Division of Labor
by Rachel Paxton - rachel@creativehomemaking.com
Dividing up household chores is a great way to get everyday household
tasks in less time and with less complaints.
It's 5:00 p.m. and I've just walked in the door. I'm tired, the living
room's a mess, and the kitchen sink is full of last night's dinner
dishes. So whose turn is it to do the dishes anyway? My husband did
them last...his tolerance for dirty dishes is much lower than mine
when we end up in a standoff to see who can stand the dirty dishes
the longest. I always win.
I don't really mind doing the dishes, but I do take exception to
doing the dishes, cooking dinner, cleaning up the living room, and
making sure the laundry's started. Especially after a 9-hour day at
work. So what's the answer? Blackmail, bribery, intimidation? Why
not work out a solution that benefits the whole family and encourages
everyone to work together?
If your children receive an weekly allowance, you should make them
work for it, and from a very young age. I started giving my daughter
an allowance before she was told she had to participate in the household
chores (besides cleaning her room), and you can only imagine her reaction
when all the sudden she had to work for it.
How you determine the division of labor in your home depends on how
many children you have, and how much work you want them to actually
do. We only have once child, so I didn't figure it was fair to make
her do the majority of the household chores. If we had more children
who were old enough to help out around the house, they would definitely
have a larger share of the workload. So in our case we chose a fairly
equitable distribution: one person does the dishes and mops the kitchen
floor, one person picks up the living room, dusts, and vacuums, and
one person does the laundry. Our schedules rotate on a weekly basis.
That way everyone has to do each job, but only every 3 weeks. You
wouldn't believe how much it improves your attitude knowing you don't
have to do the dishes for 2 weeks. It's suddenly no big deal!
This arrangement has worked very well for us. My husband and I just
wanted the house picked up but don't want to feel like one of us is
doing all of the work, and our daughter doesn't want to lose her allowance.
Everyone's happy. There are a lot of other household chores not covered
in our agreement, but we chose to tackle the big, everyday, most overwhelming
chores that no one ever wanted to take responsibility for. I usually
end up cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning out the litterbox, etc., but
it doesn't really bother me. My husband definitely does his share.
He insists on vacuuming under the chairs and couches, and that's fine
with me. I'll let him if it makes him happy.
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