An Open Letter to Significant Others (a RANT)

[sourland]

Yeah, I was gonna say, Don't "just a housewife" at me, lol. The first time somebody called me a housewife it got my hackles right up. I am not a house wife, I said, I am HIS wife! My profession is HOME MAKER. But whether you have kids or not, you follow those dreams. You are not "just" anything!

Edit to add: is a man ever a "househusband"??? Phht! Away with the word housewife!

Umm, yes, in this brave new world househusbands do exist. I was never a househusband, but have been chief chef for the past 30 years - a job that I love by the way. 55 years with another person and still liking her and being liked by her - sometimes you get lucky/sometimes you don't. My advice to our grandkids is "When you find someone that you like more than anyone else that you have ever known - don't let them get away."

 

[Aunt Angus]

Umm, yes, in this brave new world househusbands do exist. I was never a househusband, but have been chief chef for the past 30 years - a job that I love by the way. 55 years with another person and still liking her and being liked by her - sometimes you get lucky/sometimes you don't. My advice to our grandkids is "When you find someone that you like more than anyone else that you have ever known - don't let them get away."

I *heart* this - househusbands, you and your SO's mutual likes, and your sage advice!

 

[Aunt Angus]

Boy, High Schools must have a better budget than they did in my day... We made our own... Still have one of the ones I made... I made 2 for that play, though. The other one is still there, in the dark recesses of the theater costume area. Our drama teacher was good at eliminating costs for his productions... We built the sets, painted them, borrowed or got donated furniture... We did all this at his direction on weekends and after school... He did reimburse me for the materials of the costume that was kept, but I got a dirty look for asking... (It was only $11.00) But that was a lot more money then than it is now.

Oh, the budget isn't much, believe me, but we do get certain grant monies and categorical funds due to the fact that we are a Title I school (i.e. a school serving mostly students of low-socioeconomic status). We can only spend those funds on certain things, and visual/performing arts is one of them. I'm the head of 2 departments, and it's funny sometimes how tightly regulated those monies are. For instance, I started a summer STEM Academy this year. I had a budget of $4000. Holy guacamole, that's a lot of moolah for a 5-week program serving 70 9th graders! But I could ONLY spend it on school supplies from Office Depot, not on scientific equipment, field trips, technology, software, or anything. I spent it all on paper, pencils, etc. that I didn't end up using much of. My classroom is now supplied for, like, five years. But I had to fundraise for the field trip to the planetarium and the science museum. And beg for donations from the local university. So silly. I know they do that to prevent misuse, but come on...

 

[BreanneRN]

Oh, the budget isn't much, believe me, but we do get certain grant monies and categorical funds due to the fact that we are a Title I school (i.e. a school serving mostly students of low-socioeconomic status). We can only spend those funds on certain things, and visual/performing arts is one of them. I'm the head of 2 departments, and it's funny sometimes how tightly regulated those monies are. For instance, I started a summer STEM Academy this year. I had a budget of $4000. Holy guacamole, that's a lot of moolah for a 5-week program serving 70 9th graders! But I could ONLY spend it on school supplies from Office Depot, not on scientific equipment, field trips, technology, software, or anything. I spent it all on paper, pencils, etc. that I didn't end up using much of. My classroom is now supplied for, like, five years. But I had to fundraise for the field trip to the planetarium and the science museum. And beg for donations from the local university. So silly. I know they do that to prevent misuse, but come on...

Well, it sounds like their attempts to prevent waste actually cause waste... How many pencils does a classroom need? Especially since most likely paper and pencils will soon become obsolete... Homework will all be emailed soon is my guess. But glad they still have Drama and the Arts in some schools... The one I went to that in my time, had a marching band and orchestra, drama and art, shop classes, choir and home ec now has none of those things... And the kids don't learn to write in cursive and can't sign their names anymore...

 

[Aunt Angus]

Well, it sounds like their attempts to prevent waste actually cause waste... How many pencils does a classroom need? Especially since most likely paper and pencils will soon become obsolete... Homework will all be emailed soon is my guess. But glad they still have Drama and the Arts in some schools... The one I went to that in my time, had a marching band and orchestra, drama and art, shop classes, choir and home ec now has none of those things... And the kids don't learn to write in cursive and can't sign their names anymore...

Almost ALL of my classwork is submitted electronically- LOL! I used to hate that they can't use cursive, but now that everything is changing to electronic format, I can see why it's not a standard anymore.

 

[BreanneRN]

Almost ALL of my classwork is submitted electronically- LOL! I used to hate that they can't use cursive, but now that everything is changing to electronic format, I can see why it's not a standard anymore.

Yeah, but there are still things they have to sign... And a cursive signature is much harder to duplicate than printing a name... But, maybe I'm just old fashioned. What would John Hancock's signature have looked like if it was printed? I love the unique and individual look of a handwritten cursive name... I keep copies of my parents and look at them from time to time and think how like their signature they were. My father's so even, small and precise (he was an engineer), my mother's beautifully slanted and graceful. Mine is so like my grandmother's, as one of her old friends pointed out to me when I sent her a thank-you note for a gift for my high school graduation. If I had a child now, I would teach them to write at home, I think.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hm. Hard teaching kids to write in cursive when they don't use their fingers to grasp a writing implement, only their thumbs.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I agree that cursive is a lost art nowadays, but the kids are not so bad. I work with juniors and seniors mostly, and usually those who aren't "academically inclined." What I see are kids who lack confidence in their academic abilities coupled with a school system that's somewhat out of touch. Well, not all of it. For example, our computer science classes are amazing! But English has become so outdated in some ways... We're working on it, though.

 

[Elsveta641]

I think my daughter is in hock to the fabric store (Beverlys)... Her last costume was Tsukuyomi, a moon goddess in Final Fantasy XIV... https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn/ffxiv-stormblood-tsukuyomi-raid I think it took her 6 months and I can only imagine what it cost... She wore it at the convention in Las Vegas last October. It is really difficult to take something that is an anime drawing and recreate it in real materials... and quite costly! I don't know if she is going this year or not, but it is an invitation only competition. If she goes, I hope she picked something less elaborate this time, it was day and night the month before the convention last year. It looked good, though! I think I would like to recreate old, vintage clothes more and go to those teas at historic old houses...

That would be a really difficult character! The most expensive I made was the blue renaissance fair dress I posted on the other thread. I had just gotten my inheritance and splurged. The 24 yards of cloth was real silk, it was trimmed with real freshwater pearls and the gold lame trim was hand made shipped in from India. It was a over dress, under dress, headpiece, chemise and detatchable sleeves and took me 2 months of sewing 4-12 hours a day to complete. I only wore it once lol.

 

[Elsveta641]

Oh my gosh - or a high school! Our school would totally benefit as our theater teacher rents a lot of costumes from the professional theater for quite a bit of money. Those she doesn't rent, she creates, but it's too much for her to direct, choreograph, set design/build, sew costumes AND teach a full schedule of classes. I'm sure the schools could pay, too.

My son took a very poor girl from the trailer park to prom. She was going to have to wear her mom's friends prom dress from 1992 because they couldn't even afford a used one. So I had her send me a pic of what she wanted and I made it. It was just a simple little dress, only took a few hours. My son dyed his hair to match it lol. She was so happy she cried and cried and cried. Poor little thing even asked if she could "please" keep it afterwards. That's something I'd enjoy doing at a high school for sure.