The Sleeping Gardener

Excerpt from an email I sent a while ago to this wonderful blogger and mother, on the subject of happiness.

My thinking goes somewhere along these lines: Having a child seems to be a lot of work (right!? :P), something I think is understated in the western world. I spent an important part of my life living in Asia, where it is considered to be somewhat the norm that when the first child is born, the mother stops working to become a housewife. My ex-girlfriend had a family like that and I couldn’t help but noticing how happy they all seemed. So I figured that maybe in fact taking care of the family should be considered to be a fulltime job by itself. I think most families might be taking on too much in trying to cope with two jobs, plus family. With one person at home and one at work, the family will actually get to spend time with each other at the end of the day, instead of having to take care of the home and family, as with the typical western parent. I think it’d reduce a lot of stress, and lead to happier living.