My Husband, the Home Economist

I bet when you read that title, your mind conjures up an image, a rather stereotypical image. I’ll also bet your image and thoughts include some false assumptions.

Can my husband cook? Well, somewhat. He’s getting better the more he tries it. Can my husband sew? No — unequivocally — no. So, aren’t those the first things you think of when you think of a home economist?

Let me take you back to the start — all the way back to our college days. We were undergraduates in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was a home economics major and he was a psychology major.

Since there is not much you can do with a B.A. in psychology, on to graduate school.

And here is where the home economics comes in for him. He became interested in a new curriculum in the School of Home Economics, which was Child Development and Family Relations.

The university had just hired a dean to lead this new curriculum. And my husband was one of the first to be accepted into the program. When he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Child Development and Family Relations, he officially became a graduate in the School of Home Economics!

He also holds two distinctions that most of the people who know him are unaware.

Upon graduation, he became one of the first males in the nation to receive a Master’s Degree in Child Development and Family Relations.

In addition, he was inducted into the Home Economics honorary fraternity, Phi Upsilon Omicron, making him the first male in the nation to be inducted into that Home Economics fraternity! In fact, we were both inducted into Phi Upsilon Omicron at the same ceremony.

My husband — the Home Economist!

Having been married to him for over 51 years now, I’d like to share a little about how that distinction has played out for him through the years.

After a couple of introductory jobs, my husband was hired as a mental health counselor and finished up a 30-year career in mental health as a counselor and administrator.

His child development and family relations degree was a perfect match for his role as a counselor. That degree also came in handy rearing our two children. He was always, to use a term from the 1960s, more mellow than me.

One of the things that always distinguished him from other men I knew was his acceptance of life, whatever the circumstances. He never played the “get ahead in life” game, although I may have wanted to see a little more of that through the years.

He gets excited over the little things in life, like photographing a bumblebee on a flower. I asked him once how he knew if he was doing what he was meant to do in life.

He said that if you love where you are in life, who you’re with and what you’re doing, you’re doing what you were meant to do. No soul-searching needed. No questioning your position in life. And that meant more than acceptance of life. It meant contentment.

His Home Economics degree in Child Development and Family Relations is more than something he attained. It’s who he is. And you can see that spirit reflected in the lives of our children and grandchildren and the responsible and compassionate people they have become.

My husband — the Home Economist. It fits him perfectly.

I’m educator and blogger Vicki Peel. I support family members trying to live good-enough intentional lives by writing about life hacks in the areas of Home Style, Lifestyle, and Food. Join the HER community at https://HERLifeHacks.com