Synopsis
The protagonist is Shiho Murakami, a 27-year-old housewife.
Having lost her mother at an early age, she naturally assumed housework was her role, but realizing she couldn’t juggle multiple tasks at once, she chose to stay at home rather than work. While living a peaceful life with her husband and daughter, she begins to feel anxious and lonely due to her limited social connections.
At children’s centers and parks, Shiho encounters people from different walks of life.
Nagano Reiko: A working mother struggling with single-parent parenting
Nakatani Tatsuya: An elite bureaucrat on parental leave and a rationalist
Tsutamura Shoko: The wife of a doctor who longed for children but was unable to achieve them
Sakagami: An elderly housewife who lost her husband
Through her interactions with these people, Shiho confronts questions like, “Is housework work?” and “Is being a housewife socially acceptable?” Through their sometimes conflicting and sometimes supportive interactions, she gradually begins to accept her own way of life. Towards the end of the story, Shiho receives a threatening letter declaring, “I wish there were no such thing as a full-time housewife,” causing a stir and shaking her very existence. However, she attempts to respond to the attack with understanding and empathy.
Review
- Modern-day full-time housewives are struggling.
I don’t think there were many full-time housewives in my parents’ generation either. By the time their children reached elementary school age, I feel like there were more mothers working part-time than full-time housewives.
And it’s true that there are very few full-time housewives these days.
Some people can’t become full-time housewives for financial reasons, and not all women want to be full-time housewives.
The protagonist also sometimes wonders whether she is happy with the way she is, due to the words of various people around her.
This book helps us understand that full-time housewives do not live stress-free lives. - It’s okay to live any way you want.
If you want to be a full-time housewife, then go ahead and do so. And if you want to work and raise children, then go ahead and do so.
No one should tell others how to live their lives. The reason full-time housewives are criticized is probably because of the jealousy of people who want to be full-time housewives but can’t. - Stick to a lifestyle that you’re satisfied with.
I think it’s tough to live a life that gets criticized by others.
However, this book teaches us that full-time housewives also have a role to play.
I think parents who are confident in the way they live their lives are good role models for their children.
It’s fine to be a full-time housewife or a working mother.
