What makes women happy
Stefania Prestigiacomo, minister for Equal opportunities in the Italian government, has come up with ten commandments for female happiness:
* Consider motherhood a value – it is the greatest experience for women
* Follow your childhood dream
* Keep falling in love
* Buy something useless every once in a while
* Take pride in your own beauty
* Do not be upset by your man if he doesn’t notice when you’ve been to the hairdresser – it is his loss
* Do not be envious of important people; they, too, often spend evenings just watching television
* Travel to broaden your mind
* Defend other women
* Smile
I don’t agree with all of them. Number seven for example. Since when did I ever envy anyone who has to go out every night? My idea of a good evening is the apero a grande vitesse, followed by dinner with my husband and children and bed with a good book by 9.30pm. Or watching Grey’s Anatomy.
Number nine is slightly dodgy too - defending other women is just not in our genetic make-up. As a friend of mine said yesterday when we were discussing what makes us happy “nothing makes me more miserable than seeing other women happy.” In France, at least, sisterhood is dead and buried.
And what about men? Their list is a lot shorter, as I saw at lunch yesterday with Leo and his friend Louis, both aged four.
“Mine’s bigger than yours,” said Leo, holding up a piece of emmental to compare with his friend’s bit of emmental.
“No,” protested Louis. “Mine’s much bigger.”
It starts early…….
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007
16 Nov 2007 helena
I can’t see the British government coming up with 10 commandments for women - but if they did, what would they be?
I’ve tried and I can’t even think of one.
The French? according to that Times article last week: wear La Perla underwear that costs Euro500 a pop… and nothing else?
Wendy
http://wendyfrenchhelpservices.blogspot.com/
I rather like this list - it has a certain self-sufficiency about it, and isn’t it just so Italian……?
No, no, no. The sisterhood is alive and doing very well. We must defend each other otherwise we are doomed. Men are all just waiting for us women to rip each other apart, they love that because it just proves their point. Women need women and once that has been understood then it is all much easier.
I predict that the owner of that comment about feeling miserable when she sees other women happy will turn out to be not a friend at all, run Helena whilst you can get away.
Julesritter.com
Oh, don’t say that about women! I’m 30, and the older I get, the more I realize how much joy I experience from my friendships with other ladies. So many of them have been such blessings in my life, providing wisdom and comfort, and I’m very grateful.