I love books!

One of the books that I am currently reading is called Fascinating Womanhood by Helen B. Andelin originally published in 1965. It is very interesting. I like it. It is along the lines of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. I still have about 100 pages to go, but so far would highly recommend the book to all women who want marriages like so many of the Prophets and their wives have enjoyed. It says basically the same things as The Surrendered Wife and Created to be His Helpmeet but uses classic books, the bible, and testimonials to illustrate the points made.
The Surrendered Wife is very "fluffy" and supported only by testimonials, but is a very easy read and easy to apply. It was the first book of this kind that I read and I made a big difference in my marriage.
Created to be His Helpmeet is supported entirely by verses from the bible and testimonials. It is superior to Surrendered Wife and a joy to read. I did feel that many of her interpretations of the bible were a stretch but the fruits of following the principles in this book are enough to convince me of its worth. It made a huge difference in my marriage.
Fascinating Womanhood is supported as I said by classics, the Bible, and testimonials. So far, I agree with her interpretations and all points made in the book. It is a slightly more difficult read and offers a lot to think about. I like it best because it is most aligned with the principles of a leadership education that we try to follow in our home. I checked the copy I am currently reading out from the library, but I will be buying a copy of my own.

A significant portion of Fascinating Womanhood is dedicated to "Understanding Men." (Boys are so weird!) In Chapter 7, the point made is that a man wants to be number one priority to his wife. Not that she can't have other interests, but he doesn't want to be less important than the children, her career, the house, her hobbies........ Makes sense. Why then is it so hard for women to meet this need?
Mrs. Andelin says, "There is a tendency for women to fail in this respect, to place other things ahead of their husband. This tendency began in early childhood and was clearly evident in our world of dreams." She then describes little girls' play. When little girls play "house" or "babies," that is what play is all about - the house and the babies. There is no husband present. The focus is on the children and homemaking. Little girls also dream of the wedding -- beautiful dress, cake, decorations....... everything except the groom.
As the girls get older, Prince Charming comes into the picture some. I remember when JaNae and I used to play barbies, we would spend all afternoon getting everything all set up and ready to go on a date with Ken. By the time we had the barbies all dressed and their hair done and Ken finally drove his Corvette to our house to pick Barbie up for the date, my mom would call and the game would end. Occasionally we actually married Ken, but the game always ended after the big wedding.
Even the children's stories and poems we read and hear are about the pretty house and babies with no mention of the husband or else they are about Prince Charming who carries the Princess off to the castle in the clouds and they live "happily ever after. The End."
I read this chapter and thought about it some yesterday. I took some comfort in that when my girls play "Babies," they usually talk Colin into playing the Dad. He usually doesn't mind because it is the Dad's job to go to work so he gets to play the computer for his work and the girls play whatever they want while he is gone and then they occasionally play together for dinner or to go on a car trip or whatever. When Colin won't play, they use Sunshine bear as the dad and he goes to another room when it's time for him to go to work.
Then later that night, I was reading a Winnie the Pooh story to Grace and she wanted to know where Roo's dad is. He only has a mom. Kanga is a wonderful mother. She is always sweeping the house and worrying about Roo, but Grace was very right. No Dad.

Anyway, I am interested to know what anyone else thinks about this subject. How does this figure into the problems of today?

My personal view is that if all women fulfilled their role as outlined by our Father in Heaven and well described in this book, we wouldn't have the problems that we do. God really is very smart. He is pouring out his blessings upon us and it is up to each one of us to use our agency to follow him and receive those blessings. Satan is also very smart. He is using every source he can to distort God's plan and he is carefully leading everyone he can down to hell.