Home life

doodlebuggmommy

New to the board. Just wondering how everyone divides up household responsibilities? We have two kids one and two and my husband works out of town 2 weeks out of every three. What goes down in your houses?

Starcross86

DH and I work together, but he pull longer hours and is on call 24/7. I tend to do most of the house work, as I care more and I have more free time then he does. I do leave the Home repairs to him and yard work as well. However if I get burnt out all I have to do is ask him to take over once in a while. 

ashleybunny8

DH and I both work full-time. He also goes to school two nights a week, and I go to the gym 4 times a week. We don't have any kids yet, but I have a cat, Evie, and I take care of all of her stuff (litter box, feeding, brushing, etc).

We split household duties as follows:
He: mows the yard, trims trees, cleans his office and the garage, maintains the cars, pays the bills.

I: most of the deep-cleaning housework (dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, etc), cooking (I love to cook and DH doesn't know how!), grocery shopping, cat upkeep, and random errands (picking up dry cleaning, dropping off checks, etc)

We both do: laundry, cleaning the bathroom (I clean my side, he cleans his), general picking-up stuff around the house, dishes, and small yard work (weeding, fertilizing, etc.)

It's a pretty even split and it works for us, since we are usually both home for the same amount of time. Another thing we do is we have "off" nights. Usually every Friday night we will go out with our respective friends- he is with the guys, I am with the girls- just to keep from going crazy from being around each other too much.

chrisnjay05212010

I work a regular M-F, 9-5. My husband is a NYC police officer and works all sorts of hours.

I do all the house work- cleaning, cooking, taking care of our dog and cat, grocery shopping, laundry, pay the bills, etc. I also take care of the flowers and weeding outside in the flower beds.

DH handles all the car stuff, mowing the lawn and other lawn care, snow removal (except i shovel the stairs) in the winter, working whatever overtime he can to help us and any kind of home repairs.

If I needed help, I could ask him but i dont mind taking caring of it, I like our house neat and its easier for me to do it plus i have the time too.  

GilliC

I handle all of the household responsibilities. Cooking, cleaning, small repairs, paying bills, etc.  I tried to get my two cats to pitch in, but they are lousy at housework, so I gave up. (And don't get me started on their cooking!)

Kat174

It's just me and the puppy dog and she just doesn't pull her weight... so I do it all! 

dancingphalanges

Very often, we will clean together.  I'll throw clothes on the wash, he'll dry them, and we'll fold together; we lately have also been cooking and doing the dishes and such after dinner together also.  I'm not really all that certain how exactly they do split up, because we don't have an agreement and we both tackle housework without the other asking.  He does work more hours than me--he travels and works overtime a lot--so I might put in a little extra, but we are both happy with the way things see to be divided.  He also does most of the yardwork. 

ashleybunny8

GilliC:

I handle all of the household responsibilities. Cooking, cleaning, small repairs, paying bills, etc.  I tried to get my two cats to pitch in, but they are lousy at housework, so I gave up. (And don't get me started on their cooking!)

i am LOLing over here!!

arhayden1

My husband has two children 11 and 14 from a previous marriage that we have Mon/Thurs evenings and Friday-Saturday. I often cook when I get home from work unless its Monday when I close clinic and the oldest also has practice until 715 that night so that is usally left overs. The children are responsible for cleaning off there own plate and putting in dishwasher. Me and my husband alternate the rest of dishes if you cooked the other does the dishes. The kids cook Saturday eve with help, alternate weeks. The of course clean their rooms weekly and the older one get allowance for their bathroom. I generally do the laundry because I have a day off durning the week and it just works out that way 

Jim&Jaime

doodlebuggmommy:

New to the board. Just wondering how everyone divides up household responsibilities? We have two kids one and two and my husband works out of town 2 weeks out of every three. What goes down in your houses?

Do you work outside the home? I think this could/should, IMO, make a big difference.

MommyLiberty5013

Jim&Jaime:

doodlebuggmommy:

New to the board. Just wondering how everyone divides up household responsibilities? We have two kids one and two and my husband works out of town 2 weeks out of every three. What goes down in your houses?

Do you work outside the home? I think this could/should, IMO, make a big difference.

This. DH works irregular hours (commercial pilot) and is gone a lot. I am a SAHM. He does have long stretches at home (can be as long as a week at a time), during which he does the outdoor work and actually quite a bit of child care (he values building relationships with the kids).

Since I do not work outside the home, I feel that it is my duty to not burden him with the household chores. So I do all the laundry, most of the cleaning, grocery shopping, and most dinners (he does grill when I need him to).

I don't think there is one correct formula for this. It all depends on the couple and whether or not they both work outside the home. Personally, I think it would be unfair of me to expect DH to do household chores when he has a FT job outside of our home.

doodlebuggmommy

I have a direct sales job that I do from home and the two little ones

moonprincessd

Husband works full time, I work part time. As for living in an apartment, I do most of the chores (laundry, washing dishes - no dishwasher, cooking, cleaning). However, he gets the dirty stuff (clean cat litter and take out trash). And when I don't cook, he knows how to make a frozen pizza, lol!

Now that we bought a house, he'll be doing a bit more. Not really chores, but building stuff, fixing stuff, etc.. We plan to keep the same chores we have now, except I'll have a dishwasher and will no longer waste time washing dishes!  

As for mowing the lawn and shoveling snow, that will most likely go to him. But I get bored enough sometimes where I'll probably just do it.  

music11

We both work full time, in addition to having active music careers.  My commute is an hour-plus each way, and his is only five minutes, so I think sometimes he gets stuck with more of the day-to-day things (dishes, cat litter).  I always clean the bathroom, and usually end up doing the floors. He also does the lawn, but I will help shoveling snow in the winter.

tiamo111404

It varies on any given day but I think we are pretty traditional in our roles, i.e. I clean, cook, laundry, make the bed.. where hubby does pool maintenance, trash, lawn, weeds, fixing random things, and mans the BBQ. I work a Monday 9-5 type job where DH works various shifts, lots of over time - so if he isn't there to take the garbage out I do it, or if he is off on a weekday while I am at work, he will prepare dinner. He always helps with clean up and laundry if he is home as well.