Gender roles are shifting in homes across the country as more and more women bring home the bacon. I loved hearing from our morning show listeners this week as we discussed how longstanding gender roles in the home are challenged with an increasing number of women out-earning their husbands. Jeff & I both work outside the home full-time but it's always been a tacit understanding between us that I'd do the bulk of the housework. Well, that's become a burden I no longer wanted to bear, so we both agreed to try to equalize our domestic responsibilities.
...And we also decided to include the children in the process! Taking a cue from the Jill & Jeremy Tracey, who decided to make dinner together as a family once a week, I thought it'd be a great idea to do the same with my family.
Every Sunday afternoon once we return from church and have lunch, we get to work on creating a family meal from scratch that we can save and enjoy together on Monday & Tuesday nights. This gives me a break from cooking and teaches the kids valuable skills--like how to make homemade meatballs, how chopping onions makes you cry, and how to use kitchen devices like the food chopper and blender.
As I looked at Max the other day, I thought, "I'm helping to raise a future husband." And that husband, I hope, will someday be a co-contributor in his own home!
1 comment:
Amen sister! Absolutely we are raisnig future bachelors & husbands! I have 2 boys (13 & 16) and they are responsible to fix dinner one night per week. They can do basic laundry for themselves and know that sheets are supposed to be changed & laundered on a regular basis. They can do some basic ironing too, but prefer to toss things in the dryer to get wrinkles out. They clean their own bathroom to my satisfaction and vacuum more than I do.
I do have to say that I had great role models in my parents. I don't have a daughter but I would have continued my dad's insistence that I know how to change a tire and check the oil in my car before driving on my own. I didn't have to be good at the tire, but I had to know where all the stuff was and the basics of how to accomplish it until I could get to a professional.
We haven't tackled sewing but it's on "my list" of things to teach... the basics of sewing on a button and maybe even hemming pants.
I am looking forward to the day that a daughter-in-law thanks me for teaching basic household responsibility ;)
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