Share The Load: Why Men Must Be Taught Early To Contribute To Chores

Unlike women, boys in society are not trained to do household chores and that is one of the major reasons why they end up becoming man-children in future. The need to teach boys basic life skills is real and must be addressed seriously.

We have heard many women complaining about men not helping with household chores. Daughters are taught to be efficient in housekeeping from a young age while boys are allowed to be excused from it. This discrimination from a young age is what makes them incapable of handling their own work and have to depend on the women in their house for the most basic needs.

These ">stereotypes need to end for men to realise the importance of knowing basic life skills like cooking and cleaning and for women to be free of the extra workload they are burdened with.

Family Workload Of Working Women

A woman once shared her experience with her inattentive and absent husband whom she later separated from. She talked about how she worked six days a week for ten hours daily and would often come home to disastrous scenes. Her ex had excused himself from house duties as he was preparing for school but even after school was on a break, he did not do any work at home while his wife was at work. The kitchen and entire home were extremely dirty, and the kids were not looked after properly. She made a video of herself cleaning the entire house which looked like a dump and said that she wished she would separate from him soon to give her kids a good life.

That is actually the scene with many working women in India. No matter how much we say that the situation has changed, we must admit that it is only true in a few cases. The big picture is still the same, working women have to deal with the extra load of housework while working men don't. The situation is more severe in joint families as husbands who try to help their wives at home are often mocked and told not to do so. Women work at the office and then come back home to look after the family and kids, cook and clean. Men on the other hand are not expected to do that just because "ye aadmiyo ka kaam nahin hai. Bache sambhalna aur khaana banana toh aurat hi karegi na."

The assumed responsibility of looking after the family alongside working is the burden that majorly lies on women. Men are never taught that housework and office work are personal responsibilities. Bachelors who live alone while working in a different city do not have anyone to clean after them or cook for them. If they do everything on their own before marriage, why do they expect their partner to do those things for them after marriage? She, too, goes to work and spends equal energy in the office.

Instead of expecting women to look after men and their chores, it is better to teach boys from a very young age to help at home. They should know that their chores are their responsibility, too, and the women in their family are not their designated caretakers. They must be taught basic life skills like cooking, cleaning and washing so that they can divide work at home to assist their spouses and mothers. Housework and kids are a shared responsibility and not the sole duty of a woman. About time this is followed in every household.  

Views expressed by the author are their own, not the platform. 

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