One of the things that almost everybody that works from home runs into at some point is the dilemma of managing the housework.
This is especially true of moms that work at home. It seems to be a long held tradition that women do the housework.
This was even true when women first started entering the corporate world and holding down careers of their own. It’s something that started centuries ago when men typically were the “bread winners” of a household.
So the man went out to work each day and the little woman stayed home to do the cleaning, laundry and cooking for her man. Of course, the man was also “king of his castle,” which meant that when he got home from work, he expected dinner to be on the table.
Following dinner, he would relax in his easy chair in front of the television and read the newspaper, check out the vacations, while his wife would clear the table, do dishes and clean the kitchen.
Oh, how things have changed! Today, house work is divided between couples because it takes both people working to make enough money to live on. Nearly everyone works at a job or career these days and household chores are not the primary focus in the lives of all women anymore.
However, it seems that when you work from home, many times you’re expected to take on a large portion of the household duties simply because you ARE at home.
Even with the amount of people currently maintaining a home office, some of those long held traditions just don’t want to completely go away.
If you find yourself in the position of working full time from home but also being expected to do all of the housework and cooking, it’s time to sit down and have a family chat. Explain in clear terms that you also work and that it’s a J-O-B whether anyone wants to acknowledge that or not.
You’re working and bringing in much needed money for the family, so it counts. All of you need to work out an arrangement of who will do what chores through the week so that doesn’t all fall on you.
It may be helpful to make this a weekly meeting so that you can draw up a new chart each week. In that way, no one will get tired of doing the same old thing week after week.
On the other hand, if someone is happy doing something that no one else wants to do, there’s no need to change that.
You can even make cooking dinner a part of that chart if other members of the family can cook.
If not, you and your partner can switch off through the week unless one of you just adores cooking and wants to do it all the time.
You’ll be amazed at how quickly things will be done and how nice your home looks on a regular basis with everyone pitching in to help.
It just may be something you have to stay on top of but that’s ok. The aggravation will be worth it in the long run.
