The 1950s Pregnant Housewife Experiment: So Much For Daily Updates!

Mid-Century Modern Mommy -- Retro Wife, Sweet Life!

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Another update for the 1950s Pregnant Housewife Experiment! I am clearly terrible at daily updates. Perhaps I should have tried for weekly or twice-weekly updates! Anyway, I am now at the end of my experiment, more or less. It goes until Sunday, so on Monday I will post my conclusions from these two weeks, and talk about what I plan to do next in the experiment.

Cleaning

So, the cleaning schedule (which I love) was the only thing that got completed properly. I love having a clean house everyday. Clearly, I am a weirdo who believes that even a homeschooling mother can have a 1950s clean house! I totally intend on keeping this cleaning schedules for the school year.

Glamorous housework!

Cooking

I printed out a full month of the vintage meal plan, and I will follow it at least through August. I am changing it based on the meats and produce that I have available, but for August, and probably September, I plan on cooking and serving vintage meals.

Vintage dinner preparation

Children

The children do a lot better with a structured routine to their day. One of the things that I will be doing going forward is implementing a bedtime routine, morning routine, and mealtime routine very similar to what we have been following these two weeks. Also, there WILL be bedroom chores in their future . . .

Vintage home and family life

Pregnancy

I am feeling good. I started out this pregnancy about 50 lbs overweight, with no self-care or beauty routine to speak of, and not exercising beyond housework. I am following the maternity diet, doing my daily 15 minute walks twice a day, and doing a full housework routine. I am also practicing dance for 25 minutes in my living room every week. Dancing is my soul food, and my maternity care recommendations say that dancing once a week, “not in a crowded room,” should be fine. I have no idea what my weight is right now, but I have more energy, and that’s really important.

In addition to diet and exercise, I am also making sure that I follow the vintage housewife beauty routine. I am also accumulating some things to make me feel pretty during this vintage pregnancy: low-heeled Oxfords, a maternity girdle, and a maternity garter belt. I love to wear garters and stockings, full skirts, the works. I am also trying to find (or sew!) a couple of maternity house dresses and aprons to fit me during this pregnancy. I would love to get my mitts on some vintage maternity patterns! Maybe that will be in the budget soon.

Vintage pregnancy

Wife Life

I haven’t talked much about the 1950s wife life during this experiment. As a matter of fact, I do have a husband. He likes the house to be clean and the kids to be well-behaved. He likes to be served well-cooked meals with a variety of foods. And he likes to have clean clothes waiting in his drawers and closet when he needs them.

Obviously, my husband is quite pleased with the experiment. He really appreciates the clean house. I was already pretty good at the laundry thing, at least. And he likes the different meals we have been having with the new menus.

I think, as part of the extended experiment, I would like to try implementing some of the advice from my vintage marriage books. We’ll see; stay tuned!

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