Practical Thoughts for a Young Homemaker: Healthcare
It might seem overwhelming to hear what I’m about to say, so always hold onto the fact that we’re never homemaking alone. We have our people and our knitting circle. Also, hold onto the fact that HearthKeeping isn't a one-shot job, but a robust lifetime-labor of love. So take a deep breath, or breathe deep of some lavender and plunge in.
Healthcare is our responsibility.
Healthcare is part of being a good homemaker.
We can’t be tenders of our people without being engaged in the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual healthcare of our people. This doesn’t apply only to your children but also to your spouse, if so blessed, (grown men need tending, too) your friends, and yourself. It’s hard to tend others when you are overdrawn on your energy-budget, just like you can’t expect to clean your home if you’re covered in mud. You have to be relatively clean to clean your house. Proper healthcare takes care of you and your people.
This field of study is so broad. You can formally train to be a nurse, nutritionist, psychologist, herbalist, and more. You can and should be an amateur in all these fields. We should also never discount the healing magic of housekeeping, routine, rest, recreation, plants, and sunshine. Even pets have their place in creating health-filled homes. (Read about the health benefits of a cat’s purr sometime. It will make you want one.)
All of us will have areas of home healthcare that come naturally to us, just like we’ll all have areas to shore up, strengthen our faculties in, gain courage, and grow some skills. Right now, young homemakers, embrace the fact that this is part of your work, a big part of your work. Let that empower you. Let that thrill you. Exult in the privilege of managing the healthcare of your people. Not some random doctor, but you, the one who tends. You know your people, their health is yours to bless and grow.
Also, let this sober you. Our job isn’t a one-shot session or a supposedly universal prescription. We chose to be here engaged in these people’s well-being. The sober part? We sometimes damage that well-being. We don’t speak with love, calm, or truth. We snap, belittle, and hold wrongs. We struggle with ignorance. We can’t know everything. We’ll look back on choices we made about food, shelter, and clothing and see how they negatively impacted our people. When we are faced with these failures, we don’t leave. We remember that we are finite and no one gets out of this life unscarred. So we don’t stop, we keep going. Stopping or leaving will only compound the problem. We make the courageous choice to learn, grow, and move forward. We keep striving, ask for forgiveness when needed, and learn to laugh at ourselves.
As we face this monumental task, we need to think through some struggles that we’re going to most likely face so we can be prepared.
1) Your own health struggles. Unfortunately, we homemakers often face our own health issues that narrow our worlds and keep our homes functioning at their lowest productivity settings. They keep us from being able to enjoy, embrace, or dig deeply into any areas of domestic artistry. There can be great grief here and a sense of guilt as well. Young homemakers, you will face times of sickness. This may be the flu, surgery recovery, pregnancy recovery, or a lifelong chronic issue. Work now on contentment, good attitudes, thankfulness, and wise management of your resources. Plug into local and online homemaker circles so you can help and get help. You will face health issues. Start preparing now. No preparation goes to waste. What you don’t use, you can pass on to others. A good way to start preparing is simply to talk to other women. Listen to their birth stories, caretaker burdens, chronic health limitations, and general sickness struggles. Tuck nuggets away. Herbal podcasts, psychological studies, books, and more can help you line your mental garden with good hedges and walls and create good dirt to grow your flowers in. This is another reason why we need to be connected with past, present, and future homemakers, to have a rich community of maids, matrons, and crones.
2) Long-term health struggles of friends and family. Sometimes life takes an unexpected left turn. One day, everything is normal and the next you’re looking down the barrel of life forever changed. Strokes, car accidents, trauma, children with developmental issues, and debilitating long-term illnesses can strike our homes no matter how much we seek to make them places of healing. These will narrow you, end dreams, destroy plans, and fill your life with grief. I’ve watched people I love lose huge chunks of their lives caring for their children, spouses, and parents. I’ve wrestled with my own chronic health issues that isolated me and dropped my energy-budget to zero. Let this make you thankful every day for the health your people have. Don’t cut yourself off from the stories of other’s struggles. You never know when someone’s experience might become your own and you need the ones who have gone before.
With those two big-picture possible struggles addressed, let’s talk briefly about the different options for home healthcare. There are many different paths you will need to explore in your healthcare work. No two homemakers share the same opinion on just the right combination, so this is where everyone will need to chime in and share their thoughts and experiences and information with kindness. I think it’s safe to say that being a bit crunchy (if we’re still using that word to describe a woman into more natural remedies) about healthcare is expected at this point. More and more women are exploring the world of herbs, holistic health, naturopathy, and what chiropractors can offer. More and more of us are trying to limit the rampant use of pharmaceuticals. More and more of us are realizing we have to be our own advocates because the hospitals and doctors work for the insurance companies, not us.
We’re rolling up our sleeves and starting down the path of herbs, nutrition, and farm-to-table. We’re exploring natural cleaners and getting feet in the grass. There’s a wealth of information and experience to be found even in our own little group. Make sure you’re asking questions and sharing what you’ve researched.
At the same time that we’re working on the physical health of our families, we don’t want to neglect the mental and emotional sides. We can go about this with very specific studies through psychology, personality types, and understanding how we process information and handle social situations. Again, there is a wide, wide world of information and experience out there. For less formal studying, turn to good stories. They can help you understand why people do what they do and see the effects of different traumas. They can equip and arm you to aid your people.
A word of warning, don’t just take everything and run with it. If you listen to herbalists long enough they will tell you things are far more complicated than simply sniffing lavender regularly, though that is highly recommended. The same with psychology. There are very helpful things there, but there are also grave dangers. Use discernment and caution.
In all of healthcare there is a more formal path you can take and a more informal path. We need to buy into both as important. Let’s never forget that as the tenders of our people a big part of good health is not letting our people get strung out with too many activities. And it should include enjoying the seasons, cooking comforting meals, having conversations, playing, and enjoying hobbies, plants, and pets. All of these seemingly ordinary things are healthy for body and soul, heart and mind. What we cook and the rhythms of our homes are important to the health and well-being of you and your people just as much as the bigger medical decisions are.
Love,
A Matron who is quickly becoming a Crone
Thank you for reading today, ladies! If this article encouraged you, please share it with other homemakers. Here are all the ways you can join our knitting circle:
Email us at hearthkeepers@hotmail.com with any questions or subjects you’d like us to discuss. For now, ladies, tend your people, Hang Tough, and keep your powder dry.
