Every couple, regardless of age, income level, or marital status, must complete several practical tasks, such as managing finances, mowing the lawn, planning social activities, or taking care of elderly family members. Historically, a wife who did not work outside the home performed most of this work.
The challenge facing today’s dual-career couples is figuring out how to share this traditional wife role. In their honeymoon phase, couples in their 20s and 30s frequently have few responsibilities and lead simple lives. Their logistical load is light during this time and rarely causes conflict.
Sharing household duties results in a happier marriage and home. According to a 2007 study, 62% of married people rated doing chores together as very important to them. That category experienced the largest percentage point increase when compared to historical data, rising from 47 percent in 1990 to 15% today. Sharing household duties with children also instills a sense of responsibility in other areas of life, which is a predictor of success in the future. Given how crucial it is for a happy family to divide the responsibilities.
Think About Time Fairly
It’s crucial to consider everyone’s other obligations, both inside and outside the home when allocating chores, such as their involvement in school, child care, paying bills, or preparing meals. This guarantees that everyone’s time is equally valued. For instance, it might be more equitable for one spouse to handle more household duties than the other if they both work full-time but only one spouse works part-time. Recognize that everyone has the same amount of daylight hours and deserves downtime to unwind or pursue other interests. Each family member respects and protects the other’s time as equally valuable and limited as their own when chores are distributed fairly.
Make a System That Best Suits Your Needs
While some couples enjoy routine, others like to mix things up. It’s great if you and your partner prefer to tackle the same tasks week after week, but you can also swap tasks whenever you like. Choose a day each week to decide who oversees which tasks, and if necessary, create a written checklist. And yes, it’s okay if a cute chore chart or chore wheel works for you, but it might seem a little childish to others.
Make a List Then Segment It
If you’re unsure of where to start when allocating household tasks, make a master list of everything that needs to be done in the house and how frequently. Then, after customizing a list of chores for each household member, use the master list to assign all the responsibilities. Some will be obvious, like making sure younger children’s chores are age-appropriate if you have them, but after that, you might want to use a round-robin system to keep things fair. Allow each member of the family to take a turn claiming a cleaning task for their list and keep going until everyone has claimed everything.
Clarify Your Expectations
When it comes to cleaning, different people have varied standards and expectations. Even though you are a family, that doesn’t mean everyone shares the same opinions. Although it may be most obvious when it comes to children and chores, this also applies to spouses. Perhaps one person believes that bedding should be changed every other day, whereas another person believes that changing it a few times a month is enough.
Another possibility is that when one partner asks the other to do the dishes, they mean washing, drying, and putting them away, but their partner only completes the washing step because they see drying the dishes and putting them away as separate tasks. To reduce frustration and resentment, make sure that everyone agrees when discussing the details of a task when discussing chores and teaching the importance of hygiene.
Create a Positive Environment for Children
Children can start picking up their toys, putting dirty clothes in the hamper, and helping to set the table as early as age two or three. Making sure that tasks are age-appropriate and developing a positive association with household duties are key. Work together to clean while listening to upbeat music or make chores into a contest with a prize at the end.
Every child is a little bit different in terms of their development and the kinds of tasks they are capable of handling, but once you’ve determined which errands they can handle on their own, empower them to take charge of the errands to give them a real sense of accomplishment.
Switch Jobs at Home
We frequently develop empathy and respect for others when we put ourselves in their shoes. Once you’ve assigned roles to each person, consider switching roles occasionally for the benefit of your partner and children. Look at your shared calendar and to-do list and consider occasionally swapping tasks.
Along with developing mutual empathy, your team’s resilience also rises. Using a business example, you wouldn’t want one team member to be an expert in every task. In an emergency, you’d want someone who could step in. Try taking on the duties of other family members. If the division of labor is equitable, you’ll know it.
Exchange Free Passes
It’s completely understandable if there are some days when you or your partner just don’t feel like cleaning. Considering the stressful times, we’re in right now, your home doesn’t need to be spotless. Be kind to one another, and feel free to take occasional breaks as long as things don’t spiral out of control. Folding that mountain of laundry can wait until tomorrow, but don’t let it pile up to the point where it fills your living room.
Seek Help from Professionals
Hiring professionals is the simplest way to save time and effort on household cleaning. A thorough and effective weekly cleaning can be provided by a home cleaning service, to guarantee that your house always feels more like a tranquil retreat than a jumble of chores. Choose services that can take care of the sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, and other tasks so you have more time to spend with the people and activities you love. If you need their services, get in touch with them right away.