Aprons - My Story
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I just LOVE aprons! I wear one most of the time – I even sometimes forget I have it on and wander down the street with it! If I am cooking dinner for guest, I often forget to take it off before I sit down at the table. Friends have started buying me aprons – I guess they know me a little bit!
I was not always like this! I remember my grandmother always wore an apron whenever she did anything in the kitchen, and my mother too. It was like they meant business. One minute they were sitting in a comfy chair having a cuppa or knitting, and then they decided it was time to get dinner started, so they hopped up, reached for their apron and got to work!
I always forgot to put an apron on when I did anything in the kitchen. My mother would see me and say “Put an apron on!” and I would grudgingly put one on thinking it was so old fashioned and honestly – why do I need to wear this thing?! Of course when I cooked or baked or washed the dishes without an apron, my clothes would always get dirty. I seemed to attract stains. Once I started having to buy my own clothes, this bothered me slightly (!), and I tried hard to remember to wear an apron before I went into the kitchen.
Fast forward to early married life. We lived on a very low income since we spent the first two years of our married life doing volunteer work for a Christian student group at the local university. Now I needed to make my clothes stretch. So I started diligently wearing my apron. I felt a bit old fashioned, for sure, but it slowly became so natural to me to grab an apron before I started cooking that I began to feel more like cooking as soon as I put my apron on! It was almost like I had a uniform that I put on when I started to work!
My younger sister came to live with us for a while and I found myself telling her, “Put an apron on!” She muttered and moaned like I once had too, but started to wear one too!
I soon decided it was good to wear when I cleaned the house, especially when I was working with bleach and other detergents cleaning bathrooms. One splatter would stain a top real quick. The same transformation occurred when I put on my apron to go and clean. I felt extra energy and motivation to go and work hard!
It’s a funny thing, but now I feel relaxed when I am not wearing my apron, and feel like getting down to business when I wear it! I don’t think it is old fashioned anymore (maybe because I am becoming more and more “old fashioned” myself!!!) and love to find or make nice aprons to wear. I have started to teach my daughter to wear one too, and she also loves to put on her apron and go do some work around the house!
My apron is handy for wiping up things - spills, my hands and children’s faces! It tells my children when I am in the kitchen with it on, that I am getting their next meal ready 
It protects my clothes, but it also makes me feel proud. Proud to be a stay at home mother, keeping my house and creating wonderful dishes in the kitchen for my family. It is turning me into my grandmother and my mother – women who have always given me a warm feeling in my heart when I saw them in their kitchens with their aprons on and making me feel that all was well in my little world
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