The Homemaker’s Allowance, to give it a temporary name, is not meant for buying groceries and schoolbooks and paying the rent. It is paid to the full-time housewife as her wage, just as she would receive a wage if she worked outside the home. — Photo by Kamaji Ogino/pexels.com
LATEST news on the home front: there is a proposal, at the federal level, that housewives should be paid for their work.
‘Eh? What for pay? They chose to stay at home, instead of working!’
Looking after children, cooking meals, washing clothes and cleaning a house is, by some people’s definition, not WORKING.
So why do we pay a lot for ‘daycare’ or other types of babysitters?
Why are laundries paid for washing and ironing our clothes? And why do house-cleaning services charge pretty hefty fees?
After all, none of it is work…
According to a recent survey, a housewife spends about 16 hours a day working, or ‘not working’ if that’s your point of view.
No days off!
This amounts to an 122-hour week, 52 weeks a year.
No holiday! No self-respecting trade union would even discuss such conditions.
If the family goes on a happy beach vacation the housewife works even harder to keep everyone fed, clothed and reasonably safe under more primitive conditions than at home.
But don’t forget – she’s not working!
As a number of leading politicians have recently advocated, it’s about time we paid the ‘only housewives’ something like a decent wage!
The Homemaker’s Allowance, to give it a temporary name, is not meant for buying groceries and schoolbooks and paying the rent. It is paid to the full-time housewife as her wage, just as she would receive a wage if she worked outside the home.
She can save it, or spend it.
She will discuss finances with her partner, just as they would organize household finances if she was working outside the home. Only then they’d have to budget a hefty whack for child-care, laundry, house-cleaning, ta-pau meals and the like.
The Homemaker’s Allowance will take a lot of organising, obviously.
For instance, who pays? The government? The domestic partner?
How are the payments administered? Online distribution seems to be the norm nowadays, or will the recipients have to queue in some government office to get their allowance?
And – key question – who qualifies? Does the ‘non-working’ wife of a rich man get a Homemakers’ Allowance mainly for presiding over a staff of housemaids, cooks and gardeners?
Is it aimed mainly at borderline poor women, as hinted by one of the politicians, in many cases abandoned or neglected wives?
Does an unmarried mother, other than a widow, get the allowance?
And don’t forget that this is the 21st century, and there are men who stay at home and look after the household while the wife goes out to work. Is the Homemaker’s Allowance gender-equal?
If an approved recipient does a little business at home – child minding, cake making, tuition – is she still entitled to the Allowance?
The rules and regulations governing the scheme, when it finally sees the light of day, will be extremely complex!
‘Wah, all this new-fangled nonsense’, say the grey-haired patrons of the local kopitiam.
‘Why should government get mixed up in this? A decent man gives his wife enough money!’
Perfectly true, but the uncles don’t realise, or don’t want to admit, that not every man is ‘decent’.
Is a Homemaker’s Allowance really so ‘new-fangled’?
The idea of women making money on their own isn’t all that new.
My late grandmother, a farmer’s wife, kept chickens. She fed them on food scraps, and the occasional handful of grain, and once a week she’d sell a basket full of eggs at the local market.
This was her ‘allowance’, if you like. Village rumour came down hard on a man who was so stingy that he wouldn’t let his wife keep the egg money!
Young people discuss what they are going to do after marriage. Both of us working, saving up for a home, go on nice holidays, eventually have a family – and then comes the question: who will look after that family?
Grannies and aunties are getting less and less inclined to volunteer as household managers for the younger generation.
Engaging a domestic servant involves a pile of paperwork and a constant expense.
So, after a couple of child — free years, one partner may decide to become a full-time homemaker.
One partner? Practically always the female partner.
She probably likes being at home all day for a while, even with a bawling baby, but eventually she will miss the company of her workmates, the activities of the workplace, and her own independent income.
The Homemaker’s Allowance is payment for raising the next generation in wholesome, safe homes, and doing all the work (16 hours a day, don’t forget!) that is involved.
It may help to encourage more women to stay at home with their own children, maybe have a slightly larger family than the couple originally planned.
It is meant to show appreciation to wives and mothers.
The Homemaker’s Allowance is not an excuse for a defaulting man to exult: ‘Great! I won’t have to pay child maintenance or alimony anymore! She’s getting money from the government now!’ – leaving him free to spend all his income on his latest extracurricular activity.
The allowance is NOT meant to support women whose ex-husbands or partners are neglecting their duties.
That is a whole different story.
My non-expert opinion is that we need some legal machinery in place to dock a defaulting husband/father’s pay at source and remit a portion to the mother of his children.
In the case of government servants, for instance, this shouldn’t be too difficult!
The Homemakers’ Allowance is a thank-you gesture to those who are raising the next generation.
And until you get it – thank you anyway!