Homemaker: This is me!

Hello Everyone! I wanted to start with telling a bit about myself and my journey to becoming a vintage feminist. My name is Sara and I am 25 years old. I grew up in a small town in the Ozarks and had an amazing childhood. I am a follower of Christ. I am blessed with an amazing family. Parents, sister and her family, grandparents, cousins, husband and beautiful daughter. When I had my daughter in February my husband and I decided it would be best if I stayed home and raised our daughter. I am a homemaker and its the best thing I have ever done.

So my story begins, I would probably say, when I was about 17 years old. At this point I had no idea what I wanted to do until I started taking FACs classes at my high school. FACs or Family and Consumer Science is the modern day Home-Ec or Home-economics class. I had a really great teacher that I really got along with and she made learning a lot of fun. I was NEVER a student that had a favorite teacher or anything of the sort, but she was someone I looked up to and struck my interest in all thing encompassing managing a home life. After taking cooking classes, health, fashion and interior design I was hooked. At this point I started to be interested in becoming a FACs teacher myself and I thought this is what I was going to do all the way up through the first year and a half of college. Then it happened. I took the now infamous, in my book anyway, Education Class. Well half way through learning all the behind the scenes politics of teaching… I knew teaching wasn’t for me. I knew I wasn’t passionate enough about teaching the way teachers need to be to really be great at their jobs. So after this decision, I finished my A.A. degree and decided not to go back because I didn’t want to waste my money. My sister, who is one of those GREAT teachers by the way, was paying on many student loans and I didn’t want to do that unless, like her, I had a end game in mind. So I started looking for jobs, but before one presented itself my sister gave birth to my nephew who I instantly fell in love with. She needed a babysitter so it was a perfect job for me until I could find someone who was hiring. Every day that I watched him it became more clear this is what I LOVED to do. I didn’t want to do anything else. I wanted to get married and have kids and spend every moment I could taking care of my family. Well step one of my plan soon came into effect and I got married to my amazing husband, Ben. For a while it took some convincing him and myself that being a homemaker was the right decision. I found myself often feeling guilty that the full financial responsibility was on Ben’s shoulder. So I was constantly going back and forth.. should I do this? Or maybe I could do that? We could have so much more money if I worked full time too… Do people look down on me because I don’t work? And then we found out I was pregnant just about the time I started my new job as a dental assistant. I actually loved it and had a great boss, but soon after having our daughter my husband and I realized it WAS a much better idea for me to stay home. I struggled with this until one day when my daughter and nephew were both peacefully sleeping during their naps and it hit me… THIS is what life is about. Not money, not a career. It’s about getting to experience the little things that are much more special than a paycheck every couple weeks. My mom only worked part time growing up and the rest of the time I was at my grandma’s and I had such a memorable childhood because of this. I wanted to do the same for my daughter. I finally felt fully confident that what I wanted to do was raise my kids, take care of my home and my husband. Focus on making memories for my family just like women used to do. That’s why I started Vintage Feminist. I wanted to encourage women to do their best to make sure they incorporate “Old-fashioned” ideas into their modern life. I feel the most feminine thing you can do is be a mom and nurturer of the family. Our mothers, grandmothers and so on, were great at this and that is what vintage feminism is, in my eyes. Being more selfless. I want to give my child undivided attention, greet my husband when he gets home, have dinner on the table, make sure the house is cleaned, make sure birthdays and holidays are special and that’s OK if that’s what I call my ‘job’. With that being said, I fully support those who work full time jobs as well. Career women and homemakers alike have much to learn about the life we would now consider vintage. I am so inspired by it that I decided replicate it in the majority of aspects of my life. Some may just be inspired by certain things a woman used to do . We might think… “Hmm.. why don’t we still do that?” I am a believer in striving for a better family life than we have now. As I start this new hobby, my goal is to inspire women to change the direction life is headed in today’s rough world, and slow down and be  inspired by the past with a modern twist.