Why We Need To Have A Talk About The Mental Health Of Homemakers

We all are living a fast-paced life today, in all this, we wish to find peace. Arundhita, too, is one of us. For Arundhita and a majority of youngsters, it is all that matters. We may be achievers in life, doing great things, but at the end of the day, you need to be happy with yourself. A person’s mental health has a direct impact on how a person thinks, feels, and acts, and thus having a healthy mindset helps in making rational decisions and avoiding negative talk. Mental health is important for every person right from their childhood until their adulthood. Our physical health is equally important to our physical health.

There are different types of people like – a business person, an employee, a student, a housewife and more. Now all these people have a motive, they are working for themselves. A business person will be concerned with profits, an employer will be concerned with getting their salaries and completing the targets, and a student is concerned with getting good grades. What about a housewife like Arundhita? In today’s time, a housewife is given a modern term known as a homemaker.

Homemakers and their life

Homemaker is another name for a housewife. A homemaker works for the house and is considered as a common factor that does all the work of a household for all the members of the family. The primary work of a homemaker is to look after the upkeep of the residence. The duties undertaken by a homemaker are –

• Cooking food.
• Doing outside work like getting groceries, house cleaning appliances, and more.
• Washing dishes.
• Cleaning the house, changing bed sheets, dusting, and more.
• Washing clothes.
• Doing laundry.

And more. All this work needs to be done by the Arundhita alone. The tasks to be performed are exhaustive. The homemaker has to complete these tasks and look after the house cleaning schedule.

Should Arundhita focus on her mental health? 

The homemakers in one’s house are consistently doing the same work every day without any help or support. They are carrying out the work selflessly. The homemakers do not have any legal obligation of carrying out these tasks, but they do it out of their moral obligation. Doing the same work every day can get anyone frustrated. Just like that many other feelings do accumulate within oneself and so these people do need some help and need to let their feelings out. Some of the reasons why homemakers need to talk about their mental health are:

• Abandoning 

The homemaker is always busy doing household chores while the breadwinner is out earning money and the kids are at their school. Even when everyone is at home, the homemaker is busy doing the chores thereby, not receiving any quality time from the family. In some cases even if the work is done, the husband or children do not give time to the homemaker. It may seem as the person is being abandoned thereby, causing a mental footprint.

• Preparing meals 

In most cases, the homemaker is the wife. If the husband has to go to the office and students to school, it is assumed that the wife needs to wake up before them and prepare the meals. After that help, the kids get ready, prepare their tiffin and send them to school. The job of preparing meals is not bound to be borne by the homemaker. It disturbs their sleep, their relaxation and thereby causing damage to one’s mental health. It does not seem fair.

• Lack of social interaction 

As the homemaker is busy almost the entire day while performing the chores, they do not have sufficient time to step out of the house for social interactions. They need to worry about the kids and the husband and cleaning the house. They do not have time to “hang out” with their friends.

• Domestic violence 

Many households face the issue of domestic violence, and thus this causes a huge loss of one’s mental peace. In some cases, if the male is facing some stress or issue from their workplace, they come home and torture their wife to get rid of the frustration. Even children witness these actions at a young age, and it is not the optimal upbringing. A child shall not be a witness to any such event nor the homemaker shall tolerate such things.

• Pressurizing in-laws 

If the wife and husband are not of the same caste, color and religion then the elderly are not happy with the relationship. We all know this type of discrimination still exists. In such an unhappy situation, if the marriage is yet done then in the future the in-laws will not be very cooperative with the same. They might unnecessarily pressurize the homemaker thereby torturing her.

• Financial dependence 

The male is considered to be the breadwinner, and the homemaker is considered to be unemployed. For running the house, homemakers like Arundhita need to be dependent on the husband, and thus a financial dependence is created. In such a case, the homemaker has to manage the household expenses and give a clarification about the money spent on the breadwinner. If the role was reversed, it might have hurt the male ego to even ask for money. Also, if the money earned is not enough, the homemaker cannot comment and has to manage all the expenses in the available money.

• Pandemic 

As the pandemic has hit the world things have changed. Everyone is at home. It has positive as well as negative effects. Looking at the brighter side, the homemaker has time to enjoy with the family thereby, cherishing these moments. But on the other side, the homemaker does not have any personal space.

• Dignity 

In some cases, the homemaker may not be literate. Here, sometimes the family does not consider her quite dignified then, they may not include her in important decision-making processes thereby making her feel left out. And many times, a question arises as “what do you even do?” Such a question is heart-breaking.

Conclusion:

A homemaker shall be motivated to do all those things that a normal human does like go out, chill, have fun and live their life. Building a forever knot with the household chores will just restrict themselves. A homemaker shall also be motivated to undertake a job to let them be financially independent and not be stuck doing homework only. 

The need of boosting the homemaker’s confidence to follow their dream, passion shall be done as it leads to personality development. Arundhita, too, can lead a much happier life with a high level of confidence in life. Everyone keeps changing, they need to adapt to new changes and accept challenges coming their way. It is the only way of letting one grow because change is the only constant.

Albert Einstein once said that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” One must try everything new to grow.