Oh, Woe is Me?

With the economy in a recession, more families are scaling back on outsourcing jobs, such as canceling cleaning services, and are eating more at home. A recent Washington Times article relates that this spells out more housework for mom.

The article’s tone is “woe is mom,” with one source quoted as saying: “The list of things that people were outsourcing we're finding are coming back home. And when they do, they tend to fall on the woman.”

Apparently, women still do most of the housework, even those who are married. For me, this wasn’t a big surprise, but to read the article, some scholars think it is big news. That, with more families tightening their financial belts, the first things to go are the things that you can do yourself—and those tend to be jobs that now fall to the woman of the home.

As a stay-at-home wife and mother, I believe it is one of my jobs to run the household. Not that my husband should be a slug-a-bed (he’s not) when it comes to chores, but since I’m in the home a lot more than he is, it makes more sense that I would do more of the daily chores to keep the home functioning.

Now, I don’t particularly like housework. Vacuuming, dusting, laundry, dishes, cooking, and other cleaning isn’t high on my list of things I enjoy. But I do try to take pride in my housework, and to train my children to be cheerful in doing it. Having a clean house, clean clothes and food on the table helps us to be a happier family.

A large part of that equation is my attitude towards housework. If I’m always cranky about the work, what does that teach my children? I might not like washing dishes, but I don’t need to complain about the job.

Also, I don’t think that my doing the majority of the housework in any way negates the importance of my work-from-home job as a freelance writer and editor. But the fact is, I sometimes have to turn down or modify freelance writing assignments if they might get in the way of taking care of my family, which includes taking care of the house.

Every family needs to look at how to make the household jobs work for each member, whether it’s children learning how to do chores, or a husband pitching in because his wife needs time to prepare a presentation for her at-home business.

Until next time,

Sarah