Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Who does more work - Men or Women?

I've heard this before - that men will work their 40 (sometimes more) hours per week and then come home and do some things around the house... their time working comes up to more a week than women.

Is this true? Maybe I just came from an EXCEPTIONAL family background, but my experience has been thus.

Roles of dad:
Up at 7, out the door at 8 - took those who went to school to school (unless gram and gramps were around).
Got home around 5 or 5:30.
Watched TV til dinner was ready (or played with us some).
Ate dinner.
Went and watched some more TV.

Roles of mom:
Up at 7, getting us up for school. Dressing anyone under the age of 8 so they could sleep longer. Made breakfast and made us get out of bed. Those that went to school, out the door with packed lunches.
Homeschooled those left behind, did laundry, cleaned kitchen, kept most of the house "tidy".
Made dinner, ate dinner.
Busy-bodied around the kitchen until my dad *literally* forced her to have a glass of wine and watch tv with him.

Roles of kids:
Get up at 7:30, eat breakfast, go to school (or be homeschooled)
Come home, do chores (clean bathroom, vacuum, dust, clean bedroom...depended on day of week), do homework/play.
Eat dinner, help mom clean kitchen, do homework/play.

Weekends - dad mowed lawn, mom/kids cleaned pool, kids raked yard/picked up sticks, mom did grocery shopping (not for things SHE wanted...dad had to force her to spend money on herself...and still does) and balanced the checkbook.

I don't know - everything felt BALANCED. I know (now...not when I was a brat of 15) that my dad did a lot of work outside the home. I know (now) that the work my mom did in the house was NOT easy and not minimal. She worked just as hard as my dad...do you know how much clothes pile up in a family of 5 kids??? Or how often the kitchen floor has to be mopped (which is everyday in that big a family)? How often dishes need to be done (often twice a day, unless its a weekend - then maybe 3x's a day...all by hand because we didn't have a dish washer)?

Ok - so not every family is like that...I do recall friend's homes where clean and dirty laundry are indistinguishable because they're all piled up in someone's room (usually the parent's). I have seen homes that rely on tv dinners and the mother sits in front of the tv all day. But there were families that were just as balanced as mine...and it WORKED. It just DID.

I just wish a little more respect and credit would be given to the mom who actually does WORK AT HOME. It really isn't THAT easy. Maybe it is when your the only one, but not so much when there's 7 people your cleaning up after.

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