How a Magazine Article Saved My Marriage

Time Magazine has an article on the net called Chore Wars by Ruth Davis Konigdberg

Ruth talks about whether there is truth to the "chore wars"- the ongoing battle working parents have with each other over the time they give to household chores.

This is a battle that has gone on in my household and I found the article interesting enough to read all 3 pages. She cited a study done by an American sociologist, Suzanne Bianchi that stated "  among couples in which both partners work full time, men's greater hours of paid work counterbalanced women's greater hours of unpaid work "

The above statement made me wonder about the equality in my household. The amount of housework I do compared to my husband has always been a sore point for us, especially when I started working full time about 4 years ago. When we only look at the housework done instead how much each partner contributes to the household- looking at both the financial and the domestic side- we may not be getting the correct picture.

The time contribution in my household - for a week

	hubby	me
paid work (hours)	50	40
childcare	even	even
housework	2	10
total contribution	52	50

*for paid work I counted how many hours we are outside the house, I have a longer commute but shorter work day, hubby vice versa
* I think we are pretty even when it comes to childcare- thanks to my shift work
*hubby's housework is mostly the time he takes to make dinner on weekends (or dial a phone for takeout) and putting things in the dishwasher and then turning it on plus he does his own laundry

So according to my calculation and the article he actually does more that contribute to the household. While I do more housework because I am home more he contributes more time financially to the household. Be it in or out of house it all contributes to our family as a whole.
I have to thank the Chore Wars article for pointing out the importance of both. Plus we all know we woman do a better job of housecleaning anyway! LOL