Are You Carrying Half the Weight?

If you’re only carrying a few stones and some cash while your partner is lugging an entire house on her back, you have not won a gold star. I adore you, but you don’t get cupcakes. Men should be carrying half the weight in their homes. 

• If you do what your wife assigns you, you aren’t carrying half of the weight.  We don’t want to have to give instructions. We’re not the involuntary masters of household chores. You should be looking at what your home requires of you, not waiting for a woman to give you orders.
• If you’re one of the men in yesterday's thread who told me you mop and sweep the floor a lot, you’re not carrying half the weight. It takes a lot more than mopping to clean a house. Are the drains clear? Are the drapes washed? Have you washed that godawful mark out of the carpet? Is there laundry piling up? Have you ever done the laundry without being told to? You should be paying attention to all of those things, and we haven’t even mentioned childcare yet.
• If you can list all the chores you handle consistently, you probably aren’t carrying half the weight. I would need hours to list all the ways I maintain my home. If you can list your contributions in a sentence, you aren’t doing half the work.
• If you expect gratitude for mopping the floor, you’re not carrying half the weight. Housework is not a favour you do for a female partner. It’s YOUR shared responsibility, no thanks required.
• If you don’t do chores because your partner says you leave the floor dirtier than you found it, the correct response is to learn how to do the job properly, not to step aside and wait for a woman to take over.
• If you even mention to anyone that you mop, you’re probably not carrying half the weight. I don’t feel the need to inform people of my cleaning sessions. They’re just an ordinary part of everyday life. If they’re not ordinary parts of your everyday life, you’re not carrying half the weight.