Household chores

Times have changed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the traditional division of labor, which includes the man working full-time outside the home and the woman taking care of the house. But now, many women also work outside the home and are still forced to continue taking care of all the household duties. However, it's very important to take into account your outside obligations when dividing up the household chores. Most people are busy and would rather be doing something else than washing the dishes or taking out the garbage. But chores are a fact of life, and they need to get done.

It is difficult to generalize, that’s why I’d rather base my judgments on my limited experience.

Traditionally such things as cooking, washing, ironing and shopping are considered to be the chores for women, while cleaning, hoovering and taking out the garbage are those for men.

But in our family there’s no clear division between the chores for men and the chores for women. Perhaps that is because nowadays it practically impossible to imagine our life without automatic, electric and electronic appliances which make the housework better and faster.

For example when my mother works late it is not a problem for my father to cook something for dinner using the microwave oven. After dinner we put the dishes, the cups and the cutlery in the dishwasher and nobody has to do the washing up. With doing the washing the situation is much the same as today it is just enough to put your clothes into the washing machine. So as you can see these things require neither time nor effort therefore it doesn’t really matter who puts clothes into the washing machine and who puts dishes into the dishwasher because we can hardly call them household chores any more.

But even if you can get out of doing the washing or the washing up with the help of modern machines, you can’t avoid doing the shopping. In our family it is the responsibility of my mother to do the so-called weekday shopping, while at the weekend my parents go shopping together.

To do the cleaning on your own is a little bit complicated, but it turns out to be an easier and a more pleasant thing if you work together with other members of your family. We usually divide our flat into several zones. Thus, while my mother cleans the kitchen and the bathroom, my father vacuums the carpets and I wipe the dust off every surface in the flat and polish the furniture. Meanwhile we are talking and joking that’s why it is always great fun.

Though both men and women can do the cooking, the washing up, the cleaning and the washing, I don’t think that my Dad is good at doing the sewing and mending, so that is the chore of my mother. And at the same time I can hardly imagine my mother with a hammer in her hand since my Dad is in charge of doing the odd jobs around the house.

In conclusion I’d like to point out that it is not important who does this or that job, it is important that this person can do it well.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14