It’s hard to imagine, but once upon a time, before lattes, TIVO, Roombas, nannies, and email ruled our society, there lived a species of 1950s women known as “housewives.”  These housewives had ample time to cater to their household duties and of course their hardworking husbands, preparing dinner around broadcasts of I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners.  The 1950s housewife embraced her role with pride, certainty, and held the world joyfully in the palm of her hand - with the duster in tow.

Today’s housewife is a new kind of species.  We hold the world in our Palm, but it is an electronic one.  And, let’s face it – we’d rather be doing lunch than doing dishes.  But as time and circumstance will have it we get married or move in with a significant other, have children, buy a home, and find that suddenly, without warning, we’ve become a housewife!  Fear and loathing set in, as does a new, unfamiliar source of stress disguised behind piles of dirty laundry, endless dust bunnies, dirty diapers, and juggling schedules. And “we” housewives-which can be either a she or a he-are tasked with trying to figure out how to make the imperfect perfect for our lifestyle, ability, and most of all our level of interest in mastering our domain – which is what inspired me to write  The Accidental Housewife: How to Overcome Housekeeping Hysteria One Task at a Time (Ballantine Books).

After years of struggling to perfect my imperfections while managing a family, a home, a career and what little I had left of my free time, I decided to joyfully break out of my broom closet and accept the fact that I was not a domestic goddess or a perfect mom.  I was an accidental housewife who was in denial of my abilities and my interest in being a ‘housewife’.  And, it was then that I began my journey  to find sanity saving shortcuts and tips that were quick and easy and would get me through my household duties—a few keys being that they kept a smile on my face, health inspectors away and my loved ones from starving!  

So fellow accidental housewives unite!  This is our time to embrace our accidental style with a smile and for you to use, abuse or be amused by what lies within my sanity saving book.  Now grab yourself a latte and get ready to maintain your home, your sanity and your manicure one task at a time! 

 **Excerpted from The Accidental Housewife by Julie Edelman Copyright C 2006 by Julie Edelman. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. 

Visit www.theaccidentalhousewife.com to find out where you can find this sanity saving book and more info