Mostly, Mike and I share household and child-rearing duties fairly evenly - the dishes, laundry, cooking, taking care of the kids. We're both equal partners, equal parents. However, after being married almost four years and living together for six, there are some things that have become His Job and some things that are My Job.
His Jobs:
1) Anything dead: Half-chewed on mice from Cronus the Cat of Death, the poor bunny whose skull was crushed by the dog, or the squirrel-of-the-week that got electrocuted on the transformer wire by our driveway. I can't handle dead things; I just can't.
2) Moving the lawn: I'm not really sure why. I just never learned how to use the lawnmower. I plan to learn soon because I wouldn't mind doing it and may even welcome the hour-long solace of being outside with a noise too loud to hear whining children.
3) Taking out the garbage and recycling: Although I do it when he forgets or is away and have no qualms about it, it has just developed into his chore.
4) Bringing in the mail: I hate mail and there is never anything good in there, only bills and junk mail, so if it were up to me to remember, it would sit in there for weeks.
5) Bathing the kids: It started as a way for Mike to have something that was solely his to do with Charlotte as a baby and as it turns out, the way I have to lean over the tub to do it really hurts my bad disc, so I only do it when I have to or when Mike is sick or away.
My Jobs:
1) Cleaning the bathroom: Mike never complains about cleaning anything, but he despises cleaning bathrooms and every time he's had to do it for me when I've been sick or too pregnant, I may as well have sent a blind armless monkey in to do the same job.
2) Sorting/Organizing/Kids Rooms: I'm not sure he's ever put away our kid's clothes for the season, cleaned out a closet, or organized a thing in his life.
3) Errands: This is in part because I'm home more but I do most of the shopping, dropping stuff off at the dry cleaners, taking the kids to appointments, etc., and in part because I'm the Keeper of The Schedule (and Mike can't remember shit.)
4) Paying the Bills: Again, not sure how this evolved into my job but it has and I carry the burden. Mike has learned to pour me a drink, keep the kids occupied, and leave me alone when I do it because chances are, I will not be in a good mood for a few hours.
5) Crafts: Mike's about as artistic as the same blind armless monkey that cleans our bathrooms, so I make the masks, play with the paint, glue, pipe cleaners and Popsicle sticks.
What about you? Do you and your spouse have His and Her Jobs?
Monday, July 13, 2009
His and Hers
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8 comments:
Oh cool post! Let's see:
Doug is garbage man~our garbage has to go to the dump so he loads it up and takes it there. I however, make sure that things get recycled and into the bins and I take out the trash because I'm always here. He does the lawn usually, mostly because it's not flat or even and I can't always get the mower up and down the hills (and I LOVE to mow!). We share the bills chore~he gets it all set up in MS Money, and I pay the bills. Mostly I do the laundry because I do it during the week. I do all the kids doctor appointments for the same reason. He almost always reads to Drew though. It's their Guy Bonding Time.
LOVE this post. May need to borrow.
"blind armless monkey" - I LOVE it!
I'm the laundry sorter. He's the laundry loader and switcher.
I load the dishwasher and put them away because I'm OCD with that.
He also does garbage and recycling.
He vacuums and I dust.
I do dinner with Theo and he does the bath.
He sorts and organizes paper piles (mostly because it's his stuff) and I purge clothes and crap in drawers.
I, too, put all of Theo's laundry away and I don't think Bryan would ever think to wash his toys or pack up his outgrown clothes.
Funny study of men and women!
He puts the dishes in the dishwasher because he can cram more in than I can.
I fold, put away, and hang up the laundry.
I do the crafts with the kids as well.
He takes out garbage.
The phrase Blind Armless Monkey is epic.
Oddly our duties are similar to yours, except he pays the bills. I HATE dealing with money. HATE IT.
Oh yes, very distinct jobs but I am constantly reminding him this is OUR house, so it takes two to keep it up. And then I realize he's moved the yard, edged, bagged, and swept the front and back of our house in 106 degree heat, and I shut it. And then I wonder, if that is so EASY for you, WTF are your clothes doing on the floor - AGAIN. :)
Got me thinking. What does my wife do? I mean shy of put a roof over our head and food on the table. Well, she cleans up after dinner and bathes the kids. Oh and trims the bushes. The rest falls to me, unless her threshold for disaster is tripped prior to mine.
The cooking, cleaning, laundry, lawn mowing, recycling, dead animal removal, bill paying, grocery shopping, child entertaining, home finance, and other as needed, falls to me.
At least she doesn't complain went I disappear to clear my head for an hour or so a day.
He. Cooks. Every meal, and manages all the food - meal planning, shopping, etc. (Yeah, I tap that.)
He does the laundry - wash & dry, and I put away. I get behind more often than he does, so there are mounds of clean clothes.
Generally we share most everything else.
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