My poetic warning (From York Press)

My poetic warning

9:39am Wednesday 2nd May 2012 in Letters

WHAT planet is S Brown on? (Teach these skills, April 24) Does she really think the modern miss of today wants to make curtains and clothes, knit jumpers and bake cakes?

Is Sue harking back to the 1950s when women weren’t so much domestic goddesses as unpaid slaves? At least men today do their share of cooking, cleaning and child minding (why, even Julian Cole bakes bread!).

My poem reminds women of my generation how it used to be, and no, Ms Brown I don’t know of any liberated modern young woman who would put up with it today...

Why?

Why did I have to do the chores while boys went out to play

Why did girls learn cooking skills, but boys “got in the way”

Why did I have to dust and wash and knit and sew and darn

While boys went out to lark about or sat around to yarn

Why were my toys just baking sets and ironing boards and prams

While boys got footballs, trains and cars and super loading vans

And why, when I went off to work did blokes prefer to shirk

But men got twice the money and women twice the work

Why were all the bosses men when women did it better

And why did we always put ‘Dear Sir’ on every business letter

And why did being married mean the woman stayed at home

And cooked and cleaned, brought up the kids, and usually on her own

And why did I have so little when I wanted so much more?

Why? Because I was born in “the good old days” instead of 1984!

Cynthia Glasby, Southfield Road, Strensall, York.