Call it “Home care” instead of “chores”or “housework”

I was reading the March muse letter from Mothering Arts, and found this: Let’s shift the word “chores” or “housework” to “home care”. How positive and sweet it is! Isn’t the words “home care” sound much better?

I always like to refer the house we are staying as “our home“, as I strongly believe there is huge difference between a house and a home. A home does not necessarily consist a family, as I always treat wherever I stay as my home, at least my second home away from my family. Once we treat it as a home, we care about it, and we gather together and share with each other under the roof.

According to Cambridge Dictionary online, chore means a job or piece of work that is often boring or unpleasant but needs to be done regularly. How boring and dull the chore is! No wonder whenever we think of doing the house chores, it is like our energy has been drained. Perhaps this is also why whenever we ask our children to do the chores, they just do not listen or do not do them willingly, as those are unpleasant jobs.

I usually do not like to use the word “chore“, but I use “housework” instead. What I found out from Cambridge Dictionary online is housework is the work of keeping a house clean and tidy. This sounds more relevant, as what we do is really to keep the house clean and tidy. I always told my children we have to do so, because it’s our home. In order for us to stay here comfortably, it is good to keep our home clean and tidy, but “work” still sounds a bit taxing.

After reading what Kerry Ingram (the founder of Mothering Arts) wrote, I agree that the words “home care” is a much more appropriate term. We are actually caring for our home. It is like how we care for our children, our favorite toys, our mind, our health, we also care for our home. We make sure our children eat well, play well, sleep well and clean as well. So, we should do the same to our home. We should make our home happy as well. Moreover, it is joyful to take care of our home together, as a family. Hence, it is important to do the home care together with our children.

Once we have changed the word we are using with a more negative energy to a more positive one, I believe how we view at it will also be different. We will treat our home as something we care and love, hence those tasks are no longer boring or energy drained. It will be easier for us to invite our children to perform the important and loving tasks together with us too, as we are not spreading the negative energies around.

So, in order to do our daily house chores or housework, let’s start taking care our home instead. I believe our home will be happier and healthier with this little change.

Image credit: Pixabay

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