The question has been asked many times: "What is a stay-at-home-wife supposed to do all day?" I'm here to answer that. Before I had a child, I had 3 years of just being a wife and homemaker. It didn't take long to clean my house and make meals because it was just my husband and I. You want to know what I started to do with my time? I started to READ! I read my Bible and many other books on various topics. I studied for one year on nutrition and continued it later on to advance towards a personal training course, just so that I could know for myself how to lose weight and be healthy. I read about being a wife, a homemaker and I did some crafting. I would sometimes read 8 hours a day and it was to the betterment of myself as a wife, woman and homemaker.
A woman who has no children can do a lot! She can learn all the homemaking skills - canning, sewing, quilting, crafting, etc. She can read a LOT! She can write online and share her skills and knowledge with other women to help them. She can help those in need by cooking or cleaning for them. She can give to volunteering in the children's program at her church. She can learn piano or another instrument or teach others how to if she already has this skill. There are SO many things that she can do, there just isn't time for idleness!
A woman with children has her plate full, especially if she homeschools. Her job is to her husband AND her children and then her house and there isn't much time left after that. One of Paul's admonitions for younger women to prevent idleness was having children but sometimes this isn't possible for some women and therefore they must find ways to prevent the idleness that the bible warns about. This idleness leads to gossip and going from wall to wall in lives full of Facebook or what other outlet you have that leads to being a busybody. How about a little less talk and a lot more action?
1 Timothy 5:13-14
And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
The excuse was that everyone else is idle and they all just sit on their rump all day at home. Just because there are some that do that and bring a bad name to homemakers, doesn't mean we all are like that. We are supposed to all be learning and growing together, not concentrating on those that aren't doing right. If you do that, you will find the "excuse" you were looking for easily because we are all imperfect. What the real, bottom-line, reason was for my friend, was that she wanted to work. She desired the life that God called her out of when she first got saved. You can't blame it on others, it is ultimately YOU that has to answer to God.
God has called women to be at home, to love their husband and children, and to guide the house and we should give every ounce of our being to that calling! Does your life help another keep on going for God or does it encourage them to be slack as well? Remember, others are watching our lives and we must encourage one another to continue on with good works and edify them with our words and daily lives. Become the example that could help another keep the faith.