The Obstinate Obstetrician Obstacle

I was at work today, just doing my job when my brain popped up with the question:

"How is the word 'obstetrician' related to the word 'obstacle'?"

I mean, English is a weird language. There was a chance that they weren't related at all.

My train of thought was:

Obstacle = Thing blocking the way
Obstinate = Creates/births obstacles/blocks
Obstetrician = Doctor of blockages....? Really?

Well I finally got home and looked it up to find:

obstetric (adj.)
1742, from Modern Latin obstetricus "pertaining to a midwife," from obstetrix (genitive obstetricis) "midwife," literally "one who stands opposite (the woman giving birth)," from obstare "stand opposite to" (see obstacle). The true adjective would be obstetricic, "but only pedantry would take exception to obstetric at this stage of its career." [Fowler]. Related: Obstetrical.

So, Yeah... Not block, "stand opposite to".... Makes sense now. 😊

Homemaking

My wife and I were talking about a few things during out household summit meeting and she pointed out how many hours a week I actually spend doing housework/homemaking. Adding that to my working for pay hours results in a 44+ hour work week.

I hadn't thought of it like that and some of the tasks she mentioned, I estimated less time for and was therefore not recognizing my own contributions.

I am currently working on tracking this stuff so I can see it and feel more accomplished instead of guilty when I'm tired and need a break.