Dust in the Wind

Yesterday, we were on our way back home from a day at my husband's parents' house. We were doing our typical debrief session (do you do that on your way home, too?) and I told my hubby that I observed how his mom is always looking for something to do in order to maintain their home. She rarely sits down to watch television or surf the net. Here what our debrief looked sounded like:

A: Your mom mentioned that she vacuumed and dusted before she came to our house on Tuesday, just because she had a few extra minutes. I wish we were more like that.

B: Yeah, me too.

A: She's so lucky she didn't grow up in the internet generation. She doesn't know all the things she's missing online.

B: That's true [laughter]. I wish we did more of that kind of cleaning on a regular basis, too. We never dust and we rarely vacuum. I've never dusted since moving in to our house.

A: I dust all the time.

B: Oh, you do?

A: Yes.

B: I was wondering why it wasn't more dusty. Thanks for doing that!

We both laughed. At least he's grateful, right?

Two Men Have Spoken

And I'm looking for more voices. A couple of daddys replied to me on google+ that their form of kin work is blogging and posting Facebook photos of and updates about their children for their networks. They likened this to their form of scrapbooking. I'm asking for more information!



I ask you, dear readers, what are other forms of kin work done by dads? What did your dads do? What do you notice your husbands doing? What do you want your husbands to do?

TIME Magazine Article "Chore Wars:" Part I

My friend and fellow blogger, Emily, pointed me to an article in Time Magazine, written by Ruth Davis Konigsberg. Of course, I had to go pick it up!

The article states, "Men are now pulling their weight--at work and at home. So why do women still think they're slacking off?" Specifically, Konigsberg uncovers that women and men's work days are almost exactly the same: 8 hr 11 min for men, 8 hr 3 min for women.

Men are more involved in the 2nd shift of cleaning, laundry, cooking, and more. However, nowhere in the article was the 3rd shift of planning, preparing, and conducting traditions and making family time meaningful mentioned.

Konigsberg surmises, "The gender inequity that persists, then, is in access to high-quality leisure time, which, for whatever reasons, men seem able to claim--and protect from contamination--than women."

Well, kin work is among the elusive "reasons" for this imbalance in leisure time.

As mentioned in my first post, our culture does not think of kin work as work. Does this mean it can't be fun? No. It just means it's not leisurely. It's not like getting a pedicure or sipping margaritas. Combined the two, you say? That was my first thought, too. And that's just the idea most women have had, according to the article. In 1998, mothers reported that 50% of their leisure time was combined with child-care activities. Adding a margarita or pedicure to the mix might make the 2nd and 3rd shifts more leisurely, but...

Check in for Part II tomorrow.