Most traditional sorority house moms cook and clean, but the Phi Gamma house mom catches cats and combats squirrels.
The Phi Gamma chapter of the Chi Omega Fraternity at LSU will receive a new house mom in 2017 after their house mom of 20 years retires at the end of the spring 2017 semester.
Pennsylvania native Kay Brodhead came to Baton Rouge nearly 32 years ago because of her husband’s job. While she has enjoyed being in Louisiana since 1982, it has never felt like home.
“Pennsylvania will always be my home, but it is not the same because all of my friends and family are not there anymore,” Brodhead said.
After obtaining a degree in elementary education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Brodhead worked as a substitute teacher for a short time. After subbing, she decided to pursue a career other than teaching.
Brodhead became involved in a local church after moving to Baton Rouge. She began to network for a job through church and came across a job opening as the house mom at Kappa Delta Sorority. She interviewed for the position even though she had no experience as a house mom. The national corporation hired her and and she remained at Kappa Delta for three years.
Brodhead is a lifetime member of Delta Zeta Sorority. She believes that her experiences with sorority life in college are what helped her get the job at Kappa Delta. There used to be a rule against sorority members being the house mom of their own chapter, but that rule has been lifted.
After leaving the Kappa Delta house, Brodhead served as the LSU Chi Omega house mom for over 20 years. Her days are spent maintaining the house, hiring and maintaining staff, mentoring young sorority members and anything else deemed necessary for Chi Omega.
Brodhead fixes house keeping problems such as malfunctioning sprinklers and high dumpster bills. She makes friends with the staff at the Chi Omega house, but she also spends time with the other house moms down sorority row. The Delta Zeta and Zeta Tau Alpha moms are two of her close friends.
“Being around the young girls used to keep me young,” Brodhead said. “aspiring house moms should be flexible with their time, be understanding and enjoy the presence of young people.”
Brodhead has so many interesting stories to share from her time as a sorority house mom. During membership selection one year, a cat ended up in the kitchen ceiling. The chapter had to halt the selection process to lure the animal out of the insulation. After two days and two bags of cat food, the chapter and Brodhead finally saw the cat make its escape.
Another time, there were bats and squirrels in a previous chapter president’s room and Brodhead had to serve as an exterminator again. She also serves as a guiding hand and listening ear to young women who are far away from home and are missing their families. She has changed from a mother to grandmother figure in these girls’ lives.
From cats catching cats inside the ceiling during membership selection to chasing bats and squirrels in the president’s room, Brodhead has many unique stories to tell about her days as a Chi Omega house mom. She believes that her role is to help young women and serve as a nonjudgmental guardian to them.
Each day, the entire chapter eats dinner together. Brodhead sits at the first table and it is filled up before all of the rest. Sitting at her table is a unique experience that more members should take advantage of. She often discusses her long walks by the lake and her early days as a house mom at dinnertime.
Brodhead hopes that the next Chi Omega house mom can cater to the young women like she did at the beginning of her term. She often turns her head away from certain situations because she acknowledges that college students will do as they please. She believes that it is necessary for a house mom to love the girls as her own children.
“I enjoyed being a house mom,” Brodhead said, “but everything in life has a season and this one has almost come to an end. I will have free time to play bridge, knit and read. It will be nice to do whatever I feel like doing.”
