Domestic Division of Labor

After filling out the chart, I wasn't too surprised by any of the results. I filled out the chart based on my family growing up, and I don't think that my family represented a typical family. The main reason for this was that my dad was an airline pilot, so his schedule wasn't very regular. He would be home for a few days or a week at a time, then he would be gone for anywhere from a day to a week at a time. When he was home, he helped out with most of the household chores, including chores that most other dads didn't help with, like laundry, cooking, and helping to take care of the kids. When he was gone, my mom took care of everything on her own, and did some things that most dads usually handled, but not as many, because, like was pointed out in the book and podcast, most "typically male" chores weren't as time sensitive. One thing that my dad didn't help with much at all was household cleaning, and my mom never mowed the lawn or helped with "outdoor chores" except for weeding and gardening. It's interesting that these chores were split up like this so drastically. My mom was a stay at home mom, and never worked after having kids, but with four kids in the family, she always had her hands full with us and didn't always have time to finish with cleaning chores. Still, my dad never volunteered to chip in with these. Something else that I find interesting when thinking back is that the chores that my dad "helped with" were never expected, but it was like it was considered a good deed for him to help with things not in his realm. On the other hand, my mom always did everything while he was gone but this was just expected.

I think that these values are definitely changing, and I can see it even in my own house now, with just my husband and I. When we were living in Okinawa and both working full time, we shared chores, but I was still always in charge of cooking. My husband doesn't have the same expectations that were present in my family growing up, in that he doesn't consider chores to be divided into male/female chores and instead thinks that they should all be split. This doesn't make sense with cooking, but the reason that I cook is because his idea of helping make dinner is to make two bowls of cereal, and he is happy to eat that way, but I prefer to have a "real" meal. Now that we are back in the states, and I am not currently working, I am in charge of a larger portion of the household chores than he is, which I consider fair, since he works everyday.

I think that chores are becoming less gendered, and even in households where wives don't work, I think that husbands are expected to do more work than they have in the past. Sometimes this seems unfair to me, in that the duties aren't being split evenly, but I think that it is a very positive thing that fathers are expected to be more involved in their kids' lives.