We don’t have a dishwasher in our home, at least not one that doesn’t have two legs and a brain. That means a lot of handwashing dishes. I’ve heard the rumor that it’s meditative but I don’t believe it. It just seems to take a lot of time, dry my hands out and I always manage to use the green scratchy side of the sponge on the silverware and scratch them.
Last week, I felt like I was scrubbing too much. I washed dishes in the morning before work and then, I washed dishes in the evening after dinner. I could have sworn my husband was not washing any dishes, whatsoever. Of course, in his defense, he was busy doing other things like the laundry, taking out all the trash loads and filling up the bird and chipmunk feeders, but still, his absence from the sink was duly noted.
So, I deliberately left dishes in the sink. The dishes did not miraculously get cleaned. I then felt justified to mention something about the inequality in the dishwashing.
Chris has done the dishes conscientiously for the last week. Because he’s a competitive guy, he’s suggested that we have a little check off list of who does what. That seems a little extreme to me. I also suspect I might lose.
Our household is not the only one that goes through this little housework tug-o-war though.
Women spent approximately 18 hours a week doing housework, according to a 2001 study by the University of Maryland. This is about 40% more than the men contribute. This doesn’t make much sense now that 49% of women work outside the home and contribute about 35% to the total family income. In fact, in 24% of homes, the woman outearns the man.
Yet, I suspect even in those homes, she’s still doing the bulk of the housework.
My husband is actually very good about helping with housework and typically, he does way more than his fair share of the work. Since he normally beats me home by 1 to 5 hours every night, the housework often falls to him. I don’t want to give a wrong impression of him shirking. We just had a rough little time of it for a week. =)
I was very interested to see the stats – about how women do just as much housework now even though they are juggling more stuff than ever.
Based on your comments, it definitely seems like housework is every woman’s battle.
Your story sounds all too familiar. LOL I feel like I’m always doing everything. Laundry, dishes, etc…
I’m the meditative dish person. LOL It is the only housework I enjoy doing. But lately it always seems like I’m doing them. I must be doing something wrong since I’m doing them like 3x’s a day 🙁
I’m scared to let my other half tackle any dishes though. He doesn’t get them clean. LOL Same with laundry. He would no doubt put something red in with something white. LOL
Isn’t it amazing that “today” the myth of the women still doing the cooking and cleaning still exists. After 30 years of marriage, I still have to gently remind “someone” that dishes do not have feet, and the cleaning fairy has not been hired. Each of our homes have always had a “workshop”. The first was actually in a extra walk in closet. So, when we decided to built a carriage house on our property, I said it was time for a workshop of my own. So, the Willow soap kitchen/workshop was built-from scratch, and I love it! Of course it has the women’s touch, bead boarding, pictures, & shelving. I only wish I had built it bigger. Almost the day it was done-I realized I was close to outgrowing it.