You'll pardon my absence since my last post, I've been doing some extra housework.
In all seriousness, I'm a perfect example of the trend discussed in that story. Of the housework part at least. With a wife in class three nights a week and needing study time on the weekends, I spend a healthy chunk of my non-work hours carting kids to activities, preparing meals, doing laundry, reading bedtime stories, etc., etc. (with a blog post here and there for good measure).
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Now, if I could just get the report authors to define "more"...
Posted by Eric Earling at March 07, 2008 07:21 AM | Email ThisI imagine it's you.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on March 7, 2008 12:01 PMThe reality is that each family reasonably distributes workload and if there are any imbalances, they are individual any not systemic. Why? Because the study doesn't address the total picture of who the primary breadwinner is, or the hours of each parent, or the other non-housework related tasks that Bill notes, etc.
It is easy to make men look bad if that is the intent, but its not science, nor is it good policy to denigrate one sex for the sake of another. It takes all kinds and all levels of activity to make up the world. And there is no right or wrong in the division of domestic labor. There is only functional and dysfunctional. If you don't like your siuation, then make better choices or ask a reasonable partner for change. But don't whine to some BS sociologist wasting grant money trying to stir the politcally correct pot.
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 7, 2008 12:36 PMCarol..w/that be 'ironing' board room... (just kidding..) :)
Posted by: Duffman on March 7, 2008 02:26 PMThe real problem is that many women want men to help with the housework -- no problem there -- but then micromanage and nitpick the housework and childcare. Examples:
* Toilet paper up or down? (Who cares?)
* Criticise Dad because she didn't like the color combination of the
8 y.o. boy's trousers & shirt; and
* Crtiticise Dad because 8 y.o. son's underwear didn't match his outerwear!
The real problem is that many women want men to help with the housework -- no problem there -- but then micromanage and nitpick the housework and childcare. Examples:
* Toilet paper up or down? (Who cares?)
* Criticise Dad because she didn't like the color combination of the
8 y.o. boy's trousers & shirt; and
* Crtiticise Dad because 8 y.o. son's underwear didn't match his outerwear!
If it were not for the women in our lives, we would all eat meat chili, live in unpainted sheet-metal homes and wear animal skin robes.
It's a slippery slope and that's why the little things matter to our wives. Today it's junior going to school in mismatched clothes. Tomorrow it's beef jerky for lunch. The next day the family moves into a cave.
Personally, I'm a big fan of my woman.
Posted by: Chad Minnick on March 8, 2008 10:00 AMI'd tell her myself, but I'm too busy vaccuuming the carpet.
Posted by: Chad Minnick on March 8, 2008 10:03 AMGeez studies this, and talks this subject in his sleep.
If men have to clean the toilet to get laid, they need to take inventory, and be sure their cajones are in place, not in momma's purse.
Now that I have your attention, I don't care how you parse it at your house. Divvy it up any way you agree too. But no whining about men not helping around the house.
Here is why.
Where is the discussion about the little woman changing the oil in the car? Cutting the lawn? Fixing that leaky faucet? Removing that dead rat in the garage?
Eh, Bunky? Show me, show me!
I will be napping while I wait.
Men have always been equally equipped to care for their children, with a complementary style and skill set to momma. In fact, men can even nurse, if you check it out. That said, they teach their kids different skills that kids need. They teach there is more than "one right way". They teach independence, and a plethora of other skills.
But here is the real deal.
Compare total time committment to maintaining the family. Not just housework, or child care.
Wimmin' work on the average 35 hours per week. Men 50 hours. Women work within 18 minutes of home, often with an "off hours" commute. Men commute an average of over an hour. Wimmin' leave at quitting time, men stay to finish what has to get done. I know, because I stay while my equivalent female colleagues bag out.
Men have more stressful, dangerous jobs, longer commutes, work longer hours, and they should do 50% of the housework?
Bullbleep. Boot the little woman, and hire it, it is cheaper.
Truth comes in fast, and lands hard.
I don't care if the authors agree with me or not, or I with them. But I do expect them to tell the truth, and any discussion of housework equality, without a complete parsing of other differences in time/effort in the household is bogus, false, specious and fallacious.
Geezer out!
Geez studies this, and talks this subject in his sleep.
If men have to clean the toilet to get laid, they need to take inventory, and be sure their cajones are in place, not in momma's purse.
Now that I have your attention, I don't care how you parse it at your house. Divvy it up any way you agree too. But no whining about men not helping around the house.
Here is why.
Where is the discussion about the little woman changing the oil in the car? Cutting the lawn? Fixing that leaky faucet? Removing that dead rat in the garage?
Eh, Bunky? Show me, show me!
I will be napping while I wait.
Men have always been equally equipped to care for their children, with a complementary style and skill set to momma. In fact, men can even nurse, if you check it out. That said, they teach their kids different skills that kids need. They teach there is more than "one right way". They teach independence, and a plethora of other skills.
But here is the real deal.
Compare total time committment to maintaining the family. Not just housework, or child care.
Wimmin' work on the average 35 hours per week. Men 50 hours. Women work within 18 minutes of home, often with an "off hours" commute. Men commute an average of over an hour. Wimmin' leave at quitting time, men stay to finish what has to get done. I know, because I stay while my equivalent female colleagues bag out.
Men have more stressful, dangerous jobs, longer commutes, work longer hours, and they should do 50% of the housework?
Bullbleep. Boot the little woman, and hire it, it is cheaper.
Truth comes in fast, and lands hard.
I don't care if the authors agree with me or not, or I with them. But I do expect them to tell the truth, and any discussion of housework equality, without a complete parsing of other differences in time/effort in the household is bogus, false, specious and fallacious.
Geezer out!
The theme? Women good. Men bad. Remember that lovely phrase, "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle"?
It's the same junk liberals relentlessly shove at us under the guise of "news". It isn't news at all, it's their agenda.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on March 9, 2008 08:09 AM