An excellent overview of the family economy and the way the Industrial Revolution changed families:
“In early American history (and indeed much of world history), most business enterprises were family businesses with fathers working together with wives and children, where the fathers and mothers not only passed along skills, but also shepherded their children while working for a common purpose: the family economy. The family could bond as they had common motivation, common compensation and common culture, all inside the intact family jurisdiction, the very center of economic activity.
As the industrial revolution spread across America, men were lured away from the home into the workplace and later on with the rise of public schools, children were also taken out of the home. And in the last century, women abandoned their homes for the workplace in droves, leaving the majority of American homes dark, empty shells only used in the evenings and on weekends. This has not only led to the disintegration of the family during the best hours of the day, but has also often led to the permanent death of a family as commonplace workplace romances split marriages and families asunder.”
Read the rest of “The Problem with Employees (Compared to Family Entrepreneurship)”, from New Venture Lab
2 comments
I was reading an article from a Pastor that when we as mothers move outside the home(work) we leave the doors open to the enemy to work… then we wonder why finances is in shambles, kids acting out, and marriages crumbling! No one is home to guard it, pray over it, bless it, keep it,training kids, the list goes on and on! Elizabeth George has a book that solely focuses on homemaking. it’s a wonderful book about living the way God has intended us to – homemakers.
I believe the article is actually calling fathers home to family enterprise which helps keep the whole family at home rather than putting all the burdens on mum, which was never the plan (except teh devils.) There is much pressure from churches for mums to stay home like the typical 50’s tv mum and wait on dad hand and foot and I think there is still something wrong with that picture. Anyway I could go on but that’s just my .02c