Someone once accused me of trying to be a “super hero mum” because I juggle working with raising a young family. If only she was a fly on the wall at home I thought!
Time-poor working women in Australia are struggling to hand over household chores to their partners because they believe they do a better job.
According to a survey, 85 per cent of Australian women said they would rather do the laundry themselves to make sure it was done right.
When I read the article in the Herald Sun (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/mums-refusing-to-share-the-load/story-fn7x8me2-1226040228529), it put a smile to my face, because I’m sure that if the same survey was carried out here in the UK, the differences would not be many!
As the article continued, it became clear that the reasons why working mums feel overworked (wherever they are in the world) is because we just don’t delegate, and we can become so stuck on what we see as perfection, that we won’t give other people a chance to help reduce the workload. As the mother in the article, Giselle Lloyd, said: “My husband is very domesticated and does his own washing and ironing, but I won’t let him anywhere near my own clothes or my baby’s because he has this way of ruining them.
“I consider myself lucky that he pulls his weight. But sometimes if you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.”
Now that the Easter holidays are in full swing, if you are juggling work and looking after the children with your spouse or partner, you will get increasingly frustrated if you don’t start to think logically about this need to do something “right” and work out if that really is the case or whether you just want it done your way.
He can’t be useless at everything, surely?
Now, if he’s a walking hazard when it comes to washing the clothes, surely he can wash the dishes, or hoover and mop, or do some cooking – anything while you are doing other chores?
Even Superwoman takes her cape off once in a while
Then you need to decide whether feeling dog tired all the time is worth getting things done the way only you can do it, or whether you could benefit from the help that your spouse – and children – can and should be giving you around the house so that you have enough energy left to enjoy spending time with your family and not dread the school holidays as much.
Don’t let perfection” lead you to an early grave
The other consideration is that if you don’t stop picking at everything, you will end up doing it all, while your other half gets to put his feet up and relax (even though you are both tired from work), and while your children do the same. The end result will be that you will go back to work even more tired and stressed out than you were before the holidays…or heading towards a meltdown…again.
Food for thought…
