Like many of my friends, I grew up watching the TV show Leave It To Beaver. But to review for the youngsters, the show depicted an American family, the Cleavers, in the 50s or early 60s who lived in a modest home in a modest unnamed suburb. Ward, the father, went to work each day, the kids went to school and June, the perfect housewife, took care of the castle.
Beaver Cleaver, the center of the show, constantly found himself in some sort of pickle.
The pickle might involve his older brother Wally or his parents, but Beaver - a 10-year-old - invariably had a life struggle to deal with and learned some kind of lesson by the end of the thirty minutes.
June loved being a homemaker, dressed in her pearls and immaculate dress each day.
The boys, all three, listened to her when she gave advice and Ward was totally smitten with her.
Periodically, the married couple would have a disagreement, but they always came to a mutual agreement and held together on any major issue.
The Cleavers did not have a perfect marriage, they did not have a perfect family, but they did have mutual respect.
Wouldn’t the world be different if we all lived in a family like that?
I must give all the credit to Ward.
He listened to June and treated her like an equal even though the worldview and the view of a 10-year-old was that she "was lucky because she didn't have to be smart, she didn't have to get a job. All she had to do was get married". (Watch the clip at the end.)
June loved her job as a homemaker because she felt respected and valued even though she did not earn any wages.
Unfortunately, that does not always happen in the real world, so it is dangerous to put ideas into young women’s heads that money and wage earners don’t rule the world.
Unfortunately, what Beaver says in the clip below still rings true for some people; however, June sets Beaver straight as always.
Watch and find out how she solves this dilemma.
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