Chapter 1: What Marriage Means 4. Partnership in Daily Work

The family is a partnership in domestic business. It also has its part to perform in the business of the community, and should perform this part well. In this work the ordinary motives of skill and of pleasure in successful accomplishment are now reinforced by the consideration that the efforts of the pair have a distinct bearing on the success of their home. Moreover, the married person values the services that are rendered in the home, and for its support, infinitely more because they are services of love.

A good home helps each member to perform his duties more effectively, and this is made still more likely if each shows an interest in the work of the other. A home-minded person does not think of his work as drudgery. Though work is a necessity it is also an expression of personality, and every person who does a common task well improves the world so far as his part is concerned.

Because woman's work in the home can be done by fewer hands than in earlier times, and because of special interests and aptitudes, many women work outside, but if the wife continues with her job, she must not give so much of herself to business that she sacrifices her success at home.

Many persons overlook the fact that the same principle applies to a man, but it is possible for a husband to become so engrossed in business or professional success that he gives too little attention to his home. The ideal is to keep all things in proportion and to use the various departments of life in a harmonious plan in which the details receive attention and the main aims are kept in view.

If a woman is a home-keeper, she may realize that there is nothing the world needs more than good homes. While home-making can be slighted, it may also be made a fine art. The home is a cooperative workshop of the unseen values, and is a producer of artists, educators and all the builders of the better world that we seek.