Who Washes The Pants In Your Family?
I will start by acknowledging that my hubby does much of the laundry on the weekends. However, it may very well be my imagination, but since I started working from home to manage my business, The Pet Set , I get the distinct feeling that there has been a reversal of roles without my knowledge. For years I commuted to and worked in Manhattan and so did/does hubby; therefore household chores seemed to have been shared equitably.
This Sunday’s New York Times Style Section , covers the issue of the rift in who does more house cleaning with the deft of a Swiffer (the greatest invention ever!)–pointing out that “…women spend twice as much time on housework than their husbands…”
I certainly recognize that since I’m home all day, I may as well do some cleaning…but there is a level of expectation on his part that kills me. He has always been a neat freak and would never leave a dirty cup in the sink. Lately, I feel like the “little woman” or “the Mrs” character from the “I Love Lucy” era. Or maybe I’ve just never noticed what little boys men really are.
I believe there has always been a silent double standard about the person who works from home. I can remember from my corporate days, women calling in for meetings from their home office and those physically present, kind of rolling their eyes at the other person as if to say, “she’s got the life.” I’ve often witnessed a sarcastic undertone…co-workers would use the international symbol of using fingers to illustrate quotation marks: “She’s working from home today.” As if noone really believes you are truly working.
If it were a normal Tuesday at the office or (I love this one) a person’s “real” job…you wouldn’t have to excuse yourself from a meeting to make sure the recycling stuff is put outside, would you? Nor would you have to stop what you are doing because you can’t stand looking at the dirty windows for another second.
And here’s my favorite laps in memory on the part of hubby. He happens to work lower Manhattan, where I once commuted to and from every day. He tells me the “horrors” of his commute…but this is how it sounds to me: “there are these big trains that take you to this place called the train station, where they have these big boats…and then the boats go on the icy water of the Hudson…and you’re not going to believe it…they take you from New Jersey..aaaall the way across to that big city New York…you know, New York?”
But even if you don’t work from home, you can be sure that when push comes to shove, it is the wife who will be the one to make the bed.
Swifers are on sale this week at our grocery store.
Tags: cleaning, housework, jobs, New-York-Times, the-petset.comRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Fabulous Coffee Break, Fabulous Mars & Venus, Fabulous Work Life Balance
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