These days many women in are in the workforce with full time careers yet, statistics in the UK show in a number of cases women are still doing the majority of household chores. The same applies in USA. I’m sure it’s no different in Australia.
I listened to a woman in the supermarket complaining the other day about her man. ‘It’s like he doesn’t even see anything needs doing.’
‘He’s a man,’ her friend said, as if that explained everything.
According to this report the allocation of household chores is a major stress factor.
In your partnership are their certain jobs that are his and hers?
In our marriage Mick is always the one who mows lawns, gardens (with the exception of pruning which I rather enjoy) and puts the garbage out. I do the cooking, (unless I’m sick or it is a barbecue – then he does it), washing, dusting, letter writing and keeping up with birthdays etc.
Most other jobs we tend to share between us. He washes up and I wipe. We don’t own a dishwasher. We did for a while because it was in the last house when we bought it. When we moved we thought we’d probably end up buying one as by then we’d got rather used to it. But we haven’t. We just reverted back to the tried and true he washes, I wipe and we talk as we do it. The exception is when I am working to a deadline and am caught up writing, then he does both, bless him!
In our normal washing and wiping ritual though, we are following a pattern set up by our parents. In my family, Dad always washed while Mum and I wiped. When our children were young, they were expected to do their share of washing or wiping up.In Mick’s family his father washed and his mother wiped.
Shopping, cleaning bathrooms and kitchen, sweeping, mowing and vacuuming, we tend to share between us. The quicker we get them done together, the more time it leaves us to do the things we want to do.
Another couple I know, he is happy to vacuum but draws the line at cleaning bathrooms and toilets.
So do you think there are his and hers jobs? What jobs would you not do? What jobs do you expect him to do? What jobs do you wish your spouse would take on? What factors affected your divvying up of household chores? Is it an equal sharing of household chores? Or do you find one person does most of the household chores?
Please visit these related blogs
How I Ended Up a Stay-at-Home Wife
Who Is the Husband and Who is the Wife?