Married Dopers: what's the division of labor in your household?

[Essured]

It used to be 50/50 for the indoor stuff. Plus DH would do all the outside stuff (yard, roof gutters + vehicles).

Now I do 100% of the house stuff and as much of the yardwork I’m physically able to do. DH still does the vehicles because he enjoys it, plus he does all the heavy yard work (and there’s lots of it - we moved to a rural, hilly location)

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@RandMcnally

I, too, worry about disasters and have a kit. How did having a single bank account make things worse?

Two sorts of problem come to mind. In one sort of situation, one spouse lost her checkbook and got not only cleaned out but massively overdrafted; they’d have been in much better shape if there’d be two separate accounts in which the bank had no right of recourse. In the other, one spouse left and cleaned out the account. The abandoned spouse, obviously, would have been better if she’d had her own accounts to which the husband had no legal access..

[Philliam]

My wife does all the hard stuff.

I do all the easy stuff. By easy stuff I mean:

Auto repair, plumbing, electrical/computer, appliance repair, wood-choppin’, building repair, etc.

Of the hard stuff:

I’m the occasional sous-chef, do the dishes, vacuum and clean the toilets.

Other than that, I try to shut up and keep out of the way when she’s doing the hard stuff.

[papergirl]

@sahirrnee

When I was married I did all the cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, pet care, vacuuming, dusting, laundry, errand running, snow shoveling, cleaning the bathrooms.
I handled the bills because his idea of paying bills was to throw then in a big pill until the envelopes were marked ‘shut off notice’.
Our neighbor moved the lawn because I refused to do it and his attitude was that if the neighbor was dumb enough to mow our lawn let him keep on doing it.
He did… hmmm when I think of something I’ll let you know…

I’d scrub toilets with a toothbrush for a living before I’d live like that again.

:eek:
I think we were married to the same man.
After two years of marriage counseling, he had upped his contributions around the house to: 1. He would carry the trash from the end of the sidewalk to the end of the drive. (I had to carry it to the end of the sidewalk, even if he was walking beside me, because otherwise it wouldn’t be fair.) 2. He would wash the clothes. (I had to dry and fold and put them away because otherwise it wouldn’t be fair, of course.)
He never once mowed, shoveled a drive, took the car to the garage, cleaned a gutter, or did any of the “guy stuff” some guys do. If something got done at our house, the boys or I did it, period.
I thank God every single day to be free of that situation. Cleaning was the least of our problems.

Now it’s me and the younger kids. I do most of the heavy stuff, but they are good helpers and are very responsible. It’s heaven.