Church Ladies and making the bed

I have to declare that 'Church Ladies" (CLs) make the world go 'round. By CLs I mean those women who have provided order, routine and standards to the world generation upon generation. These are the women who make breakfast-lunch-and-dinner appear at the correct times. These are the women who have their kids' lunches at the door before the school bus arrives us. These are the women who get the washing and ironing done. These are the women who bake and make aprons for the church bazaar. These are the women who make perfect, crustless tea sandwiches. These are the women who give to charity. These are the women who give tea parties. These are the women who play bridge -- but only if all the household duties have been attended to. These are the women who never gamble. These are the women who stick to a budget. These are true home economists. These are the women who look after their husbands, while ruling the roost. These are the women who rule the world.

This was my mother. This was many of our mothers in the fifties and sixties. I don't know what they thought of us, their daughters who 'morfed into "women's libbers" -- surprised at how it all didn't quite work out. I know they were absolutely mortified and horrified at how superior we fancied ourselves. Who can blame them? They never sold out and recoiled when we bragged about our careers. We, their daughters, sold out. We were the braless crazies who forfeited our power as women. We were the women who tried to be men. We failed. And what did we gain? Disdain.

All this runs through my mind every day as I make the bed -- a favourite duty (not a chore) I have thankfully been carrying out for 59 years. My mother taught me how to make a bed when I was three. I have not forgotten. Whenever things seem to be going array, admiring a made bed banishes chaos immediately. Order overtakes, followed by calm. The same can be said for fresh laundry, ironing and the smell of clothes dried on an outdoor line. Self indulgence has no place in the life of a Church Lady. Self discipline is the watchword. Feelings are kept to oneself, politesse rules, form takes precedence over everything and children become the centre of an ordered universe. Children know that whatever happens, bath-time and bed-time will supersede all else; both will follow a nutritous dinner and be on time. This has always been the credo of the Church Lady. I still try to adhere.