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Housework: |
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| Housework is anything but a frivolous issue. Exhaustion is taking the style out of life for many women. Today most work two careers - one at home and one at the office (the popular phrase sandwich generation underestimates the situation; with ever-increasing personal and career demands life is more like lasagna). To say defiantly that you are coping is beside the point. There is more to life than coping. |
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| A newspaper reporter recently asked what I believed to be the pivotal issue for contemporary women. The reply was easy: Housework! The reporter laughed and said she felt the response was flippant and then for the next fifty minutes she revealed the housework imbalance in her own home. |
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Housework takes as much energy as a construction job. We work long hours at one
career, come home to our construction jobs and then carry out our roles as a wife,
mother and family member in the minutes in between. When do you find time to be
a person? |
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Housework seems like a petty issue until women try to change the traditional
division of household labour. Then dirt is blown up to a new position of
importance.
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He who does not do housework...
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The real issue here, of course, is freedom. He who does not do housework has
more free time to further his career, have leisure activities or simply to be
himself doing nothing. Changing the imbalance will be difficult as freedom is
not relinquished easily; but your alternative is not pleasant.
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If the status quo remains unchanged you will be tired for the rest of your
life. To make the issue more lifetime threatening the status quo techniques used on you at
home are the same ones used on you at work. If you cannot get fair treatment at
home where you are loved do you stand a chance in the workplace?
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Making a Clean Break
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Time cannot be managed but activities can. Housework can be managed!
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| Step one is to make a Life Plan.
Keep it simple just three columns on one piece of paper. Label column one: "What I
want from Life". Be Selfish! If you only list two or three items try again! The
standard "I just want to be happy" is not acceptable. Be specific.
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| Column two: "What Have I Achieved to Date".
How does column one compare with column two? The third column
will list "Actions To Be Taken" to bring column one and column
two closer together. Actions could be further training, a career
change, or perhaps more time and more energy. |
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| Step two is another concise chart featuring
one column for each person in your home. The first column is for you to list
all the tasks that are vital to keep the home running smoothly. Feel free to
add more paper to complete your column. Now ask any other adult to do a column.
Then each child of pencil age can complete a column.
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Study the results. Unless your household is unusual your list will be lengthy
and the others will be short with few entries like yours. Before you voice the
comments on their contribution that are on the tip of your tongue consider a
few possibilities. You are so efficient that family members are unaware of the
work and planning behind the tasks. The results seem natural or even magical. |
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If they have never performed the tasks they are not aware of what is involved. You know that
kitchen cupboards must be wiped a thousand times on a Saturday or they will
soon be glued shut but they think the cleanliness just happens.
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Okay, now make the comments to yourself,"Do you mean I do all the things on my
list and no one notices?" That's right so why are you doing it? On your list
check the items everyone agrees on (meals at approximately mealtime, clean
clothes on the right day, toilet paper in the bathroom not in the trunk of the
car). Check off a few tasks that the family thought were magic. Now look at the
dozens of items left unchecked. |
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>> CONTINUE ARTICLE |
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