churches promote these lies, as well. I don't think the idea of staying at home raising your own children who God entrusted you with and gave you the responsibility to raise would be quite so frightening or unappealing if mothers and churches would really teach young women about what Biblical womanhood is and what the role of a woman is in marriage and family, and would then offer support to them in fulfilling this high calling.
There are so many things that we don't seem naturally cut out for. I'm not cut out to be a person who is patient. But that doesn't mean that it's okay for me to not practice patience. Regardless of what I feel naturally capable of doing and willing to do, I feel that I need to pour out who I am and be filled up with Christ.
The Bible does say the wife is the help meet. though I agree that both need to work together.
Though I do agree that some of what is written is over the top. I do not see what is wrong with preparing dinner and having the house clean if the kids are in school all day..Marriage is about putting the other person first. The reason why they are failing is the me me me attiude we have today. I am sure there are women who would happily stay home and raise their kids if they could afford it.
This thread has been a case study in some folks' tendencies to not read what was written but instead respond emotionally; the article never said women should be "barefoot and pregnant", for instance. Neither did it say "stuck home with the children". I understand that y'all do not care for those concepts, but the article never mentioned them, either.
For the record, women and men should raise children together. The ideal is that of Jesus' upbringing. Joseph was a carpenter, correct? So Mary was right there, as was Joseph, throughout the workday, raising the children together. That men often have to leave home to go to work is an unhappy side effect of industrialization and of previous generations' unwillingness to insist upon the role of the father in the lives of the children.
Put another way -- how do you think it feels as a man, when you are EXCLUDED from your children's lives 8 hours a day, if not more? And yet, you have to keep working and work hard or else a goodly part of the money that keeps people fed, clothed, and housed, is gone. So it's a really unstable set of compromises that you make. Me, if I had children, I would rather have a job where I could work from home at least some part of the time. This is important because we are seeing the effects of children without fathers on a massive scale.
Although I read the entire article, my response was to a previous post.
Although I do not agree with everything stated in the article, the premise is well understood and should be taken into consideration.
In a perfect Ozzie and Harriet world, the perfect husband would arrive at his perfect home, be greeted by his perfect wife, eat a pefectly prepared meal, retire to his study, don his smoking jacket and slippers, light his pipe and read the paper while his dutiful wife put his perfect children to bed.
With the high cost of living now and other various cultural changes, this is very hard to do.
Yes, marriage is a partnership. It would be nice if the wife could stay home with the children. Nothing at all wrong with that scenerio in my book. Very good for the children and the pocketbook. When the husband comes home however, it should be his turn to help as well. Help tend the children, the household chores, whatever. This way, he gets to spend quality time with them.
I agree w/ what SilverFire said. Ideally, both the dad and mom would be home as much as possible with the kids. If my future hubby could work from home even just part of the time, that would be awesome. Granted, some things can only be done by a woman, like breastfeeding =) If I have babies, I'm going to breastfeed them for 2 years. I really think that people are just too busy these days and that everyone should be home more having quality couple/family time.
