Posted by: Nidhi | April 15, 2008

When do Women get a Retirement?

Last month I went to my Paternal and Maternal side. I saw my Mother busy in making Dinner and managing other house stuff. After few weeks I went to my paternal side. The same scenario, my Mother- in law was doing everything. My Mother- in Law showed me some pictures of my Father- in law when he got retired. She was feeling so proud and so thrilled in showing those. She was telling me how everyone in the office has congratulated him and there was a surprise party which she has arranged for him. It’s a day when every Men thinks that he is got Retired from all his work. Now he has Pension or previous investment for the financial support. He has given enough support to his family.

What about us? When do both of my Mothers will say, now we are retired? No more dependency on us. If I feel like making bed tea, then only I will do. There is no Compulsion on that. It’s pity that Women don’t have Retirement criteria. When will we order someone to make Tea for us?

It is always good to be active as long you live but sometime at the age of 60- 65, you may think of taking some rest and say Good bye to Kitchen.

Responses

Well, men retire from their JOB, not their homes. They still do some household things, like going to the market and get vegetable, paying bills, repairing the old TV, and so on.

What I feel is, women doing only household work start believing that its a JOB, a way to earn their livelihood, a right to remain in the house owned by their husband and a right to spend his money.

This perspective can change if women do some other work apart from household work. It can even be as simple as painting for fun. And men can give more time in helping with household work, rather than believing that only OFFICE work is their only responsibility.

By such cooperation and understanding, WORK can be what you do at office, or what you paint on your whiteboard. And household work can become a contribution towards making the house of yours a HOME.

Hey Nidhi,

Please update your blogroll, the entry ‘Anurag Singh’ points to my old blog, now it is http://www.anuragsinghrana.com/blog … and I’d prefer if you call me either Anurag or Anurag Singh Rana.

Regards,
Anurag.

hi, just bumped into ur site, love to read sites about family, about kids and you write well, kudos .

Nice post but do you still think that you can’t order someone to make tea for you…I don’t think so when you look sorted and you must be having understanding people around you!!

about retirement, it personal decision of everyone…not linked to gender…I assume :)

Women? Perhaps never.

Retirement , ordinarily, is when one get incompetent to do what s/he does. Historically men used to do farming,hunting, protecting etc., and after certain age become unable to do so and there was nothing at home they could do , except creating troubles for the homemaker.

Today, service class people get retirement as per the rules. Military/armed forces have very young age of retirement between 35-40 years (unless promoted to officer level) , where a soldier is not fit as he was of 25

But businessmen, professionals carry on their trade till they feel they can and we see many elders in business etc., to share their experiences etc.

Equally women have capacity to do what they do ( I know you will shout, THAT IS DOMESTIC CHORES). I know many women age of 70+ who still do their domestic work daily, and remain active and that is perhaps one of the reasons why women live quite longer than men.

So you might want to take break, instead of retirement, and you can very well do that.

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