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A Day in the Life: Homemaking Then and Now
Growing up, I never thought I’d be grateful for ironing practice, budget sheets, or learning the proper way to plan a week's worth of meals. But studying Home Economics, Family Living, and Health at Western Michigan University opened my eyes to the science behind the home and gave me a new perspective on my ancestor's lives.
Recently, I started thinking about what a day in the life might have looked like for my great-grandmother. A woman who likely rose before the sun, tended the fire, prepared breakfast from scratch, and managed a household with efficiency born of necessity.
Morning: The Start of the Day
My ancestor's morning may have begun with stoking the stove and boiling water, often before anyone else was awake. Breakfast wasn’t poured from a cereal box. It involved mixing, kneading, or frying. She likely prepared lunches for the children, sometimes wrapping leftovers in cloth or paper.
When I was studying nutrition, we broke down all the elements of a balanced breakfast. But long before that, my great-grandmother understood it in her own way. She learned from her mother and through experience. She didn’t need food groups or calorie charts to know that a hearty meal gave you the strength to face a long day of work, especially during the busy seasons of farm life.
She also didn’t need written recipes. Her cooking came from memory and instinct passed down through the generations. She knew how much flour to use by feel, how long to simmer soup by scent, and how to season a dish by taste. Her kitchen knowledge was inherited and intuitive, not measured and written down.
Midday: Managing the Home
While the children were at school and her husband worked in the fields, homemaking carried on. Washing laundry, baking bread, scrubbing floors, sewing or mending clothes, and doing farm chores filled her day. Her work was physical, repetitive, and often unrecognized.
Her kitchen likely held the essential tools of her era: a cast iron stove, butter churn, hand-cranked food grinders, and tinware utensils. Her laundry routine involved hauling water, scrubbing with lye soap, and using a washboard. Weekly baking required sifting flour by hand, fermenting yeast, and using heavy iron bakeware.
Cleaning practices emphasized sanitation through boiling water and vinegar. Rugs were beaten outside, and linens were aired on clotheslines. It was the kind of knowledge you didn’t learn from books but from watching, doing, and repeating over time.
Afternoon: Family and Function
By mid-afternoon, she might have visited neighbors, preserved food, or tended the garden. She kept a mental calendar of seasonal chores: spring cleaning, canning in late summer, holiday preparations in the fall. Her work was as cyclical as the seasons, grounded in a deep understanding of her environment and her family’s needs.
In my studies, we called this "household management" It sounds sterile in a textbook, but lived out in history, it was an art form. It included juggling needs, emotions, and limited resources with patience and foresight.
Evening: Winding Down
Dinner was another full meal, with leftovers reused creatively. After dishes were done, she may have sat down to knit, read the Bible, or simply rest. Or maybe she continued working, preparing dough for the next day or ironing the children’s school clothes.
In today’s world, we often think of “productivity” as something that happens at a desk or in offices. But my great-grandmother’s day was filled with labor, love, and life lessons that were handed down to the women in my family. They show up in the way that I do things now and I’m grateful my education helped me appreciate that.
Bridging Generations
Studying Home Economics didn’t just prepare me for a career, it deepened my appreciation for the people who came before me. Their knowledge wasn’t always found in books, but in doing. As a teacher and genealogist, I try to honor their legacy by sharing their stories and daily lives with others. I’ve come to enjoy learning about the social history of my ancestors.
So the next time I sew on a button or make soup from scratch, I will think of all the women in my family who had it so much harder than I do.
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