How to be a Good Wife in the 1930s

[cookie]

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/how-...mpaign=Feed:+ThoughtCatalog+(Thought+Catalog)

 

[Marshall]

Hmm... perhaps I will build a time machine so I can steal a wife from the 30s...

In all seriousness, I think the different points (for the most part) mentioned in both spouse charts are good things to be mindful of in a marriage relationship. Though a few were a bit humorous, such as the wife wearing red nail polish counting as a demerit.

 

[BoPeep]

Well, I do let my husband sleep late on Sundays and holidays . . . as long as he keeps my feet warm at night.

 

[angeljenny]

Awww! I think it is cute!

But then I was the only person I know that liked the 1950's Good Wife Guide. It was sent around as an email a while back and so many women were offended by it and I just thought it was adorable.

 

[HepKitty]

the wife wearing red nail polish counting as a demerit.

I knew there was something wrong with me lol

 

[sheeplady]

For a husband, I find numbers 1, 6, 7, & 8 somewhat ridiculous. (Staring at other women, comparing your wife unfavorably to other women, wishing he'd never gotten married in public, and criticising his wife in public). Each of those is like -75,000 points, not at all comparable to leaving dresser drawer open.

The analysis is somehat laughable. I like it when my husband reads to me. (I do plenty of reading on my own, so I can reassure the writer of this piece that I can read.) Sometimes we read books to each other (switching every chapter). Who doesn't like being read to? (All the children who grew up with no books in the house, and never got read to?!)

 

[Lady Day]

Why did you just highlight the wife part of this two part survey? There is one for hubby, too.
I mean the link is called 'How to be a good Spouse'

Are you trying to be inflammatory?

LD

 

[brspiritus]

My grandparents were like this on some points... they argued like cats and dogs though. Funny thing is my wife and I are so much like them it's uncanny. At any rate I get demerits on 11 and 12 lol.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Dr. Crane was something of a crackpot in his time -- his primary qualifications as a marriage counselor were that he ran a syndicated newspaper advice column and later expanded that into a correspondence school on "marital relations" of the sort that advertised on matchbook covers. It's typical of modern culture to take goofy fringe elements of pre-sixties America and present them as typical of the times, but 'twasn't so. If you want a real handle on how the average middle class couple viewed marriage, you'd be better served examining the Ladies Home Journal, under the 1935-62 editorship of Beatrice Gould, which presented views that would be considered shockingly progressive by people who think all women before 1960 were barefoot and pregnant.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Dr. Crane was something of a crackpot in his time -- his primary qualifications as a marriage counselor were that he ran a syndicated newspaper advice column and later expanded that into a correspondence school on "marital relations" of the sort that advertised on matchbook covers. It's typical of modern culture to take goofy fringe elements of pre-sixties America and present them as typical of the times, but 'twasn't so. If you want a real handle on how the average middle class couple viewed marriage, you'd be better served examining the Ladies Home Journal, under the 1935-62 editorship of Beatrice Gould, which presented views that would be considered shockingly progressive by people who think all women before 1960 were barefoot and pregnant.

This.

When I read things like this I think of similar things from today that most intelligent women get a good laugh out of.

 

[Land-O-LakesGal]

It was funny and I definitely got lots of demerits but so did my husband.