Stay at Home Mothers

Over the last couple of days, I have been reading - mainly newspaper articles - about stay at home mothers (SAHM). There is a lot of controversy about mothers in general but especially about mothers who stay at home to raise their children. While for some it is a choice, for lots (and I expect for the majority in Cheetham Hill) it is a necessity, mainly due to the costs of childcare and lack of support for mothers. In most cases, as one article said, the wages a mother would be paid at a job would mostly be spend on the childcare needed to enable her to work, thus making it slightly pointless to work instead of raising her children herself.
There are also cultural traditions at play in Cheetham Hill, where it is assumed that the woman of the house stays at home to raise the children and keep house while her husband goes out to earn money for the family.

This doesn't stop women who stay at home from feeling isolated and lonely.

From what I have read, I think that some of the loneliness comes from the lack of understanding of the hard work involved unless you are a SAHM. One article I found was written by a husband who's wife didn't work in order to look after their young twins. He talked about encounters with women who worked and asked '"What does she DO all day?"' Reading this article, and ones like it, has given me a better understanding of stay at home mothers and I am going to be able to develop a more specific programme for my building. 

To get some first hand responses, I contacted one of the many SAHM support page on Facebook and asked about some pros and cons of being a SAHM. I had a great response, and although the page I think is mainly American, the replies were mainly what I was expecting to hear from the reading I had been doing. 

The general response was that it was great to stay at home and raise their children and not working meant that they wouldn't miss a moment of their child growing up, they wouldn't have to take time off work for doctor's appointments etc, but the lack of adult conversation would drive them crazy and there was a lot of negativity towards mothers who didn't work. One woman's response was that depending how long you remained at home, moving back into the world of work could be intimidating. 

Knowing more about what it's like to be a stay at home mother means that I can now start to really work on my programme and start making marks on the site. 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=691603147538321&id=351823208182985

MSAP Christmas Market

This morning we had our MSAP Christmas Market. The idea was that we would be selling our projects to our tutors, 5th years and anyone else who was visiting. There was lots of food and mulled wine to go along with the projects and I think I went really overboard with the gingerbread!

We did it in the form of speed dating in which we spent 5 minutes talking about our project and trying to communicate it as clearly as possible. It was good to have to summarise my project as I then had to focus on the most important ideas.

Afterwards when the 5th years had passed on their feedback to our tutors, we had short tutorials. The general feedback was that I need to focus more on what I am going to do rather than what I have done. I do however really need to make links between everything I have done and tie it all together, making sure that it is relevant and everyone reading through my project knows that it's relevant and why.

The other thing that I need focus on is backing up my argument: Why am I focusing on the stay at home women of Cheetham Hill? This was what I wanted to achieve with an event but I also need to start reading into it and I will be able to really focus my programme and take it forward. It might be worth talking to friends back at home with reference to staying at home.

Onwards

I am still in need of developing my programme and while I have been discussing events with others who are also focusing their projects on women, with the drawing having taken over the last couple of weeks, we haven't had the chance to get much further than discussions.

It was suggested that I look at Matrix's book Making Space: Women and the Man-made Environment. The introduction started talking about 'a woman's place' and comparing home and work. Essentially, there is a distinct boundary between home and work for employed men while, whether employed or unemployed, this boundary isn't there for women as work continues at home in the form of housework or child care. In a way this links back to my main theme of blurred boundaries although instead of the physical boundary between public and private, it is a mental one between leisure and work.

It also talked about women outside of the home and the potential dangers in the streets, especially after dark. This has made me look again at the sites and the accessibility to each other and to Cheetham Hill Road. Pedestrian access to the graveyard site is via a couple of short but quiet roads that could be quiet intimidating during the day, let alone at night. While there is only one entrance to the Library site, there is a potential for a second in the cut through from Cheetham Hill Road to the World Wide supermarket and this again isn't the most welcoming. Humphey Street, running perpendicular to Cheetham Hill Road and one of the links between the sites, is more of a major road that the others but it's tall brick walls with very few windows again make for an intimidating route.

If I am to design mainly for the women of Cheetham Hill, I am going to have to look at the accessibility between the sites and to improve these routes of transit. Site analysis to look at the light levels will be beneficial, if not necessary in order to develop this part of my design.