Home Featured Mums Waturi Wamboye: “As a New Wife, a Helping Hand from My Husband...

Waturi Wamboye: “As a New Wife, a Helping Hand from My Husband Went a Long Way”

1
The Wamboye's -Ernest and Waturi.

Let me start off by saying that in this motherhood journey, there are a multiplicity of factors that define what kind of moms/women we are.

Being a wife, a single mom, a widow, experiencing gender-based-violence, being jobless, having a chronic illness, fertility struggles, raising a special needs child, being a teen mom, being a mom with disability… these are all part of what makes up our motherhood experiences and whether we like it or not, they have a significant influence on how we raise our children and how they will turn out.

Because this is all part of the motherhood journey –or part of the journey to motherhood, you’ll notice that moving forward, I’ll be sharing more of these experiences on the blog. Starting off with that of Waturi Wamboye, a wife and a mom.

Waturi Wamboye
Waturi Wamboye

When she was a new wife, Waturi knew that one of her responsibilities was to ensure that the house was well kept, that she prepared meals, and that she generally performed all the duties that were expected of her as a wife. However, there soon arose a challenge.

“At some point I couldn’t do it and felt like I had failed in my duties as a wife.”

Thankfully, her husband –Ernest, would step in and help out.

“Sometimes I would get home from a long day at work, then find Ernest cooking. Admittedly, holding strongly onto your roles (as a new spouse) can be tricky, but you realize it’s necessary for either party to step in so that the tasks in need of attention are not neglected. It helped me to relax and also learn how to accept help when needed,” she says, in the book ‘Coffee and Love Chats’ by author Lorraine Onyango.

The Wamboye's -Ernest and Waturi.
The Wamboye’s -Ernest and Waturi, with their child.

 This happens to be a situation similar to that of many women. The period when it’s just the new husband and wife in the house, when there are no children –yet– and there is no house girl either. The times when the new wife gets home in the evening –tired from work, and immediately gets down to performing house chores; cooking, cleaning the dishes, mopping the floor, doing some laundry or even ironing their clothes…among other duties.

Meanwhile, the husband lounges on the couch scrolling through his phone playing games, WhatsApping, Facebooking, maybe napping, watching TV or simply just hanging around waiting to be served and waited upon by his lovely new wife.

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-man-relaxing-to-music-image4489305

At the crack of dawn, she’s at it again –preparing their baths, making breakfast, maybe packing his lunch….and also getting herself ready for work.

And getting tired of it all.

But it’s not only new wives who go through this as sometimes, moms too experience this challenge –mostly on the days when the house girl is on her day off and there’s chores to be done around the house, and the man doesn’t seem to care much about pulling his weight around and offering any assistance.

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-funny-tired-house-cleaning-woman-image12441645

I have heard several tales of women in such situations, and even read their rants on Facebook.

“Hubby just sits there as I do all the work. I mean, I know that I’m the woman and it’s expected of me to undertake the household chores, but why can’t he just offer to help? Even just once? House chores can be very exhausting, and I think it’s quite insensitive of him, especially in this day and age. Is it so difficult to just want to help me out?” they ask, resentment and bitterness in their voice. And that’s not good for any relationship.

Well, in Waturi’s situation, at least her husband would help out. And she also has some advice for us all.

“Many mothers and women overwork without looking after themselves since they have so much to do. In order for them to take care of the family properly, they need to look after themselves first.”

The 'Coffee and Love Chats' book, which contains Waturi and Ernest's marriage experiences.
The ‘Coffee and Love Chats’ book, which contains the inspiring experiences of nine married couples, including those of Waturi and Ernest.

Hmm…this one is hard small. How do you get your partner to help out? Have you ever found yourself in such a situation? How did you deal with it? What advice would you give? Or does it all boil down to one’s expectations of their spouse, and if there is effective communication in that relationship? Because for sure, being in a relationship where there’s lots of anger and bitterness and resentment is not healthy at all.

This situation reminds me of a quote I once heard: ‘A Happy Mom is a Happy Home.’ So what happens when she’s not happy?

Related Article: 

Lorraine Onyango has Been Married for Just over a Year. So What Does she Know about Marriage, enough to Author a Book about it?

Mummy Tales is a blog dedicated to empowering its readers on different aspects of maternal and newborn health, as well as various issues surrounding motherhood and women. Read more motherhood experiences of Kenyan moms here. Follow Mummy Tales on: FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM TWITTER 

Comments

comments

Previous articleKenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta Cancels this Year’s Beyond Zero Half Marathon
Next articleThe Story of the Late Dr. Eunice Songa, and Her Challenge to Kenya’s Middle Class
Maryanne W. Waweru is a Kenyan mum raising her two sons in Nairobi. A journalist, Maryanne is passionate about telling stories and hopes that through her writing, her readers learn something new, feel encouraged, inspired, and appreciative of what they have in their lives. Maryanne's writing focuses on motherhood, women and lifestyle. "Telling stories is the only thing I know how to do," she says.

1 COMMENT

  1. […]  Earlier this year, I’d mentioned that I would be delving more into broader issues surrounding motherhood and womanhood. In that article, I had featured Waturi Wamboye who said that when she was a new in marriage, she tried to live up to the expectations of being a new wife but at some point, she realized she just couldn’t do it all. You can read Waturi’s story here. […]

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

ten − four =