Pink and Blue Chores

I recently threw out the question to my Facebook friends about their husbands/boyfriends helping out with household duties. Do they? What do they do? How are chores distributed? Turns out most of my friends said yes, they help out. The men mostly do as one of my friends calls them “blue” chores. Meaning, they do the manly chores like take out the garbage, mow the lawn, wash the cars etc. My friend then went on to say she did "pink" chores like hard core cleaning and laundry. I think a lot of relationships are like this in general. Where men take care of what we think men should take care of, and women do the feminine chores.

In our household we pretty much do 50/50. Since my husband only goes to school 3 days a week he usually cooks during the week and I’ll cook on weekends. He also does those “blue” chores as well but the great thing about my husband is that he cleans too! For the most part I’ll clean every weekend and he’ll help here and there, but once a month we scrub our place from top to bottom and he really helps. In fact, for Valentine’s Day this year he scrubbed the apartment down and organized his entertainment center. It really was the best gift he could have gotten me. What I’m trying to say is our generation seems to have a different perspective than older ones when it comes to men helping out around the house. Men of this age recognize that taking care of one’s house is just as important as being at the office.

Growing up in a traditional Mexican household, I was raised with the idea that the men should be taken care of. I’ll reference one specific example so you can get an idea. At family gatherings or birthday parties, the women plate their husbands/children first and then sit down to eat. The men don’t usually serve themselves. I fall into this as well. At our family parties I always serve my husband because it’s what I know. At first he was a little confused but then as time went on he realized it was a cultural thing. Even if my husband cooked dinner in our household, I’ll still serve him. Growing up however, my father was the breadwinner and never cleaned or helped with the chores. He did cook for us all the time but he was never one to scrub the bathroom. My brother on the other hand, was taught how to clean and helped my mother and I clean the house every weekend.

So while I think it’s fantastic that men help out more now, I don’t know that I would mind if my husband didn’t do much at all. I was raised with that idea. I never thought much about it until I got married. Luckily I have a husband who is helpful and practices a less traditional manly role than I grew up with.

EMM