little_tippler

I think for most couples, what sometimes becomes a bit of a contention point, is the sharing of household chores.

How do you share or have you shared your household chores? Was it ever a problem? How did you work the problem out?

I'm sure there's lots of interesting stories here. I only ask because so many of my girl friends complain that their boyfriends/husbands don't help as much as they'd like around the house, sometimes being total slackers. I imagine the opposite may also happen. And I'm sure some guys pull their own weight too.

In my own experience, having only ever lived with one guy so far, I have to say it was something that often would cause silly arguments. To me, it seemed like the further in time the relationship progressed, the less he was concerned with doing anything around the house. That would mean that, where I would get home late and still have to make dinner plus my chores plus any chores he hadn't done (that had to be done, like clean the cat litter, or feed the cats), he would lounge around and never say a word of thanks.

In a way I think men that behave this way are taking advantage of their woman, blatantly. They know they should have done the chores, that were equally shared out, but they choose not to, and to just take the bitching instead - hey as long as it gets done!

Right now I tell myself I don't want to enter into another relationship like that. Minor tiffs over chores, sure, but daily battles, no thanks.

I have a friend who has stopped cleaning at all to see if her guy gets the hint. She tells me she'd argue with him about him not helping her clean (which would invariably force her to use one of her 2 days off to clean the house from top to bottom every week), and he'd refute it by saying that he dusted. Yeah, in the living room, while watching TV. Same for vacuuming. Also, since she won't do his ironing, he takes it to his mom. Now that's just wrong!

If both people are working full time, chores should be shared as equally as possible.

So, how do you share the house chores?

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918