A while back, I announced to my husband that I had an idea for an invention that was going to make us rich. Like a good sales person, I started by explaining the problem: Almost every day, I ended up going out of the house looking like a slob. I’d put on a nice, crisp pair of jeans and a spotless shirt in the morning; then, by the time I ran out the door to the grocery store or soccer practice or whatever the activity of the afternoon was, my shirt and the top part of my jeans would be splattered with some mix of ketchup, spitup, cooking oil, and a couple of substances heretofore unknown to science.
“So,” I explained, “Here’s the invention: It’s a piece of fabric that goes over whatever you’re already wearing, for when you’re doing messy work. Then, when it’s time to leave the house, you can take off this fabric covering, and your clothes underneath will still look great!”
I waited for my husband to jump out of his chair and pronounce me a genius. Instead, he said: “Umm, are you talking about an apron?”
Oh. Yeah.
It’s amazing that in the span of one generation, a clothing item that was once a staple of married women’s wardrobes could become almost entirely obsolete. Though our grandmothers used aprons regularly, women my age didn’t see much of them in our own childhoods, and rarely use them ourselves. The common thinking about why the apron fell out of favor, even with stay-at-home moms who might have a use for one, was that it came to be associated with unpopular concepts like traditional gender roles and stifled housewives during the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and ‘70s.
That’s certainly true, but I think the reason for the apron’s decline goes even deeper than that.
One of the cornerstone beliefs of the modern secular world is that the meaning of life is to maximize your personal pleasure and comfort; therefore, people are encouraged to minimize phases of life that might involve hard work or service of others. This probably impacts women with young children more than anyone. They receive the message loud and clear that their situation, with all the mess and physically demanding work that goes with it, is the very antithesis of a good life. No way to thrive here, the thinking goes. Best to have the minimum number of children you may want, and then get sterilized or use contraception to make sure that this phase of life is completely finished, so you can get back to real living. Women start to think that they should accept this sad fate of looking (and feeling) tired and sloppy, that the only solution is to just grit their teeth, power through, and get past this time of life as quickly as possible.
In this mentality, you can see how women feel like they couldn’t possibly be open to more children. Going grocery shopping with stains all over your shirt for a couple of years is one thing; it’s another thing to do it for decades.
This is why I’d like to see the apron make a comeback. It is the essential accessory for a life of service. Donning an apron is a simple act that sends a surprisingly powerful message, especially if you’re a mother. It’s a symbolic gesture that indicates that you’re seeking to thrive now, here in the midst of the toil that comes with nurturing new souls; that you see the work of serving others not as a temporary phase, but as a key aspect of a well lived life. Taking the time to fasten the strings of an apron around your waist sends a message (to yourself, as much as to anyone else) that it’s worth the effort to protect your clothes so that you can look nice at the end of the day—that self-care has not been shoved to the backburner just because you have children.
Obviously, I don’t think that aprons are the cure for all the world’s ills. The forces that discourage women in the vocation of motherhood probably aren’t going to be vanquished by a single wardrobe item (except for maybe this one—cute!!) But I do think that there is a direct relationship between apron-wearing and embracing a life oriented toward the service of others. It will be hard for women on a large scale to be open to messages of openness to life until they understand that it is possible to thrive during the childbearing years (in other words: that you actually don’t have to frump around the grocery store in a stained t-shirt, even if you have young kids). If more women who understood this were more bold with their use of this underappreciated clothing item, it just might send a message that our culture desperately needs to hear:
The work of serving other is messy. Life is messy. But that’s why we have aprons.
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I love this, Jennifer!
Very interesting post.
Great article! I love my aprons and tell my children that I wear it as part of my “Mom uniform.” ;-)
My husband once told me that one of his favorite memories is the day we brought home our sixth baby. I put her in the cradle, went to the kitchen, tied on my apron and got to work. I think he was just happy to have me home after he’d had to wrangle 5 little ones for three days…
Jen, I like where you are headed but I think there is more to the journey. If two women come into the room and one is neat and clean and nicely clad and the other is a bit disheveled and stained and you treat the first better you are not following Christ. The eyes have to change and sees things differently. The mind has to think differently. The world treats the first woman better. The ego wants the first woman. The husband who wants to stand on the sidelines and have everything unrealistically perfect wants the first woman. Instead of “I look a mess!” How about “Look at these beautiful kids and wow we got alot accomplished today. Thank you God. Honey you take over and I’ll take a shower and freshen up.” If you don’t think you are caring for yourself because you aren’t neat and clean take another look. Aprons are great but I guarantee that the spots will still find their way. We died to the flesh.
I love this! There are circles where the apron is making a comeback. A friend of mine gives pretty ones as gifts claiming that “every woman needs a beautiful apron.” I think I’ll pull mine out today!
I saw some really cute ones at the Kroger grocery store last week and I was surprised to see them there. I have one that was a gift about 25 years ago (it is still not worn out) but I usually only wear it when I am making roll out cookies or pie. One of the first and only things I made with my young girls was an apron when they were about 2 or 3 years old because it was so easy to sew. I think your perspective is on target. Did you notice that the apron went by the wayside around the same time as the religious habit worn by sisters? Is there a link in that neither group wants to be public about their vocation?
I’ve fallen in love with wearing aprons since another Catholic Mom Blogger Maria started selling them on Etsy as Catholic Mamacita. Her aprons are so beautiful and offer so much coverage that I love putting them on. I finally bought a couple for my girls too because they loved mine so much. They’re perfect for house work and finger painting!
I tried searching for Catholic Mamacita and found no such seller. :(
Your ‘discovery’ of the apron was a nice premise for a story but I totally disagree with your deeper reason of why they fell out of use. I grew up in the ‘60s and ‘70s and knew that feeling of upheaval. My mother was a child of the Depression ... I don’t think she could afford an apron and certainly never raised me to believe in anything less than a respect for all life ... she knew better She lived through more upheaval than you and I will ever see. Try again please.
JMJ Hey, do they make them for Guys/Grandpas? One like St. Joseph wore in the workshop. I could sure use one while cooking breakfast for my Grandchildren. Then when I leave to take them to the Atonement Academy, I can be ready to attend Mass instead of having to change my shirt. All that splattering from the bacon and scrambled eggs goes everywhere. Tortillas are fine. Waffles and Bananas are okay, but the butter and syrup can be sticky. Cleaning up little two year old Zachary is a whole other story.+
This is a wonderful article - well-written and just what a stay-at-home mom needs to read on Monday morning. I’m adding aprons to my birthday and Christmas lists! God bless!
But most aprons do not cover the shoulders. That’s my biggest trouble spot: drool, tears, food residue, even blood sometimes. And an apron won’t watch the kids while I take a shower (or a nap!)...so I will continue to be the disheveled, sloppy-looking mom.
I’m single and I love aprons! I can’t wash dishes by hand without the front of me getting soaked so I wear a professional heavy duty one for that to minimize the amount of water that gets on me. I can never bake, especially bread, without getting flour every where so I wear one then. I love the type my Mom had that was like a vest that snapped down the front. I think aprons represent the woman that is a whole woman. They have lots of things they are involved in outside of the house but the house is spotless, the family well cared for, and their own personal appearance is immaculate and well put together. I look at my all my Mother did and wonder how she did everything she did plus never left the house without looking her best. I admit that I just can’t pull it off myself. Long live the apron! Self fulfillment comes from serving others not yourself. When you put your needs and wants first you become disgruntled and unsatisfied with life.
They have eyes but they do not see. Ears but they do not hear.
I used to like wearing an apron just to preserve my limited wardrobe. Then I heard the story of Susanna Wesley, mother of 19 children, and how when she wanted to spend a moment alone with God, she would pull her apron up over her head and her children knew not to disturb her for that moment. She may not have been Catholic, but I want to imitate how she influenced her children for Christ! Now I love wearing an apron. Thanks for the great article!
I agree that an apron is an essential part of the mom uniform… even though my mother never wore one - and she was a stay at home mom who made the world’s best cinnamon rolls. Seriously, I’ll put her rolls up against anyone!
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But what I found interesting reading this article…. is that it’s my single girlfriends (and myself/single) who are swooning over aprons. We have the cute, ruffled layered ones that are borderline couture. (Anthropologie - starting at $45 ridiculous dollars. ) So it’s those of us longing to have a husband and kids who are more than willing to put on an apron when we have the luxury of doing anything domestic. (Of course, the apron must be cute. )
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Thinking back to the real use of an apron… back to June Cleaver and before… women only had a handful of dresses… one or two for church and 1 or 2 house dresses that were suitable for grocery shopping… AND washing clothes was serious chore - they couldn’t just toss clothes into a machine and walk away. So they put on an apron over their clothes (dress) so that when the doorbell rang - they could just pull the apron off and be presentable.
Today, women wear yoga pants and old t-shirts around the house… which are easy to wash and release stains rather easily. It’s also what you wear to the store… with maybe a nicer t-shirt… so the standards and norms are completely different.
I’ve been using aprons for years! A friend sent me 2 from the U.K. that are coated in a teflon-like treatment yet still feel like soft cotton. Those things resist all stains, go thru the wash like any other piece of clothing and work beautifully. I am not a small-sized woman so finding aprons that fit around my ample-hips can be a challenge; the ones from my friend fit perfectly. Whenever we have company and I answer the door wearing an apron, our friends always smile and the woman usually asks - got one for me?
Linda Cacpal,
I must disagree. I was born in the ‘60s and I remember commercials where women would “throw” off their aprons and underneath they’d have business clothes on. They would then proceed to go out and work and have evenings of fun. This implies that staying home was not fulfilling and if you were a “true” woman you’d want to leave the house and join other women in throwing off the bonds of “housewife”. My parents were born at the end of the depression and I know my mom felt this way. She is an admirer of Margaret Sanger and when I hit middle school couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.
Knowing I was then a homebrewer, my friends bought me
a white lab coat as a birthday gift many years ago.
Comfortable, cool-looking, lots of pockets..
Maybe women with fond memories of their college
chemistry classes would enjoy one.
Anthropologie has some really cute aprons!
Here’s one man who wears an apron (navy blue with a big hungry alligator on it!) when cooking gumbo for company. I don’t know if that blurs gender roles but man, splattered roux sure can mess up my khakis.
I love cute aprons. They’re a great pick-me-up when I want to look feminine around the house, without any hassle. A wonderful place to get super-cute/feminine aprons for about $13 is Home Goods/Marshalls type stores. I’ve found quite a lovely selection every time I look.
One of my daughter’s books, In Grandma’s Attic, has a really cute story about aprons. You can read it here:
http://books.google.com/books/about/In_Grandma_s_Attic.html?id=uaV87RE2rsoC
I’m a fan of aprons. I grew up in restaurants, so I prefer the utilitarian chef aprons.
I’m sorta turned off by mothers who don’t look somewhat sloppy. That’s kinda the whole point, because as you said life is messy. I’m a physician and my white coat is absolutely not white. Which means to me I’ve actually done something productive while wearing it. These types of posts give me trouble though. Am I less of a women in the eyes of the Church because I am not married and do not have children and I’m not sure that ever will come to pass? I really struggle with that.
As a complete aside, aprons are making a huge comeback I can assure you based on the registries of all my friends.
Stephanie of Aux Belles Choses, who is a convert to Catholicism from the Church of Christ, makes really lovely aprons, too. (Here’s her Etsy shop.)
I have two aprons and they are in no way cute, but they are functional. But when you are as uncoordinated as I am, no apron can protect your clothing from spills.
Stephanie of La Vie Catholique and Aux Belles Choses, who is a convert to Catholicism from the Church of Christ, makes really lovely aprons, too. (Here’s her Etsy shop.)
I have two aprons and they are in no way cute, but they are functional. But when you are as uncoordinated as I am, no apron can protect your clothing from spills.
YOU STOLE MY BLOG POST! Seriously, I have become totally enamored of aprons, which I thought in my youth to symbolize all that is frumpy and confined about the 50’s housewife. I dug an apron out of my boxes after this past move and I wear it more than any article of clothing. It’s saved me a load of laundry (at least one load) and having to shop for clean shirts. And it is very much a symbol of a lifestyle that centers on sustaining life (in its most earthy and pukey moments).
Interesting perspective. Thank you for sharing it. In our house, I am the ‘apron wearer’. I am also the husband. Somehow, at an early age, the image of a man in rolled up shirt sleeves and tie, wearing an apron while making a scrumptious meal for someone(s) he loves stuck as one of refined masculinity. I love preparing meals, but I REALLY love preparing meals for my loved ones. That is when the Joy really gets into cooking - and is a reminder to me of the general joy which comes from service. It is also a reminder that real men serve.
@Pat D. - I love how you posted your comment! Start with a ‘JMJ’ and and with a ‘+’. I’m gonna steal that! And what about a nice “grillmaster” apron? I even think a “Kiss the Cook” one would be good for a breakfast-making grandpa. :)
@Jen, I love this article! Aprons are HUGE with a lot of my friends. I have two and Lydia (my daughter) does as well. Baking, cooking, dishes, dusting, just wearing them throughout the day is great. Roomy pockets are a must for a good apron, to stuff tissues, socks, toy cars, etc in as I walk throughout the house. When I knead dough my rings go in the pockets, as does my cell phone.
@Barbara C, there are aprons that cover shoulders! Think retro farm wife, not June Cleaver.
“I waited for my husband to jump out of his chair and pronounce me a genius. Instead, he said: “Umm, are you talking about an apron?”
Oh. Yeah.”
Reminds me of G.K. Chesterton’s line, “When I fancied that I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all Christendom.”
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jennifer-fulwiler/the-apron-the-ultimate-symbol-of-a-culture-of-life?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register&utm_content=Google+Reader#When:2011-10-10#ixzz1aOviDCJ1
I’m expecting, and one thing my friends who have children always complain about is how they go through so many outfits during the week. I thought, hey, I can wear aprons at home! My goal is to sew 10 before the baby arrives. So far I have four, all different styles. The best might be the kind that works like an art smock, covering your short sleeves and the front and back of your shirt.
I so MUCH agree with the use of the apron. I wear one all the time. I wore one when I was in the food service industry ( sample girl at a grocery store hehehe) and was given the aprons i had when there. I added padding to the corners so I had instant Hot Pads for the oven. Yes i actually bake too! I’ve added pockets to make it easier to make one trip to return things to their proper place in the OTHER end of the house. and I also wear one for my artwork to help save my “work clothes” from catching too much stuff that makes them unwearable.
Where do you get the idea that there are not enough aprons? Everyone I know who can cook uses them and you can get one in every store that sells cookware. Unless you want to turn all women back into June Cleaver or Donna Reed?
Alexis - wonderful comments.
I loved your article, by the way. I love the idea of the apron as a symbol of embracing a life of service. Thank you so much for writing this. It’s just beautiful, so encouraging, inspiring. I’m saving the link to share with all my friends.
How about true superhero pajamas for boys? St. Michael the Archangel, St. George, etc. I would buy them for my boys in a heartbeat.
My friend sent this to me because it cries out so many things I love in life. First of all, it’s a great article! And my two cents—I love my aprons and being able to play up the house-wife role, even if I’m only cooking for friends or myself and not the traditional American family. We’re far from Donna Reed when we tie up our aprons to get some work done without looking a complete mess. I say keep loving your family, whomever that may be for you, in every capacity you can, and may aprons and all who wear them take the world by storm!
Those are very nice aprons you’re showing. Where can I get one?
I really enjoyed reading this today! Thank you so much! Glad to know that not everyone thinks aprons are obsolete. I have fond memories of growing up with a mother and grandmother who considered an apron, just an ordinary part of their daily wardrobe. I could hardly wait to wear an apron, and I still have my very first one… made by “Gram” with so much love. By the way… this “baby boomer” still wears aprons!
I remember when aprons were ubiquitous among women, and necessary for men who engaged in butchering, cooking, or serving food. But I think their disuse came about because clothing became easily washable. One could wash ones clothing as easily as they might wash an apron. With washable fabrics and electric washers and dryers, the apron became sort of a luxury rather than a necessity. My mother wore aprons nearly all the time until the mid 1950s, when laundry became automated and non-washable clothing went away. Someone gave me a couple of aprons in the early 1960s. I still have them and they are almost like new. HOWEVER, last year I hosted a large family Thanksgiving dinner and I thought I deserved a celebratory apron because I would be doing most of the cooking and serving, so I bought some fabric and made one just for the occasion.
I enjoyed the article, but I have some basic questions that could use direct answers.
Do men ware aprons while doing housework? Are there manly aprons? Is there anything intrinsically inappropriate with a man being a househusband and the woman working?
First, how does Dorian do that?
Second, it is not fair.
Third, the apron thing is more proof that general handiness is still needed. A lot can be said on the similarities of a hardware and cloth making store.
Jeans and a T-shirt? My. Watch out where this thinking takes you though. Someday you might find yourself in a dress.
Joseph - I have the same questions and they are at the core of my religious struggles now. From what I have been able to read it seems that would be an issue, but I am not an authority and the only thing I read regarding this from a source such as the conference of bishops was from back in the 1980s I believe. Can anyone else enlighten us?
I love aprons! my wonderfully talented, seamstress mother, makes me new ones for my birthdays and Christmas. There are gorgeous, Catholic ones available on Catholic Embroidery at http://www.catholicembroidery.com/Catholic_Embroidery/Catholic_Embroidery/Catholic_Embroidery.htm They have Sacred Heart, Blessed Mother etc. I also love the retro ones that are coming back in fashion. Faith and Family Lives blogger Hallie Lord had a great post about them too.(Five Ways I Love My Apron)
Aprons have had a comeback. A few years back they were worn over jeans and skirts as a fashion statement. Etsy and ArtFire are loaded with them. The top designers have them in runway shows.
Even Jesus understood the need for an apron in service, see John 13:4
The Scapular is an apron we ware as we go about Gods work.
I remember one of my grandmother’s always wore an apron around the house. I re-discovered them myself a few years ago and the definitely make cooking with the assistance of our youngest one a bit less messy. She loves her princess apron. I have the Ora & Labora apron from this web site but I may have to ask for the St. Therese on for Christmas
www.catholicembroidery.com
Joseph,
There are many circumstances for a man to be at home and woman at work. No where is it written that Catholics must have the woman at home and the man must work, but because nature has designed women to both gestate and nourish little ones, it makes sense that those are our natural roles. Sometimes God asks us to step outside tradition and do His work, and you should not ever feel threatened by the Christian “norm”.
That said, William Sanoma has really sturdy manly aprons. My dad has one and loves it for grilling, cleaning his grill and baking bread.
You know Jesus wore an apron.
I wear an apron every day. Somedays I wear two, often with a hand-towel tucked in the strings.
Yet… I am a butcher.
Ah yes! The apron.
The sign of a servant.
Re aprons during the Great Depression: Back in the 1930s and well into the 1940s, women were more motivated than ever before to protect their precious clothes from stains and wear and tear. A few flour sacks (flour is that white powdery stuff people used to use to make bread, cakes, and pies from scratch, and it used to come in cloth sacks) would be stitched together (many families owned a foot-powered sewing machine - you ran it by pumping your foot up and down on a pedal, and the machine ran a nice straight, even row of stitches for you) trimmed with pockets and a sash fashioned from a worn-out pillowcase, and voila! a brand new apron. Or the remaining breadths of a tattered towel or coverlet might be reincarnated as an apron. People were very inventive. If you could think of it, and you had time and patience, you could figure out a way to make it (within reason).
If you didn’t have an apron handy, you might take a very large dishtowel, and pin it at the waist of your dress. (A dress is that open-bottomed garment women used to wear instead of pants.)
Re babies and protection for Mama’s shoulders: everyone seems to agree that disposable diapers are the best thing since sliced bread, and who am I to disagree? However, back in the day, Mamas (and Grandmas, aunties, sisters, and cousins helping Mamas) spent much of the day with a freshly laundered cloth diaper draped over one shoulder. A folded cloth diaper would lie perfectly flat; it wasn’t thick or bunchy or unwieldy like a disposable - it was rather like a dish towel, but somewhat thicker and sort of fluffy on the inside. Perfect for absorbing . . . what it was designed to absorb, as well as drool, formula dribbles, infant food dribbles, and spit-up. Moms might keep a stack of clean, folded cloth diapers tucked away in the kitchen as well as in baby’s room for that very purpose.
(And if you didn’t own a washing machine, one of the final steps you would go through in laundering your cloth diapers at home, would involve a large pot of boiling water on the stove and a pair of tongs.)
What a great article! I am in love with aprons (especially vintage). I wear mine all the time and even did an ode to the apron on my blog a while back. :) http://dacia-prayingtwice.blogspot.com/2011/05/thrift-thursday-aprons-are-totally.html?m=0
Hate to be a negative voice, but I hate aprons. There’s a reason, though: aprons these days are not made for short women. The rare kind that you can adjust at the neck (usually through those metal ring things) will also catch your hair constantly.
However, since I’ve been known to wish that housecoats would come back in fashion, I’m not quibbling over the idea—just the particular garment. :)
Lab coats, now…hmmm…maybe a good compromise between the apron and the (mostly non-existent) housecoat. It would be especially impressive if I were wearing one and had to answer the door during one of my daughters’ homeschooling science experiments…
;)
Very nice article. I wear an apron when I cook. All the while I thought the reason why aprons fell out of favor is because of one, the extra thing you had to wash and second, the lack of stay-home moms doing housework that requires an apron. Yeah Jennifer you can get rich by starting a fashion trend, go for it!
Among me and my friends, all in our 20’s, aprons have already made a comeback. We wear them to cook and clean, whenever we do housework. I can understand why our mothers were wary of what they symbolized—but we are largely a generation who have chosen our domestic roles rather than being forced into them, and so the apron for us bears no shame. Thanks for the post!
I remember my grandmother saying in a very worried voice"i can’t find my rosary.” I hopped up and went to the hook on the back of the kitchen door and reached in her apron pocket, and there it was! It’s where mine is a lot, too.
The apron made a comeback a few years ago. Young ladies’ were wearing them over jeans or skirts as fashion statements. Etsy and ArtFire have loads of them. The top designers show them on the runway.
My son loves when I wear my aprons around the house—when he sees one on the hook or over a chair, he runs up to me shouting “Mama apron! Mama apron!” until I put one on. Then he usually wants to wear his little apron too :)
I was somewhat surprised at the number of comments the article has generated. Then I thought back to when my children were small and looked at some of the old pictures - I was always wearing old clothes, no matter how fancy I had the kids dressed up because I knew my clothes were going to take a hit - at least twice every hour.
After kid #6 was born, I pulled out my sewing machine and whipped up at least 4 aprons from left-over curtain fabrics. That kid celebrates her 20th birthday in 3 weeks, and I’m still using those aprons!
You know how when you go out, especially with the kids, everything winds up in mom’s purse? As you go around picking up around the house, all those little things that get left behind wind up in those b-i-g pockets on aprons (I won’t wear an apron without pockets). As you go from room to room, you can “drop off” from your pockets, saving lots of steps. Check sewing patterns—some aprons do have covering for shoulders, some wrap all the way around for those (like me) who tend to wipe their hands on their hips.
I liked your article. Before I got married (1984), my dear mother-in-law, gave me this very tacky retro yellow orange and green half apron as a joke with a Good Housekeeping book that was given to her as a young married woman in the 1950s. THe book was all about being a good housewife , how to cook pot roast and bring your husband his slippers . We shared a good laugh being the modern women we then were. I kept the apron and have used it off and on , you know when i am all dressed up and yup , taking that pot roast out of the oven. Over the years my ideas of what a good marriage , a good wife , a good husband have all changed. I am learning about the beauty and grace of service , of putting others before you, of Gods wonderful plan . The apron is a wonderful icon of this . Its practical and clever. Its not that difficult to be neat, to not to draw attention to yourself of how overworked or overly busy you are.
On another note , HOme-ec went out of fashion as well, probably about the same time. Maybe this will make a comeback too! I love that tacky apron . thanks Jennifer.
While your article is well written, and I can see where you are drawing the connections between a life of service and a pro-life attitude, I think it’s worth pointing out that you cannot draw large conclusions like this. My maternal grandmother wore aprons and was a stay at home mother and farmwife…and she had an abortion in the ‘40’s, between the birth of my mother and my aunt. Her justification was that they were poor and didn’t have enough money, at the time, for a second child. My grandfather regretted, to his deathbed, that he didn’t try harder to convince her otherwise. I would not call my grandmother “pro life.” Not at all. Yet she wore an apron and attended Mass.
I had a hard time finding cute and practical aprons until I started making my own and selling them on Etsy (crafty mamacita is the name of the shop). Thanks for the encouragement!
They’ve totally made a comeback. They’re on Etsy, there’s patterns, and, if you look, you can find awesome vintage ones.
My favorite is more look a ‘housecoat’ but not. It’s a wrap around apron, but with a little bit of peplum in it to give you that authentic 50s look. Take it off and out the door I go, spatter free.
Muchas gracias por el articulo de el apron porque si algien tiene que vestirse para ser mama no hay mejor reprecentacion de todas las cosas que significa ser la cabeza de una famili gracias
Karen wrote, “My maternal grandmother wore aprons and was a stay at home mother and farmwife . . . and she had an abortion in the ‘40s, between the birth of my mother and my aunt. Her justification was that they were poor . . . I would not call my grandmother ‘pro life.’ . . . Yet she wore an apron and attended Mass.”
Karen, I’m sorry for the loss of your family member - an aunt or an uncle. What your grandmother did was very wrong, and she will have to answer to Almighty God for it. Please bear in mind, though, that your grandmother may have been acting from desperation. When a person acts from desperation, this doesn’t mean that whatever they do becomes right or acceptable; however, it does mean that they may possess subjectively less freedom to choose the good than they would have had under more normal circumstances. This means that while what the person did was still objectively morally wrong, there may be less subjective culpability on their part, in some cases.
It may at times require heroic fidelity to grace to refrain from succumbing to severe desperation, overwhelming fatigue, or other form of profound suffering, and to yield to the temptations of the Evil One to seek “relief” in a way that offends the Lord. Many of us, living in the 21st century U.S., have never experienced these conditions,* and I pray that we never do. I would like to encourage everyone to beseech the Lord for the gift of corresponding perfectly to His grace in all that we do, and I would like to encourage everyone to remember to pray for the souls of the faithful departed, as this next month of the Holy Souls approaches.
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*My maternal grandmother never had an abortion, but in the early 1940s, when my mother was in her early teens, Gran handed Mom a $5 bill and sent her to the store for some bread and milk. Mom lost the change from the fiver on the way home, and when she told Gran, Gran burst into tears. That change was all the money the family had to live on for the rest of the week. It was beans and turnips (from the garden) for breakfast, lunch, and supper for the next several days. For a family of six.
We cannot imagine.
Of course the article is well written. This is Jennifer Fulwiler for goodness sake!
hee…hee…hee… I sat down to catch up on the latest, and wouldn’t you know it - I’m still wearing my apron! I really like ones with pockets so you have a place for all those odd little trinkets you pick up off the floor between the kitchen and every other room in the house. Thanks for smile!!!
I applaud the practicality of the apron, even more so if it is made beautifully. On the other hand, I am reminded of the time in my life when I kicked off my high heels, settled into comfy hippy-chic clothing that was easy to nurse in, and gloried in my new found love of ancient Catholic literature. My husband, on the other hand, who was studying and working hard to support his little family was a bit bewildered. He was loving and supportive, but it was pretty apparent that he was missing something. He once teased me for wearing the bedspread to bed! It took me a while, but I realized that given his tastes and background, I’d be better off putting on things that delighted him, and wearing heels (my new “hairshirt”) on the weekends. He was so appreciative!(Men can be so simple) I realized that putting in that extra effort to be slim and keep my appearance up for him WAS a worthy sacrifice, and not vanity. We Catholic women must tread very thoughtfully about what kind of message we send out to the world, our husbands, and our children about our life of service. If you can rock the apron all day, and your husband delights in it on you, that’s a lovely thing.
I always find the rhapsodic comments about aprons to be kind of funny. I just wear aprons to keep my clothes clean(er). I buy white professional aprons in bulk at the warehouse club and hang about a dozen of them from a peg in the kitchen.
I’ll use 2 or 3 of them on a heavy baking or cooking day, not counting the ones the kids use. They are professional chef aprons, suitable for men or women, and they show stains immediately, so you know when to put it in the laundry and bleach it.
I wear an apron to keep my nice clothes clean, so I find the concept of a fancy apron… ironic, I guess!
All of my aprons are pretty, but the ones I wear daily are not fancy. Those are saved for the serving of special meals when all the real work is finished. My favorite is a yellow chiffon half apron with handmade spring- green crocheted lace trim. I inherited this apron from my aunt who inherited it from my great aunt (the lady who made the apron). There is nothing sweeter than wearing this apron on Easter and remembering my aunts.
I am a man who loves to grill and loves to cook.
It may sound silly, but, for years now I have been really hoping that my wife would get me a really nice, thick, high quality apron with a message on it from my kids, their picture, or even just some funny comment on it. Like, “HOT STUFF COMIN’ THROUGH!” (I don’t know - I am not particularly funny.
A man’s apron should have a holster on it - or something akin to a carpenter’s belt/scabbard, so we can drop in our oversized grilling tools without having to make room on the grill.
But I LOVE the look of my wife in an apron. Not sure why. But she never wears one. She prefers to just wear sweats. Which is fine, but not as cool to me. To her credit, it is because she has a full time job and when she does cook, she’s already comfy and in a rush.
@Joseph and other male apron devotees
I found my apron at Target. Simple, striped pattern. Other options mentioned above would be the standard white utilitarian chefs apron. William Sonoma, and many kitchen supply places have more masculine styles.
Key things I look for in an apron: High front to protect my dress shirts and ties. Pockets - should be deep enough to hold some simple tools. Long enough to cover down to at least just above my knees. I prefer ones with an adjustable neck and tie around waist.
Other options depending upon what you are wearing them for: artist smocks, medical/chemistry lab coats (great if you need greater coverage and a breast pocket), over-alls, and cover-alls.
Marion, your comment is informative and funny. The grocery store at which I shop sells flour in a bag, and one time when needing flour and a new towel, I bought that brand. For five dollars, I had flour and a new towel.
I love my apron! My husband has one, too. They both hang on the door of our pantry. We’ve got our first little one on the way this winter, so I’ll probably be wearing mine for more than just cooking soon.
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” Ephesians 5:22-24
My husband thinks aprons are sexy and so do I. One child was conceived because I was wearing an apron.
Were you wearing anything else?
I am all for aprons, also have the problem of getting mess all over myself, and love putting a pretty apron on when I go to work. :-)
I suggested apron-wearing recently on my blog:
http://shewhomakes.blogspot.com/2011/09/she-makes-mondays-link-up-wear-pretty.html
I read this. I was drawn to the anthropologie website. I bought two aprons that are sooooo cute. When my husband asks why I spent money at Anthropologie (which I NEVER do) I will simply have to direct him to your blog and blame you entirely. I hope you are ok with that. ;)
Aprons, FTW! I have an assortment, some half, some full, and they not only keep the nice clothes clean, they sometimes spiff up an otherwise utilitarian wardrobe. A cute frilly apron made out of a five dollar cutter vintage table cloth elevates jeans and a knit shirt to domestic chic like nothing else. I’ve accidentally run to the grocery store with them on, and gotten nothing but compliments. I love my oversized chef’s aprons, too, and I have one made out of oilcloth for furniture refinishing and working on the car. What’s not to like?
I could not for the life of me figure out why my Etsy shop was getting hits linked from NCRegister, then while checking out my blog feed I found this and it was all clear, lol! Thanks for the link, Dorian! :-D
Obviously, I *LOVE* aprons, and I love this article too. Go Jen!
Erin,
If you know someone who sews, you can commission her to make you some short-waisted aprons. (My mom has the same figure problem and I altered a pattern to fit her.) Or choose what I call an “abuelita” apron: it’s kind of like a sleeveless smock that has one or two buttons in back. (“Abuelita” is Spanish for “little grandmother” and when I was young I always saw the little old ladies wearing these.) KWIK SEW 3046, View B is sort of what I mean. You can see a picture here:
http://www.kwiksew.com/catalog/cat_detail.cfm?pid=3046
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It wasn’t until I started hanging out on sewing blogs that I discovered that young women were rediscovering the apron. I hadn’t even known it was lost! I came of age in the the ‘70s, but I’ve never gone into a kitchen without an apron. My own tend to be ordinary chef’s aprons because I’m a klutz and need serious coverage when I cook.
By the way, National Wear Your Apron Day is held yearly on the Monday after Mother’s Day.
Moms who are saying we just need to embrace the disheveled look and wear it proudly everyday and others just need to learn to appreciate what it all means and love us more for it, this is not realistic. It’s not about feeling superior to the disheveled lady next to us, it’s about respect for our spouses, children and vocation.
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I can’t think of a quicker way to make housewifery unappealing to other women and our own daughters than to be constantly untidy and dirty. On some slow-moving mornings (I have a five month old who keeps me up nights), my two-year-old daughter reminds me to get dressed with a “Where’s your dress? Why are you wearing this?” There is no lounging in sweats here.
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If she sees me in the kitchen without an apron, she pulls one out for me and puts one on herself! It’s a sweet, feminine way for us to bond. And, I LOVE being able to open the door for the UPS/USPS men unembarrassed. I love to give them the sense that home is a happy place for all of us to be as a family, not a place where I am by default and am depressed about it.
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I don’t know about anyone else, but when I get food and dust all over myself and my clothes, I feel icky inside. It puts me in an impatient and grumpy mood. And, so I need to change my clothes when they get this way if I want to be pleasant to my husband and children. That creates a whole lot of laundry—which is one of the reasons women were so devoted to the apron in times past. They didn’t own the vast wardrobes many of us have and laundry was more of a chore before the automatic washer. A cute apron makes me feel more upbeat and industrious when I need to work, and happy when I can take it off and be clean and neat underneath, and really pleased when I spill something on myself and can smile because I didn’t ruin *another* shirt.
And, we can’t expect husbands who see ladies who are attractive, neat and “put together” all day long at work not wish just a little that their wives didn’t look like they just crawled on their bellies through a dump every single day when they come home, no matter how much they love us. It is a kindness to our husbands that we: a. don’t make our lives look like drudgery, and b. look our best for them to show them they are still important to us. Looking neat and clean as we are able shows respect to others.
A monk dons a habit to remind himself of his service and humiliy, a mother an apron…almost feel like I ought to kiss the strap before putting it around my head, as one would kiss the cross.
My mother just offered me my first apron. My grandma(father’s mother) has an apron on 100% of the time, which makes everybody go “take it off”. My mom also wears an apron in the kitchen. And for me, growing up, I was always made to wear an apron before doing the dishes anyway, so now to me putting an apron on is like saying:“Ok work, I’m gonna kick some ***” ^_^
Mrs. McG: Yes!
::applauding::
Beautiful post; as always, Jennifer!
You’ll be happy to know that my girls and LOVE wearing aprons…I have a few that my mother wore when I was young…and we’re very excited to have won some mother-daughter matching ones in a giveaway online recently! We loved them so much that I contacted the wonderful woman who made them and she has agreed to barter with me…I will provide her with FREE Color Me E-books from our website and she will provide us with more aprons! Soon, I and the five of my daughters who are still at home with me…will be able to don our matching “fabric pieces” as we swirl about the kitchen embracing and enjoying our life of service at home!
I completely agree with you, Jennifer! I started wearing an apron again a few years ago and I love it! I found a lot of feminine and even fashionable, if an apron can be such a thing, on etsy.com. Saves my clothes and makes me feel productive and pretty.
AND wearing an apron means less stains, which in turn means less laundry. So wearing the apron is a symbol of embracing the work of being a mother in the home AND reduces (an aspect) of that work. LOVE IT!
eaf
“And, we can’t expect husbands who see ladies who are attractive, neat and “put together” all day long at work not wish just a little that their wives didn’t look like they just crawled on their bellies through a dump every single day when they come home, no matter how much they love us.”
Here is the problem, as a faithful Catholic who does not use birth control, sometimes you end up with a lot of young kids. Having to compete with these well put together women is totally unfair. Do you know what it’s like to live with 5 kids 7 and under? You clean the living room and 5 minutes later it looks like a woman with 1 or 2 kids’ living room does if she hasn’t cleaned it in a week. You put on makeup and 5 minutes later it is smeared from sweat and steam from the dishes and cooking and kids poking you in the face. You put on a clean shirt (and I have done this MANY times) thinking hubby will be home any minute, and he is 10 minutes late and your clean shirt is FILTHY by the time he strolls in. Having to be compared to the woman who uses birth control, has time and money to do her hair and buy and keep nice clothes, go to the gym 5 times a week and keep the unatural figure of a 14 year old until she’s 39, and wow actually has the ability to put something down and come back and find that it’s still there! Now THAT is a lot to ask!! So no I do not think women should aim to look like a slob, but I DO think people need to be more understanding of the fact that your life is not one bit like mine. I’ve been there, I know. But you don’t know because you haven’t been here.
I had this very same thought a few months ago, and with more prayer and contemplation I thought about writing a blog about women and nurturing in 2012, I called it “Domestic Renissannce”. I know people who bake their own bread, grow amazing gardens, craft with their kids, and can their own pears. And then I realized the baby had thrown up on my shoulder and I fruit growing hair in the fridge, so I thought better of it.
No matter what the world tells you, we as women were meant to be the joy and the heart of the home. Please pass me my apron! Mine fits so well.
Aprons, sigh! I love them. It reminds me of my grandmother and mother’s life of service to our family and to others. It reminds me of my own life of service to others. There’s a lot to be said for these powerful reminders in our lives. I have only happy memories associated with aprons and life in the kitchen.
When I see relgiious women and men in aprons it further impresses on me a life of service with no apologies, just joy!
Thank you for this article, it resonates with my heart!
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