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A brief history of American home-economics
Families are unique in their function, role, and goals they wish to achieve. Starting the journey as a young adult or couple presents challenges that people do not typically face. Knowing your role as a contributor in your home gives importance to daily business activities. In your career, you bring value to your company whether through consistent action, bringing in opportunities, making connections, and communicating needs of your organization. These traits of your workplace give efficacy and purpose to work. Your home-life is very similar in management style. Where many responds to their boss or supervisor at work, single parents or alternating schedule parents have few if any resources to find any guide. The most unique aspect of home economics is that the modern century doesn’t tailor to your gender and your role within the family. They are life-skills that anyone can use. More importantly, it tailors your environment to making your home more efficient, economic, and financially stable.
As you make yourself home, you build your environment around you and your needs. The way you store things, the quickness of preparing a meal, hosting family, or even guide conversation are unique personal responsibilities that carry over to the health of your community. As much as I know about the history, you can find more in the book by Danielle Dreilinger “The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live”.
What we know of home-economics ….
Modern families have additional stresses of life that may not have someone or something to follow. This site is here to provide some insight, provoke thought, and intention for care of yourself and family. Knowing the timing of each event may need additional help. The modern family has more luxuries available to them at more affordable prices. Access to information through the internet, easier access to goods, and higher rates of competition with greater results. The family has access to these things, but they must still make a decision as for the best use of their time and energy.
The truth lies in that newer generations are not learning skills necessary for maintaining the home. While much of this comes down to living within your means and gaining skills to lower the cost of goods. Learning that certain things are not truly worth their price and the skills you need to operate your home. True home economics comes down to knowing the value of your time and keeping things running as low of cost as possible. Your expenditures and home budget will bust if you do not know what you spend for comfort. Effective management of your resources makes each step and phase easier as you get closer to retirement.
Home Economics or family and consumer sciences has roots starting in Germany from the Reifenstein Schools. The German school was initiated by Ida von Kortzfleisch. These schools influenced other schools worldwide, including that of the United States. However, the inclusion of home-economics in the United States began to accelerate in 1899 with the Lake Placid Conferences. By 1908 and 1909, Ellen Swallow Richard founded the American Home Economics Association, whom had lobbied the U.S. government for funding. The use of American Home Economics grew through the decades, leading to advanced sciences, women in business, and the modern-day version with the DIYer.
The 1950s through 1970s version of home economics was about wives in care for their home, textile, childcare, budgeting, interior decoration, textiles, and nutrition to name a few. Now that we are in the 2000s, the nuclear family is very different with their relationships and the way they coordinate. Families in this gig economy are working multiple jobs, having fewer children, paying for daycare, and finding convenient shopping that works for them. The truth is that with our hard-earned efforts are spent for someone’s else’ time that will not always benefit ourselves or family. As long as you can forecast your earnings and budget right, then you will safeguard your earnings.
Along with these changes of managing the home, the internet has grown with a higher fascination for home economics. To name the largest blog categories related to home-economics: Food, finance, nutrition, health & fitness, and travel. When you look at those niches in comparison to home economics, it shows that either we have a glut of experts who know certain trades, or we have a disparity for the sharp decline in this concentration.
The even by looking into Home-Economics history, you see there was a way that women would look for ways to make their homes run efficiently and effectively, because it required them to do a lot. You have modern advancements that advanced the community. In retrospect, we are not much different than this time for our homes to work any more efficient. By establishing this baseline and skills, families can fully understand the requirements of how they best work together and make their home run efficiently. This is not a means to classify any roles, but understanding who we are, and how we best choose to live.
So, why should I study into home economics?
Presently, you likely are reading into this subject because you’ve already scoured the internet for “how-to” videos and articles, figure out that recipe, budget-friendly ideas, and others. This is not a cookie-cutter approach to how you want to manage your home, but a guide as you determine the most suitable way to bring efficiency into your home life. You came here to understand the basics of home-economics and how it applies to you on a day-to-day perspective. It is to flow and make your work and homelife easier to manage as you go through your days and weeks. As you explore more into our blog, I encourage you to do more reading into this subject. From what you find here, what did you learn? What do you already know that I missed? Please include your comments below and I can delve more of the subject so you know the roots of this foundation.
