Nope, I don’t do that kind of stuff. Well, maybe once a weekend I manage to empty the dishwasher and my husband pats me on the head for actually doing housework at all. But I bring him bonbons!
So…what’s men’s work? Is there any? Or do men get off scot-free?
Sad thing is, you’ll probably get a woman like that, too…who’s willing to hop when you say so.
In my household, it’s just me and my SO. We both work full-time. We both have to eat. And so we have a deal - who ever cooks doesn’t have to wash the dishes. And the work is work - never heard of work caring who did it, so long as it got done.
Same with the other work…work is divided in our household, since we are a team.
Wow - I know this mindset is still out there and prevalent, but I still find it surprising. I don’t consider myself a feminist - in fact I really don’t like that type of aggressive mindset - but I find this basic “women’s work” mindset to be bullshit. Sorry if this is the wrong forum to state that, but really.
House work is house work - if you want to a clean house, do your share - I don’t care what gender, age, color, sexual preference, whatever.
I do most of the cooking in the house, scoop the cats’ litter box, make the kids’ lunch for school, oversee homework - whatever it takes. I help with cleaning, but my wife does more of it for very practical reasons - it is easier to do when everybody is out of the house, and she prefers to do it and leave the cooking to me so it is a fair trade…
I wash the dishes that are too big to fit in the dishwasher, but that’s only because my husband hates washing dishes. So he’ll clean the toilets and vacuum instead. Neither one of us is delighted by the chores that create a clean and pleasant home, with clean clothes, dishes, floors, sheets, but we both do the housework. We both work full-time, we both make the house dirty, we both do the cleaning. My husband does the majority of the grocery-shopping, too.
My husband points out that if he lived on his own, he’d have to run laundry, do dishes, pick up milk, vacuum, and so on, so why should he not share these chores with his wife? As he says, it’s his house too, therefore, these are also his obligations.
Should I ever work part-time or not at all outside the house, we’d probably shuffle the burden a bit, but for now,
Anyhow, in my house (three guys living together) I tend to do most of the kitchen cleaning (dishes, floor, countertops, garbage), one of our room mates most of the living room chores and big-meal cooking, and the other one tends to eat meals with us less often.
It’s kind of silly and selfish for a man not to help out with things like doing dishes, washing the floors, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, etc. I don’t mind doing it. I even do my own laundry from time to time.
What’s the point of refusing to do it? How is that helping anything?
When I lived alone, I did the dishes, because I wanted to have clean dishes. I did the laundry because I wanted to have clean clothes to wear, and scrubbed the bathroom floor and fixtures because I wanted a clean bathroom.
Now married, I admit that Mrs. Bricker does the lion’s share of that work, although we do have a part-time maid (who is also female, for what it’s worth). But the division of labor did not come about because it’s womens’ work – Mrs. Bricker doesn’t have a full-time go-to-work job, and I do. Because she’s the one at home, it makes sense for her to handle most of the housework.
She does work – she does freelance translation. Usually, she works a couple hours a day, from home. A few months ago, she got a huge project that required her to work pretty much non-stop for a couple of weeks… and so I took over the household chores. Because it made sense for me to handle it under those circumstances.
So in the Bricker household, it’s not a matter of “women’s work” or “men’s work” – it’s a matter of adults doing the work that needs to be done in a way that makes sense.
Yeah, try using that one on the wife sometime and let us know how that works out.
Sorry, I can’t do the laundry. It’s genetic.
Then again, considering you can’t remember the last time you did “women’s work”, and you think that’s the way things should be, I guess you have someone around who’s doing it for you. I actually find that very, very sad. What happens when Mom dies, or the wife leaves you? Wallowing in your own filth, but glad that you’ve lived a good manly life?
Go grunt in the backyard and kill something for supper, why don’t you?
I can’t believe that this caveman mentality still exists.