What's the difference between the Good Wife's Guide 1950's (Housekeeping Monthly) and now?

Excerpt from “Housekeeping Monthly”, 13 May, 1955





· “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 been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) 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.





· Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc and then run a dust cloth over the tables.





· Over 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 for his comfort will provide you immense personal satisfaction.





· Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and face (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Try to 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 return is not the time. Let him talk first-remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.





· Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, and his very real need to be at home and relax.





· Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.





· Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.





· Don’t complain if he’s late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day.





· Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie 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.





· A good wife always knows her place.”





The Good Wife's Guide (2006)





· Have dinner ready. Be sure he has good, easy to follow directions to the quality restaurants that deliver curbside. This way when he arrives home he'll have exactly what he wants for dinner and it will be ready when he arrives and you get fed too. You can be a dear and call in the order. We know how he doesn't like to do that.








· Prepare yourself…a good cocktail will work.








· Be a little gay (we now know this means happy) The cocktail will relax you and you'll appear to be happy when he arrives








· Clear away clutter today this means turn the computer off and the tv on and kick stuff out of the way to make a straight path to the tv. That's all he'll notice.








· Gather up schoolbooks…dust over the tables. Clearing the table off is a nice touch for that special meal he's bringing home. Put everything on the chair you don't use or in the clothes dryer (be sure to empty onto the top of the dryer when you decide to use it).








· Over the cooler months…. turn the heat up a little and give him brandy in his coffee…after you've made yours. It's nice to share.








· Prepare the children. At least try to know where they are. Someone has to take out tonight's dinner containers. Minimise all noise…let them eat in their rooms.








· Be happy to see him.. This may take several cocktails.








· Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him….more cocktails.








· Listen to him. This should be getting easy now after several cocktails.








· Make the evening his. …never complain if he comes home late…try to understand his world of strain..blah blah blah It's already his; he's coming home with a great dinner and if he's late make sure he knows how to use the microwave to reheat; if he really comes home late and without dinner have your dinner delivered and eat without him (just be sure he pays for your dinner when he does get home). No need to try to understand his world of strain, you were out there all day too.








· Your goal: peace, order and tranquility…. Wouldn't we all like that? Keep the kids in their rooms, hire a cleaning service and those cocktails are making everything tranquil. If you meet these for yourself then he will be able to renew himself in body and soul too. If it works for you, it'll work for him.








· Don't greet him with complaints and problems. Now that you have eliminated your need to talk to him then peace and tranquility are still working. Just email him your complaints and problems and he can deal with them at work tomorrow.








· Don't complain if he's late for dinner (we've already gone over this) or even stays out all night. Hell, no, this is not "minor". If you come home then he'd better come home. If you have to deal with the kids and everything at home then he does too. If he continues staying out all night then just smile (keep him off guard) and let your lawyer take care of him! (This is 2005 ladies)








· Make him comfortable. Be sure to let him know where the remotes are. It may not work but you can tell the kids, dogs and cats that they are in his favorite chair (you tried) as you settle into your chair.








· Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice. As the cocktails really kick in; toss his pillow to him, tell him to be sure he takes his shoes off at the door and your voice is already low, soothing and pleasant (alcohol can do that).








· Don't ask him questions about his actions…blah, blah, blah. Remember he is the master of the house ….You have no right to question him..more blah, blah. Welcome to the Millennium. You do not need to ask anything; that's what GPS, micro transmitters and hidden cams are for away from home. As for master of the house; how can you forget as he reminds you constantly. Smile sweetly and say "Yes dear" then go about your business.








· A good wife always knows her place. And, she will be the one to decide where that is. This is no missionary position society we are in anymore.

What's the difference between the Good Wife's Guide 1950's (Housekeeping Monthly) and now?
Some of it is obviously quite chauvinistic, but I think it was written with very good intentions at the time. Although it is, as someone said, very Stepford Wife-ish.





But SOME of this advice could still be applied today (with some tweaking), and would make for much happier marriages and a lower divorce rate. Although some of the advice should be used by both men AND women.





Dr. Laura recently wrote a book called, "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands". Her book is along these lines, but certainly not to this antiquated extreme. It's a good read for married couples of today.
Reply:Society lost something and it was happy marriages. One point though, to do the first set of 'duties' was no duty but a pleasure for a good man. My elderly aunt once said, "I'd meet him in the driveway to wait on him if I could find a good husband!'.
Reply:sorry, can't answer, too busy working OUTSIDE of the home
Reply:Honey this is more like the Stepford Wife's guide. :-) Greet him with a smile when he doesn't come home or stays out all night?? See what happens if my husband stays out all night! LOL



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