Here goes...I was just reading an article over at ABCnews and the title was Lazy Husbands/Wives Do More Housework...(that's why I put "don't hate me for this". It went on to say that it's the women who tend to be saddled with chores. They spend an extra 7 hours a week in the company of mops and dusters , while men do about an hour less. Men tend to work outside the home while women take on more household labor and the situation gets worse when they have children. They also mentioned that it's safe to say that by not pitching in around the house makes it harder to get your own way... Now I know, after being married longer then dirt has been around, that the last thing a man wants to do when he gets home, is to get sacked with a laundry bag to throw in the washer...So my question being, to the guys, what do you do to help out around the house, and to the ladies, does your husband/partner pitch in, or do they do the "married with children" remote routine..

when i was engaged my guy did house work we both did our share

the men are supposed to do all the outside work.

hell no! i love to do out side work!!! the guy i was engaged to liked to do both like me ...man...i miss him

You were very lucky WEREGIRL...My husband did more when we were first married and lived in a small apartment, then when we moved into our home...At that time he was starting his own business and that's where all his energy went

I'm divorced. I do everything.

I clean the bathrooms, I get a little O.C.D. about tubs and toilets. She does the laundry, sometimes I fold. I vacume, she does dishes.




LOL... may I have that in my life!

We both do the house work together not just because we both mess it up together but because neither of us see them as chores, and when we both are in upon it the jobs a done very quickly, and the cooking together is the best fun, she will make me breakfast and tea, I will make her breakfast and tea, and dinners, if it is a labor of love it then is not a chores…

Pavot

I love to work outside, as a matter of fact I'd rather do a day of yard work then clean But if I need large plants dug, or smaller trees put in, I do ask my hubby to help out with the hole digger..The damn thing is bigger than me...I'd rather he pitch in inside because I can never seem to get motivated to do the whole house at one time...Could be too much time on UM too

That's so nice Pavot, and I bet alot of husbands and wives do this and enjoy it...I love to cook, but if I could get my husband to make one meal I'd be estatic...Once when I was away, he took out my biggest frying pan, make this super huge pancake, put it on the table and told the kids to dig in.. I guess he tried...

Nobody is perfect, but everybody is very worth it…

I see it as men and also women that do not take up doing what needs to be done, paying bills, and cleaning and cooking and all the things in daily life, I see that when one spouse is no longer there, short term of long term speaking the partner/Mate/Spouse/suddenly finds them self in a state of panic and life and home quality spirals downhill very quickly, and for the spouses that are doing everything and allowing the couch potatoes to take bud and overtake the Settee, they are doing the Settee potatoes no favors at all, some people are ok with Waiting hand and foot upon their spouses, but frankly I see it as a lack of compassion on the takers part, a marriage is not a Slave/Ownership …

Me and my Wife had some troubles, most marriages do, and if they don’t and they tell you they don’t they are Ward and June Anderson (Father Knows Best) and when the doors are closed and the curtains drawn it is a whole other life then what Ward and Junes persona is told to be, if there is stagnation or problem within the marriage or partnership then talk it over, and work it out, I learned this myself the hard way, believe me it is far easier and better for all to approach these issues and heal things and fix things, there are not many perfect partnership of marriage now days, but you and your spouse/Partner and Family are very worth it. Now go take a Chain saw and reduce that settee to fire wood…

P.S. please remove the Couch Potatoes first though…

We are all Human fallible, the key is in finding the Balances…

I am what I call my self as a Frying Pan Cowboy, it is what most men are...

Pavot

yeah not so lucky didnt last...hes gone..

Well keep your chin up....I'm sure better days are coming...

Aww, I remember "Father Knows Best" very well It doesn't take a little house, a manicured lawn and a white picket fence to make a marriage work...I've been there, and thank goodness that communication came before it was too late..I've been married 40 years, 3 children and 8 grandchildren, and even though he can't cook, but does take out the garbage the ups and downs were all worth it....

I think it depends on each individual skill sets as to how to divide the household chores. I am a walking disaster in the laundry room but a master in the kitchen. Holding a red seal in culinary arts, the wife is very happy that I take care of the groceries and cooking and obliges by taking care of the laundry department. General clean up duties are shared evenly or she gets beans on toast and I end up with pink t-shirts and socks.

Tell you what Irish...If you ever get to the States, stop in and give the hubby cooking lessons....

This is because the man is a more efficient machine... cleaning in the less then HALF the time of the in-efficient woman...

I JEST... I JEST

Actually in my household, when she cooks, I clean... or I cook she cleans.
I do the vacuuming and rug steam cleaning... I do the running up and down the stairs changing the laundry that she folds and puts away... I hang the hang-ables.
I mow the yard and take care of the pool... she takes care of the flower beds.
We pretty much split everything equally.

I'll tell Irish to forget stopping over...You can visit instead...My God, your the Saint of Tater Tots, what time will you be here, I'll make sure the house is a mess.......

LOL me to and it sucks, I hate folding laundry errrr

I'm single and live alone so I do everything myself. I am not lazy and if I was married I'd certainly split the jobs around the house with the wife. I am disgusted by lazy people that refuse to put forth their effort. I cannot split the chores because thankfully I have no chain on my ankle yet.

"the last thing a man wants to do when he gets home, is to get sacked with a laundry bag to throw in the washer..."

lmao and how do they think women feel?

I think a lot of the time when women complain about men not doing their share of house work it's because the woman has a higher standard for cleanliness than the man does.

...I mean I'm pretty happy to live in my own filth more or less

I do the majority of work, hubbies just plain lazy and thinks cause he works outside the house he's done his but.

I hear ya...my hubby is a builder, but I had to learn how to repair anything broken in my home, because he was too busy doing other homes...Sometimes you just can't win......

My wife refuses to let me cook because I pretty much always over/under cook it. She won't let me do dishes because "Guys can't do dishes right." She won't let me vacuum. We live in an apartment, so there's no outside work for me to do. About the only thing she lets me do is keep the laundry loads going through. And that's AFTER she's separated them and written down detailed instructions for how I need to set the laundry machines for each different kind of clothing.

I almost miss my bachelor days of living in the barracks... I swept, mopped, did dishes, cooked, and did my own laundry by putting it on warm/warm no matter what kind of clothes they were. The wife says she does the socks differently to keep them whiter longer... I run about 10 miles/week average and end up putting holes in them within 3-6 months... So they're not even wearable by the time the 'whiteness' wears out. WHAT'S THE POINT?!

Of course, it is kinda nice to have a wife who prefers me to come home from work and just sit around And in case anyone's wondering, no she doesn't work herself. I wouldn't mind doing the chores...but she doesn't want me to do it... *shrug*

-C

I do it all, I quite like doing it all myself. It's done the way I prefer it. But if I cant handle it or am too swamped I ask for a hand and he'll help out, especially with the kiddies.
I even do the yard work. mowing, whipper snippering, weeding the whole she bang. I even do the car maintenence stuff because he has no idea, lol.
He works pretty long hours so I don't mind that he doesn't do much, all I do is look after 3 kids 4 and under, lol

My husbands not adverse to tidying up as he goes along, the houseWORK I do. However, I have to say he does an awful lot with the kids and as our littlest is profoundly autistic, this is actually harder than it sounds. He has the most amazing bond with our son, who cannot talk at all, and he can reach to him better than anyone, so I'd prefer his time to be our boy any day.

Also, I do the decorating in our house, which is a major peeve.

Hi Reg...Your husband sounds like quite a gem, especially with the little guy...I've often said that special needs children are born to very special people

mcfoogle wants to find a woman who he can appreciate. mcfoogle knows that women are working.
but if mcfoogle just had a chance, he would out-work the woman because mcfoogle believes that
love is never about yourself. so, mcfoogle would clean the toilets and dust the shelves.

but in addition to doing lots of work, mcfoogle would also be doing her everyday.

Your going to be a very busy mcfoogle when all this happens........

You're a sweetheart Goalie

Mcfoogle's going to be completely and utterley Mcfoogled if he follows his strategy.

LOL - now that's funny. I'm an IT professional and half the computers in our house don't work because I never feel like touching a computer once I'm home.

Jeez, why would you want to, when your on UM all day at work........ Don't hate me, I'm a grandmother and I love your website...

He's not on UM all day at work for fun you understand, he's testing the computers

LOL..good, now we're both in trouble...

I'm divorced and do it all. And I must say that I do a pretty good job of it.

My ex-wife was Lazy with a capital L.

I know a man who expects his food on the table when he gets in from work. Does nothing around the house and expects everything done for him. You would expect him to be oldish and set in his ways, but he's only 24 and his girlfriend 21. Sad. Then again, it's partly his girlfriends fault for letting him get away with it. I'm always telling him he's a grumpy old git, and needs to help around the home.

I've been married twice, and each time we shared everything. That's what love and respect for each other is all about. Are you respecting your partner if you sit around, and get them to do everything for you. That's what your mothers for, lol.

I'm sure she enjoyed doing little things for him, but sounds like he's taking advantage now...His mother may have done this for him all his life, and his girlfriend has turned into his mother away from home...Some guys are like that...

Outside? Whats is that?

This is true. When we were growing up, my sisters and I all had jobs to do, but my brother didn't!

I have my son make dinners with me now because 1. I know if it were up to him he'd eat junk food if he didn't learn how to cook and 2. He SHOULD be able to get up off his butt and help out, not expect it to be put in front of him when he's an adult.

However, he was alarmed to find out that onions really do make you cry, he thought it was a myth! his eyes were an awful mess cause he was rubbing them with his oniony fingers, still he learnt that lesson, the next time he cut onions he did it with his swimming goggles on.

Hi Reg...LOL on the onions and goggles, but hey if it works for him, good...My kids all had chores when they were young...Clean the table off, sweep the floor, stack the dishes...My middle daughter was sort of an air-head (funny story that we tell), and I remember when the weather turned good and we had our first barbeque of the season...Of course everything was on paper dishes..We weren't paying attention to her, but she took all the paper dishes, scraped them and piled them on the counter to be washed Awww...kids stories are the best.... My son loves to cook, has since he was young...very handy for his wife

Awww, bless her heart!

I bet you'll have known this with your kids too, with any kids come to think of it, but if say he makes a beef stew or a chicken casserole, he'll eat it because he made it. If I made the same one, he'd turn his nose up at it.

lol...hey, you never know, perhaps he'll go to culinary school and someday be on the Food Network Channel

Never know, it's a novel thing for him at the moment, I think it'll wane. I'm with him the whole time telling him what to do... don't picture this little boy surrounded by potatoes, slaving over the stove, it's not quite like that - but I'm getting there.

i miss my guy

Awww, I'm sure you do...and if you think there's no chance of you guys getting back together then you have to try and move on...It's hard, but put a big smile on your face and go out and enjoy yourself...I was there, many years ago, and as difficult as it seemed at the time I moved on, met my husband and lived happily ever after So I'm a little OT, but that's o.k cause I'm the OP