The Beauty of the homemaker’s task is the opportunity to create and maintain a physical, social and financial environment that supports and promotes the well-being of all the individuals within the home. It is a complex job with many components of which to keep track, requiring the development of sound managerial skills, and a consistent vision of desire end-results. To accomplish beneficial family goals, homemakers identify, cultivate, and make best use of any resources available to them.
Identifying Resources
A “resource” is anything you can use to help you accomplish your goals. For the homemaker this includes not only time, energy, money, and physical objects, but also knowledge, talents, skills, and abilities. Family, friends or community relationships are also resources that can be accessed, as are a multitude of products and services provided by businesses or community organizations.
Cultivating Resources
Along with the ability to identify resources, homemakers also need to be able to cultivate their resources. To “cultivate” is to develop, nurture, improve, or help change for the better. It is what we do when we grow a garden. We prepare the soil, plant seeds, provide water, hoe weeds and keep order in the space so that things may grow and produce fruit.
With that example in mind, homemakers are “cultivating resources” when they seek to expand their knowledge, talents, skills, and abilities, as they strive to have a personal character of integrity, as they encourage kind and respectful relationships both in and outside the home, and as they develop an honest and good reputation within their community. Saving instead of wasting money, improving the standard of cleanliness and order in the home, and providing good nutrition in the form of healthy meals are also examples of the types of homemaking tasks that entail “cultivating resources.”
Managing Resources
The efficient use of resources is one of the hallmarks of best management practices. Whether dealing with human or physical resources, skilled homemakers seek out the techniques that will help them promote growth and reduce waste. They deal with systems, budgets, schedules and routines. They learn to be flexible and adapt to changing conditions on a daily (and sometimes hourly) basis. Through measurement, planning, tracking, and steady, consistent efforts the homemaker’s focus on time, energy, finances, and positive relationships helps keep the family “on track” to accomplish the types of satisfying and beneficial objectives that make a good life.
“Homemaking–a profession that makes a difference.”
