housekeeping and homemaking

Dallin H. Oaks: I’m glad you speak of homemaking because homemaking is a word of disparagement in the eyes of some, and it should not be. But we may need to define it. Homemaking is not just baking bread or cleaning a house. Homemaking is to make the environment necessary to nurture our children toward eternal life, which is our responsibility as parents. And that homemaking is as much for fathers as it is for mothers…. there are probably a lot of housekeeping tasks that can be delegated, but there aren’t any homemaking tasks that can be delegated. We don’t delegate conducting a family home evening. We’re not going to delegate family prayer. We’re not going to delegate the love of a mother and a father for the children or that individual time that’s so essential for growth. Let’s make a distinction between housekeeping and homemaking.

(Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting:

Building Up a Righteous Posterity, February 9, 2008)