“Father, father, where are you going?
Oh, do not walk so fast!”
Well, there was the simple, obvious possibility, the natural, right human thing to do ... he could continue to stay at home and make the home, since a home-maker was needed.
He knew this was impossible. The instant he tried to consider it, he knew it was as impossible as to roll away a mountain from his path with his bare hands. He knew that from the beginning of time everything had been arranged to make that impossible. Every unit in the whole of society would join in making it impossible, from the Ladies’ Guild to the children in the public schools. It would be easier for him to commit murder or rob a bank than to give his intelligence where it was most needed, in his own home with his children.
“What is your husband’s business, Mrs. Knapp?”
“He hasn’t any. He stays at home and keeps house.”
“Oh....”
He heard that “Oh!” reverberating infernally down every road he tried.
“My Papa is an insurance agent. What does your Papa do for a living, Helen?”
“He doesn’t do anything. Mother makes the living. Father stays home with us children.”