If there is an occupation loaded with prejudice, it is that of a housewife. 2026

When you are a housewife you hear all kinds of negative comments, made by whoever crosses your path, be it the neighbor who knows you little or a close relative. Those with a little more awareness regarding our sacrificial work tell you “I don't know how you can handle it”, but the most unfair ones tell us pearls related to the free time they think we have. You spend all night awake making a beautiful decoration and a delicious cake for your son's birthday and instead of a “congratulations” they give you a “you, since you are in the good life, you do these things.”

Well, I wish we had half an hour a day of time for ourselves to, for example, savor food instead of gobbling it. There is no rest for those who take care of everything in a house and take care of small children full time. Oh, and how can we forget the typical “if you can afford it…”? Well, it's not like we are swimming in money by doing without one of the salaries of the house. We do it because we save on daycare, caregivers, maids, meals, extracurricular activities, trips and many other things. But the worst of all is feeling obligated to justify all this in an attempt to be more accepted around you.

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Once, at the school gate, three stay-at-home mothers were talking about how difficult it was to find a moment to get ready. Choose prettier clothes, put on makeup, comb your hair, paint your nails or something as basic and necessary as shaving. I insisted that we had to do it at any cost, whether it was with the baby pulling our skirt or at twelve at night. This is because I believe that looking pretty is also a matter of dignity and raises the self-esteem that they try so hard to take away from us. But it was curious when one of those mothers told us that her hands always smelled like garlic. Well, yes, our hands smell like garlic from the food we prepare for our family and it is possible that we have "forgotten" to beautify ourselves, because we no longer go out to work in an office every day, or simply because we are already very tired. Because, like all workers, we have moments of exhaustion and we cry to the heavens for someone to appear to help us. Like all workers, we need to take a break to renew our strength and be able to give our best.

None of what I say here is intended to provoke compassion. They are not complaints, it is the story of a reality that needs to be positively valued. We need recognition (and a salary wouldn't hurt either!). We would like everyone to understand that dedicating our lives to family, putting our professional career in the background, does not mean, for us, losing our identity. We can say loud and clear that it is the best thing in life or what we like the most, and this is immensely gratifying. We choose to be housewives because we believe it is the best for our children and because we want to experience up close a stage as important and beautiful as their childhoods. This privilege is not only ours. It should also be the same for the rest of society. After all, we are raising future citizens full of love from their own mothers. Valuable contribution to making a better world.

Written by Sabrina Valença, mother and journalist