Let’s dispell some of the rumors surrounding the so-called Tradwife Movement. Short for “traditional,” the Trad– prefix you’re beginning to see all over the web simply denotes Western traditionalism. We’re all individuals, so we each interpret tradition in our own way. I don’t speak for anyone but myself, so this is what being a Tradwife means to me.

I was raised by my great-grandmother, who was born in the 1920s and started a family during World War II. I grew up listening to her memories of early farm life in Memphis, Tennessee; how her father got a job with Packard Motorcar Company and moved the family to New York City during the Great Depression, and what life was like for three young sisters navigating a big world. It wasn’t easy. Her upbringing prepared her well for the war years when rationing and conserving saved lives on the battlefield.

As a little girl, I didn’t understand why she got so upset about a scoop of wasted food. Our larder was full and the stores were always brimming with new offerings. I thought it was strange that she washed and saved plastic bags, or that she would mend and darn a pair of socks ten times over before finally replacing them. You see, I grew up in the 1990s-2010s and I didn’t have the maturity then to appreciate how different our lives were. I knew that she grew up with paper dolls because real dolls were a luxury they couldn’t afford, but that didn’t stop me from falling prey to the commercials for Barbie and her Dream House.

I only had an academic appreciation for the kind of hardship she endured until 2020. I’d been wary of the out-of-control national debt for a while, but I was unprepared for the government to start labeling people essential and nonessential. I was unprepared for the grocery stores to empty from panic buying and supply issues. That was the year I learned to appreciate my great-grandmother’s skills and practices as a real lifestyle. When I think of the umbrella terms Tradwife and Tradlife, I think of how she raised five children in wartorn Germany with ration stamps.

To me, it isn’t all polka dots and pinafores. It’s not just an aesthetic. To me, it’s a way of life that affords me incredible independence and responsibility. I’ve chosen a much more difficult way of life by modern standards, but the way of life I have chosen is more self-reliant. I no longer rely on my grocery store for my food. I no longer rely on Amazon or big box stores for my clothing and housewares. I no longer rely on the labor of others to tend to my home, vehicles, or repairs.

I am an honor student, a woman in STEM, and I love engineering and physics. I didn’t cast them bitterly aside to don an apron and kitten heels. Society as we know it is changing. It may even be collapsing. We’re in insurmountable debt, the world economy is being crippled by world governments, civil unrest has reached every corner of the modern world, and I have simply come to the realization that my skills are of more use to my family than a corporation. I have chosen a more direct relationship with the food on my table. Rather than working for wages to spend at a store and hoping that the supply will never run out, I have chosen to implement my skills at home and cultivate what I need myself. If this appeals to you, then you’ve found the right blog.