Do you have a homemaking specialty? You have interests that lie in a certain direction and by default, you’re probably naturally skilled in that interest. Why not expand beyond your natural skill and cultivate it and make it something that you excel in?
No woman can excel in every particular. If she takes the lead in one branch of industry, let her be content and make the most of it.
-1906
There’s no profession that offers more variation than making a home. So why should you narrow your focus on a specialty?
Simple. Because, sadly, you can’t do it all.
A homemaking specialty expands your knowledge
You can learn any skill just enough to grasp the essentials. It’s useful and often necessary to have a general knowledge on a variety of topics. As a homemaker, you probably don’t love everything that you do. But it’s important to identify something that strikes your interest on a deep level and let yourself master some of the intricacies of that topic.
Being a homemaker isn’t a stagnant career. It’s not as if your job title permits you to only cook and clean.
Make sure to actually identify what you want to learn. It’s easy to experiment here and there with everything. While dabbling is always fun, when you make a conscious decision to study one aspect, you’ll be more likely to make concentrated efforts. Then you can give yourself permission to buy the supplies or take the class.
Not only can you have one specialty, but you can have several. You decide how much your specialty will take of your time. Your specialty today may not be the same one that you have next year, or six months from now. Even better! Once you’ve learned all you want, you can move on. You’re adding extra skills to your arsenal.
A homemaking specialty keeps life interesting
Every job, whether it’s at home or in the workforce, has its mundane aspects. Sometimes it’s easy to lose your sense of creativity and you can find yourself doing the same tasks in the same way over and over, making the same meals and following the same routines. You may feel like everything you’re doing as a housewife will need to be done all over again in a few hours.
If you made the decision to be a homemaker, you appreciated its value. No matter how much you may love your situation, you need to have something that will challenge you. Cultivating a specialty will do that. Even better, you can challenge yourself with something that you want to learn!
A homemaking specialty doesn’t only benefit you
Identifying and developing a specialty can work alongside your homemaking. It doesn’t have to be “me time” or something that takes you away from your daily tasks. Nearly any skills you acquire you can use to benefit your family in some way. Here are a couple of examples:
If your family eats eggs regularly, why not make it a specialty to learn new ways to cook and serve them? I checked a couple of my vintage cookbooks and it listed literally dozens of ways to prepare eggs–poached, in a cream sauce, made into cheesy pancakes (the best!), and something called rarebit. You likely haven’t tried them all.
Your love of books will give you stories to tell to your children and you can be a resource for friends and family on book recommendations. You may even have books that the local library doesn’t have.
Some examples of specialties
You can specialize in a thousand different directions. They don’t have to be classic “homemaking” skills. (But if you truly want to expand your knowledge of stain removers and ways to darn a sock, you just dive right in and learn it all.)
- crafts and art techniques
- organization
- health
- teaching
- cooking
- horticulture/landscaping
- home maintenance
- writing
- natural science
- interior decorating
- history
- literature
- hospitality
- agriculture
These are hugely broad categories. First, you’ll want to niche down and pick a topic that isn’t so overwhelming. Then look around. Watch all the free videos you can find online, check out books at the library, ask a friend to teach you, find an online group, take a local class in the evenings or sign up for an online class. There are countless ways to learn new skills these days and you can do your learning in the few minutes you have free between the busy moments of your day.
Do you like cooking? Then make it your specialty to learn how to make the best sourdough breads or the essentials of Indian cuisine. The beauty of learning to cook is that your attempts and experiments double as dinner. Granted, some meals may be less desirable than others…. or maybe more memorable??
Maybe you can expand on your interest in your herb garden to drying them and using them to make herbal teas and potpourris.
I’ve had many specialties over the years, with so many more to learn. One that has remained a favorite for me is making soap, although it’s not something I often mention on the blog. Here’s one post, however.
Your whole family will enjoy that poem that you wrote and put on the fridge, the makeover you gave to the living room, the bookshelf you built, or the tapered candles you made to light a dreary corner.
I’m fully convinced that the only bored housewife is the one who hasn’t yet grasped the immensity that the profession offers.
