Caren Krutsinger Poet Prose Poetry

Her Parents Patterns Were Easy

Her parents’ patterns were easy to learn.
Mom did the cooking, cleaning, laundry.
Working nonstop from the minute she woke
To the minute she fell exhausted into bed. 

Her dad was the lucky one. 
He worked during the day but the nights were his.
He had hobbies – fishing, hunting, trapping, coin collecting.
He listened to music and tried to dance.

But not with Mom because she never stopped working.
She worked from the second she awoke until the second she went to bed.
As far as their daughter could tell, life for a woman was no life at all.
So she faded her parents’ examples and went out on her own.

Determined to not have the cleanest clothes or cleanest house.
Determined to not cook and bake and iron and vacuum every waking minute.
Her light, happy, airy do-whatever-I-want lifestyle made her mother smile. 
Her piggery disgusted her father, who now had six more hobbies.

She did not care, glad to escape the drudgery of a home where
Daddy did whatever he wanted most of the day 
While her mother worked tirelessly to cook and clean and dust.
Stopping finally when she was dead, not enjoying life at all.

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Sigrid Ermine July 14, 2020 at 4:13 AM Very true in many homes. Have witnessed families, both high earners, small kids. Dad would have weekend fishing holidays, but you could never imagine it was as easy for her to 'take off' in the same way. Caren Krutsinger July 16, 2020 at 5:22 AM I used to do all the housework and all the yard work. I was married 35 years before my husband made his own sandwich. One day I said "no more cleaning, cooking, laundry, or anything else I do not want to do." He is a much better cook than I am, he LIKES? doing laundry, and I have not been inside a grocery store for fifteen years. Nice huh?