Husbands Create 7 Hours A Week Of Housework

[cappie]

Researchers of the University of Michigan have discovered the reason why so many married women have so much housework: their husbands.

According to a study conducted by the University, having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women. However, a wife saves men about an hour of housework a week.

The Institute for Social Research of the University of Michigan determined that there is still a significant reallocation of labour that occurs at marriage – men tend to work more outside the home, while women take on more of the household labour. And this situation is worse for working women.

The findings are part of a detailed study of housework trends, based on 2005 time-diary data from a panel study conducted since 1968 at the Institute for Social Research.

Married women with more than three children spend an average of 28 hours a week cleaning, cooking and washing.

[url="http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6452"]http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6452[/url]

[franciscanheart]

I saw this yesterday on TV. beaver dam boys!

[SaintOlaf]

I knew they were up to something crazy over there in Ann Arbor..... crazy wolverines...

[Brother Adam]

So women spend 28 hours a week working and men spend 40 or more working (and then come home and are still expected to work at home)? Seems fair to me.

[franciscanheart]

That's 28 hours of JUST housework. (Note that the 28hrs mentioned is allocated to CLEANING, COOKING, and WASHING.) Not to mention that there are a lot of working women, too (something mentioned in the article). Just because YOUR wife stays home with a baby doesn't mean everyone's does. Nor does it mean that T works only 28 hrs a week... pretty sure she has an eye on the lil' the WHOLE TIME you're gone. Which means that all those hours you put in at the church, T is putting in at home watching the little.

[Brother Adam]

If it matters my wife (her name is Teresa) spends most of her time sleeping right now when she isn't watching our toddler. And I would be upset if she did anything but. I take care of laundry and any other routine chores she can't do.

That said, I don't think 28 hours a week is fair. With rare exception (husbands taking children out for a while) being a home maker is a waking-to-sleeping job and then some. Raising a family is an emotionally different kind of work. I was the homemaker for the first 8 months Joseph was with us, in many ways I think it is more fulfilling. I feel bad for mothers who are forced to work outside the home when they have children.

I also think that if more husbands do simple things like taking care of trash, picking up after themselves, and doing dishes (things our moms taught us) that 7 hours would be dramtically reduced.

[franciscanheart]

It was actually mentioned that some of those things WOULD reduce the time dramatically in the bit I was watching on TV. I forget exactly how many hours it reduced but it was pretty dramatic. The interesting thing was not even that but that a woman's load increased by 7 hrs after marrying and a man's decreased by 1. Tell me how THAT math works! LOL!!

[CatherineM]

I'm a traditional Southern woman, and the only thing I want him doing in the house is to clean up after himself in the bathroom. He knows to stay out of my kitchen. While I've been sick though, he's been a great nurse. I take pride in taking care of our home, and of taking care of him. I think studies like this just make women feel bad, and give issues of strife that marriages don't need.

[BeenaBobba]

I'd prefer a guy who's pretty neat in his living habits, and if I'm lucky enough to be able to stay home with my future kids, I won't have a problem doing housework. When my future husband is home, though, I think that household chores should be split evenly.

[Ash Wednesday]

Hmmm.....I'm emailing this to my fiance.

[Deb]

When I was married, we both worked and had no kids. My husband did almost all of the housework. I was responsible for the kitchen, handling the money and all things related to extended family. (gifts, cards, parties etc) Bad part is I got divorced after thirty years and now I have to clean the house myself.
I have no idea how women with children who don't work manage everything, much less if they do work. Raising children would have to be the most difficult job in the world and it is 24/7.

[Brother Adam]

I think its a bit over the top to say it is the most difficult job in the world. I would guess being the supreme pontiff of the universal Church would be the most difficult job in the world.

[praying4carmel]

Men Picking up the underwear would be nice though.

[MissScripture]

In my family, it was always my mom who was in charge of housework, although we kids helped, of course. Which isn't to say that dad didn't help, but a lot of times Mom wanted to do it or to have one of us kids do it so it was done HER way. Dad was more in charge of the outdoor things, like mowing lawn and painting the house, etc. However, since my mom started working full time nights, my dad has been picking up a LOT of jobs around the house, esp. since his business has been slow lately. And to me, that's just logical. Mom worked part time when we were growing up and Dad worked full time, now Mom is full time and dad's schedule is far more flexible, since he works for himself.

[prose]

[quote name='Brother Adam' post='1495340' date='Apr 8 2008, 11:03 PM']I feel bad for mothers who are forced to work outside the home when they have children.[/quote]

Don't feel bad for me. I know that I am a better mother when I am working. And some women are like me. Some women make great SAHMs, but I am simply not one of them. I end up with a messier house, feeling depressed, gaining weight, and becoming too lazy to care for the kids. And then I look at other SAHMs and I feel worse because their houses are beautiful, their children are well cared for, and more.

I guess it is a matter of who you are. I am a much better mom when I am a working mom, but I know a lot of women who are the opposite.

As for the work thing, I am pretty sure that my husband causes much more than 7 hours