Or, better yet, split up the dirty work.
By
Sam Brodsky, Metro
A report from the Council on Contemporary Families (CCF) revealed
that, of all the household chores women want their male counterparts to
help out with, dishes take the cake. Good ol' washing and drying. The
research, slated for publication later this month, explained that women
who washed dishes a majority of the time
reported more relationship conflict and lower sexual satisfaction. (Code red.)
[post_ads]Doing chores that involve cleaning — which have been traditionally
viewed as "women's work" — are far from glamorous. Women resent taking
these on alone because they "see themselves as relegated to the tasks
that people don’t find desirable," Dan Carlson, assistant professor of
family and consumer studies at the University of Utah and lead study
author, told
The Atlantic.
Scrubbing dishes just happens to be the worst of these tasks.
"Doing dishes is gross," Carlson said. "There is old, moldy food
sitting in the sink. If you have kids, there is curdled milk in sippy
cups that smells disgusting." (Tell us something we don't know.)
Carlson added that splitting household chores, especially
dishwashing, benefits your relationship and pointed out that, unlike
other chores, washing dishes can easily be turned into a shared
activity. "My wife and I could take out the trash together, we could
clean the toilet together, but that wouldn’t make much sense," he
stated.
He’s got a point: there's washing and drying, or — more likely —
washing and dishwasher duty (i.e. putting dishes in the dishwasher).
[post_ads_2]
"Or they can take turns," co-author Sharon Sassler
told MarieClaire.com, "meaning
that one partner does not feel put upon every night. It seems to be
mainly about not having to deal, all alone, with the huge stack of
dishes in the sink."
[post_ads]Carlson
wrote in a release on the CCF site that
men who did the majority of cleaning tasks reported lower satisfaction
with their relationship and sex. But — and here’s the important part —
"they were just as satisfied when these tasks were shared as when their
partner did them." So, basically, sharing these tasks would make women
happier and keep men just as happy as when the cleaning is done for
them. There’s no harm there.
Also, just a note: A study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family in August 2016 reported that couples who
share household duties are having more sex.
So dive right into that soapy, soggy-food-infested water together and
do the dishes like grown adults. Your relationship will thank you.
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