#ConsumerCorner: Tradwives – A female’s friend or foe?

Love it or hate it, the tradwives trend isn’t budging. If you’re not in the know, here’s a brief breakdown. Tradwives stands for Traditional Wives and is a trend that’s been growing since 2020 on social media. In essence, a tradwife is a woman who has shunned work in favour of looking after their children, husbands and homes with seemingly great ease and calm. They usually have plenty of children who are often somehow home-schooled but only after getting up at the crack of dawn, feeding the chickens, sweeping the floors (with a home-whittled broom, of course) and baking a loaf of sourdough.

The current front runner is Nara Smith who continues to bless her 3.8m followers with Reels of her dressed for the Oscars while making pistachio cranberry granola for her husband who “had a craving”.  Their content might be addictive (as are the many incensed comments – “it’s gotta be satire at the point?!’), but the question remains – who has time to make Mozzarella balls from scratch?

If you’re feeling deflated comparing your efforts to the home-spun perfection of Ballerina Farm et al, don’t you worry. Here at SEC Newgate we’ve been working with nutritional expert and working mother of four, Amanda Hamilton, who has brought us a whole host of hassle-free and, more importantly, shop-bought products and easy hacks that are just as good as homemade.

1. I ‘make’ my own granola by combining two low-sugar supermarket brands and adding some fresh nuts, usually walnuts, which are cheaper in the baking section. I use this granola as a topping for natural or Greek yoghurt for breakfast or a midday meal replacement.
2. I always opt for eggs—not from my chickens, but from the supermarket! I pair them with store-bought turmeric mayo, which tastes fantastic.
3. I always buy frozen chopped onions to save time and tears when cooking. Most of my meals are vegetarian, and I always have cans of pre-cooked chickpeas to make a quick hummus or chickpea curry.
4. Fibre is incredibly important for good gut health but not a lot of people know we ideally need 25 – 30 grams a day. It’s impossible to guess how much fibre is in food so I track my intake every day using MyFitnessPal (which is free to download).
5. If a light meal like salad or soup isn’t enough, I’ll bulk it out with a microwavable pouch of quinoa, brown rice, or puy lentils. It all looks a bit more Ottolenghi-ish in just a few minutes.
6. I always buy several bags of spinach, open them to remove the air, and then freeze them. I add frozen spinach to curries or soups and often use it for a banana and spinach smoothie, a great way to get more greens.
7. Making desserts after a workday feels like too much work, but I often combine a bag of frozen mixed berries with a chopped banana and bake it. Serve hot with Greek yogurt, coconut yogurt, or kid-friendly vanilla ice cream.

There are certainly opportunities for brands to get in on the tradwives action with their own life hacks. But they might need to run it past their husbands first!