Housework: Men should not do it.

[MadImmortalMan]

LOL

Couples who share the housework are more likely to divorce, study finds

Divorce rates are far higher among "modern" couples who share the housework than in those where the woman does the lion's share of the chores, a Norwegian study has found.


In what appears to be a slap in the face for gender equality, the report found the divorce rate among couples who shared housework equally was around 50 per cent higher than among those where the woman did most of the work.

"What we've seen is that sharing equal responsibility for work in the home doesn't necessarily contribute to contentment," said Thomas Hansen, co-author of the study entitled "Equality in the Home".
The lack of correlation between equality at home and quality of life was surprising, the researcher said.
"One would think that break-ups would occur more often in families with less equality at home, but our statistics show the opposite," he said.
The figures clearly show that "the more a man does in the home, the higher the divorce rate," he went on.

The reasons, Mr Hansen said, lay only partially with the chores themselves.
"Maybe it's sometimes seen as a good thing to have very clear roles with lots of clarity ... where one person is not stepping on the other's toes," he suggested.
"There could be less quarrels, since you can easily get into squabbles if both have the same roles and one has the feeling that the other is not pulling his or her own weight."
But the deeper reasons for the higher divorce rate, he suggested, came from the values of "modern" couples rather than the chores they shared.

"Modern couples are just that, both in the way they divide up the chores and in their perception of marriage" as being less sacred, Mr Hansen said. "In these modern couples, women also have a high level of education and a well-paid job, which makes them less dependent on their spouse financially.
They can manage much easier if they divorce," he said. Norway has a long tradition of gender equality and childrearing is shared equally between mothers and fathers in 70 per cent of cases.
But when it comes to housework, women in Norway still account for most of it in seven out of 10 couples. The study emphasised women who did most of the chores did so of their own volition and were found to be as "happy" those in "modern" couples.

Dr Frank Furedi, Sociology professor at the University of Canterbury, said the study made sense as chore sharing took place more among couples from middle class professional backgrounds, where divorce rates are known to be high.

"These people are extremely sensitive to making sure everything is formal, laid out and contractual. That does make for a fairly fraught relationship," he told the Daily Telegraph.
"The more you organise your relationship, the more you work out diaries and schedules, the more it becomes a business relationship than an intimate, loving spontaneous one.

"That tends to encourage a conflict of interest rather than finding harmonious resolutions." He said while the survey applied to Norway, he was confident the results would be the same in the UK.

"In a good relationship people simply don't know who does what and don't particularly care. "Unless marriage is a relationship above anything else, then whenever there are tensions or contradictions things come to a head. You have less capacity to forgive and absorb the bad stuff."

The survey appeared to contradict another recent one across seven countries including Britain that found that men who shouldered a bigger share of domestic responsibilities had a better sense of wellbeing and enjoyed a better work-life balance.

The researchers expected to find that where men shouldered more of the burden, women's happiness levels were higher. In fact they found that it was the men who were happier while their wives and girlfriends appeared to be largely unmoved.

Those men who did more housework generally reported less work-life conflict and were scored slightly higher for wellbeing overall.

Experts suggested that, while this may be partly because they felt less guilty, the main reason could be that they had simply learnt the secret of a quiet life.

So...doing more housework will not make your girl happier. Use that information in the most effective way you can, guys. 



My situation appears to be one of those "nobody knows who does what and nobody cares" ones. If we fight about that stuff it tends to come up and both of us are a bit surprised about how much stuff the other was doing that we weren't aware of.

[Grey Fox]

I wish my GF did household work from her own accord. :shurg:

[CountDeMoney]

The conflict doesn't come from men doing 50% of the housework--it's from men doing 50% of the housework wrong. 

IS THAT THE WAY YOU MOP A FLOOR NEVER MIND I'LL DO IT

[MadImmortalMan]

The conflict doesn't come from men doing 50% of the housework--it's from men doing 50% of the housework wrong. 

IS THAT THE WAY YOU MOP A FLOOR NEVER MIND I'LL DO IT

Heh. If I'm doing it, it's getting done my way. There is no wrong way. I do think some people deliberately do a bad job so they don't get asked again. That's stupid.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The conflict doesn't come from men doing 50% of the housework--it's from men doing 50% of the housework wrong. 

IS THAT THE WAY YOU MOP A FLOOR NEVER MIND I'LL DO IT

I believe this is the case.  Its easier for both of us for her to do it her way. 

[Razgovory]

The conflict doesn't come from men doing 50% of the housework--it's from men doing 50% of the housework wrong. 

IS THAT THE WAY YOU MOP A FLOOR NEVER MIND I'LL DO IT

I learned long ago that if I do a job poorly enough, I won't be asked to it again.

[Valmy]

The conflict doesn't come from men doing 50% of the housework--it's from men doing 50% of the housework wrong. 

IS THAT THE WAY YOU MOP A FLOOR NEVER MIND I'LL DO IT

Heh. If I'm doing it, it's getting done my way. There is no wrong way. I do think some people deliberately do a bad job so they don't get asked again. That's stupid.

Yeah that is the way I feel as well.  And I would hope the only people who intentionally screw it up are kids trying to get out of chores.  Any adult who acts that way should be slapped.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The conflict doesn't come from men doing 50% of the housework--it's from men doing 50% of the housework wrong. 

IS THAT THE WAY YOU MOP A FLOOR NEVER MIND I'LL DO IT

Heh. If I'm doing it, it's getting done my way. There is no wrong way. I do think some people deliberately do a bad job so they don't get asked again. That's stupid.

Yeah that is the way I feel as well.  And I would hope the only people who intentionally screw it up are kids trying to get out of chores.  Any adult who acts that way should be slapped.

The conflict doesn't come from men doing 50% of the housework--it's from men doing 50% of the housework wrong. 

IS THAT THE WAY YOU MOP A FLOOR NEVER MIND I'LL DO IT

I learned long ago that if I do a job poorly enough, I won't be asked to it again.

My minions do that all the time, and the best response is to make them do something unpleasant in retaliation.  Wives do the same thing, so it is not a good strategy to follow.

[Ed Anger]

Women trying to avoid their work

[CountDeMoney]

Heh. If I'm doing it, it's getting done my way. There is no wrong way. I do think some people deliberately do a bad job so they don't get asked again. That's stupid.

There's only two options: the wrong way and her way.  And since you don't subscribe to that theory, I believe your claims that you're married are invalid.

[merithyn]

Seems a weird conclusion to come to based on the facts given. It doesn't take into account that where the women do the majority of the housework, the home is usually fairly conservative. Divorce has been known to be less likely in conservative households because of religious convictions, morals against divorce, financial pressure to remain with the earning spouse, etc.

Heh. If I'm doing it, it's getting done my way. There is no wrong way. I do think some people deliberately do a bad job so they don't get asked again. That's stupid.

There is a "wrong" way: the way that doesn't get it clean. Most people actually care if it's done well, but there are those who only swish a dirty mop around with dirty water and then can't understand why their spouse flips out over it. You obviously don't know very many slobs.

[CountDeMoney]

There is a "wrong" way: the way that doesn't get it clean. Most people actually care if it's done well, but there are those who only swish a dirty mop around with dirty water and then can't understand why their spouse flips out over it. You obviously don't know very many slobs.

I rest my motherfucking case.

[Valmy]

There is a "wrong" way: the way that doesn't get it clean. Most people actually care if it's done well, but there are those who only swish a dirty mop around with dirty water and then can't understand why their spouse flips out over it. You obviously don't know very many slobs.

Well you feel that way, because you are an overworked parent who just wants to get crap done.  But plenty of people are really compulsive and particular about exactly how housework gets done.

[merithyn]

There is a "wrong" way: the way that doesn't get it clean. Most people actually care if it's done well, but there are those who only swish a dirty mop around with dirty water and then can't understand why their spouse flips out over it. You obviously don't know very many slobs.

I rest my motherfucking case.

Let my ex-husband mop your floor and then tell me that you'd be okay with that. I bet you'd be scrubbing your kitchen floor on your hands and knees with bleach afterwards, too.

[merithyn]

There is a "wrong" way: the way that doesn't get it clean. Most people actually care if it's done well, but there are those who only swish a dirty mop around with dirty water and then can't understand why their spouse flips out over it. You obviously don't know very many slobs.

Well you feel that way, because you are an overworked parent who just wants to get crap done.  But plenty of people are really compulsive and particular about exactly how housework gets done.

You're agreeing with me here, Valmy.