What household chores do you do?

[merithyn]

The women that I work with and I had the whole emasculation conversation over lunch. One of the women suggested that this is why men avoid housework. (None of their husbands would say no to helping, but they would avoid it if at all possible.)

It seems that the majority of men on here in a committed relationship tend toward being very helpful to their partners, or at least they claim to be. Does this extend to the household chores? 

Obviously, the single folks are going to skew the results a bit since they kind of HAVE to do this stuff. I'm still wondering.

EDIT: I omitted childcare because I'm going to assume that all of you dads do a good job of taking care of the tykes. You certainly all seem like great dads on the face of it, so it was kind of a non-starter.

[garbon]

I'll answer for my father when my parents were married. He did all of it.

edit: and he felt emasculated.

[merithyn]

I'll answer for my father when my parents were married. He did all of it.

edit: and he felt emasculated.

Wow. Really? Why did he do all of it?

And his generation was taught to feel emasculated for doing housework. That was, most definitely, women's work. Makes sense that he would. Hopefully, men today don't feel the same way.

[derspiess]

Needs an "Everything, even though it's wimmen's work" option

[merithyn]

Needs an "Everything, even though it's wimmen's work" option

You can answer up to 5 options.

[Barrister]

Honestly my wife does the laungry, and most of the sweeping / vacuuming.  We share on the dishes and general picking-up.

But you missed a whole bunch.  We share on cooking, but I probably do 2/3rds of it.  I am the one who cleans the bathrooms.  I do the garbage and clean the yard (more traditionally male tasks, but its still work).  I clean the cat litter.

[garbon]

I'll answer for my father when my parents were married. He did all of it.

edit: and he felt emasculated.

Wow. Really? Why did he do all of it?

And his generation was taught to feel emasculated for doing housework. That was, most definitely, women's work. Makes sense that he would. Hopefully, men today don't feel the same way.

My mother had the career while he stayed at home - so it wast mostly only fair that he did most (we did get a maid at one point that "alleviated" his position.

[derspiess]

Having said the above, I don't hate or resist housework because it's emasculating.  I do so partly because I'm lazy and partly because the kids will mess everything up 2 seconds later.  Also partly because it just doesn't feel natural or fulfilling.  I'm not into the nesting thing.  I'd rather spend 5 hours working out in the yard in 90 degree heat than spend 30 minutes doing household chores.

[garbon]

Housework doesn't feel natural?

[merithyn]

Honestly my wife does the laungry, and most of the sweeping / vacuuming.  We share on the dishes and general picking-up.

But you missed a whole bunch.  We share on cooking, but I probably do 2/3rds of it.  I am the one who cleans the bathrooms.  I do the garbage and clean the yard (more traditionally male tasks, but its still work).  I clean the cat litter.

Yeah, I kind of stuck to the every day things. I don't really think of cooking as a chore, either, so that one got past me.

And none of this surprises me with you.

[sbr]

The one good things about my ex being so lazy is that my work load around the house didn't increase when she left, I already did everything.

[merithyn]

Having said the above, I don't hate or resist housework because it's emasculating.  I do so partly because I'm lazy and partly because the kids will mess everything up 2 seconds later.  Also partly because it just doesn't feel natural or fulfilling.  I'm not into the nesting thing.  I'd rather spend 5 hours working out in the yard in 90 degree heat than spend 30 minutes doing household chores.

Huh? What the hell does that even mean?!

[Jacob]

I do all of it sometimes, but realistically my wife does more of it most of the time. I feel like I ought to do more of it in all fairness.

I do do almost all of the yard work and fixing and so on, though, so I guess it evens out a bit. I do more of the dog-walking too.

[derspiess]

Housework doesn't feel natural?

Not for me.  Unfortunately, not so much for the wife, either since they had a maid growing up and she never had to do any chores.  Shit, *I* had to teach her how to clean.  How messed up is that?

[garbon]

Housework doesn't feel natural?

Not for me.  Unfortunately, not so much for the wife, either since they had a maid growing up and she never had to do any chores.  Shit, *I* had to teach her how to clean.  How messed up is that?

I'm still not sure I understand natural though. I mean I hate cleaning but I wouldn't say it is unnatural. Care to clarify?