It had been a long time since I heard the term “housewife.” But recently a friend told me that he is now the housewife in his relationship and that he is thoroughly enjoying it.

“So, not to be disrespectful, but what do you do all day?” I asked him.

“Laundry, grocery shopping, errands, household things, different projects. You’d be amazed how quickly the time fills up,” he replied.

Then I logged on to a support group for depression (Beyond Blue) that I moderate on Beliefnet’s social networking site, and I came across Jennifer’s post:

“I always stumble when people ask me what I do. I still can’t say, ‘I’m a housewife’ with conviction. It is so anti-everything my mother ever taught me about being a woman. And yet, I’m proud. I recognize that my life as a financial consultant was killing me at 70 hours a week, and that I had become so much less of myself.”

Right after that I read with interest Sarah Jio’s article on CNN.com about a growing niche of stay-at-home wives. Jio interviewed Scott Haltzman, author of “The Secrets of Happily Married Women,” about the trend.

Says Haltzman: “In the past few years, many women who are well-educated and trained for career tracks have decided instead to stay at home.” Among the 650 women he interviewed who stay at home, he estimates that more than 10 percent are childless.

Although some people regard the stay-at-home wife (and the stay-at-home mom, to a certain extent) as a status symbol expressing to the community that one partner makes so much money that the other can do whatever the heck she wants with her time, others say money has nothing to do with it.

When one person stays at home, she (or he!) has time to do the cooking so the couple doesn’t have to pay off a credit card bill full of restaurant tabs; they don’t need a maid because she can do the in-depth cleaning; ideally, the wife has time to find good deals at secondhand stores, garage sales and at the grocery store (more savings there); and she has time to clip coupons!

Eating spaghetti twice a week so that one person can take care of the household responsibilities allows both partners to play a little more, something that Americans need to do more of.

Like many of the women interviewed, Anne Marie Davis, 43, said that 10 years ago she was an overwhelmed high school English teacher who didn’t have time for her husband, and “didn’t have a life.”

Now she does the laundry on Tuesdays, the grocery shopping on Wednesdays and cleans the house on Thursdays. On Mondays and Fridays she runs errands and goes to appointments.

Sound boring? It works for her and her husband. Davis says that they are a happier couple since they’ve made the transition, that they aren’t as stressed out and that the weekend to-do lists have disappeared.

Man, that sounds nice. I wish she’d come live with me.

Therese J. Borchard writes a syndicated column for Catholic News Service. It appears bi-weekly in The Tablet.