I Don’t Help My Wife, We Share Responsibilities

My wife and I share responsibilities. I don’t help my wife around the house and I never intend to. I will not act like a guest, waiting to be served.

Nor will I be a spectator, watching my wife run from one side of the house to the other all day long. I’m not going to sit and watch while she does and arranges everything. From day one I understood the responsibility of a relationship and of being a father.

From the very beginning, I understood that I am my wife’s partner. I love her and we have chosen the beautiful path to start a family together. Having a family means enjoying the good parts and accepting the bad parts.

I knew from day one that sharing responsibilities was crucial. As a father I am part of the household and that means I also participate in the household activities. I do the dishes, iron, change diapers and cook. None of those things embarrass me or make me wish I was single.

That to me means being a better man. Unfortunately, the reality in today’s world is that in many home skins this is not the case. Women are often the ones who take care of everything. The men are just spectators doing other things.

But when we think of our children, the best example we can give them is one of a united family sharing household chores fairly together.

I don’t help my wife, we share the responsibilities

This point always remains current. What is worth more – the work in or around the house? The question I ask myself when I’m with my friends is  ‘Do we appreciate the work of our women, both in and around the house?’

“Recently I did the dishes and my wife didn’t thank me.”  It’s a phrase we’ve all heard from time to time.

If you think about it for a moment,  why would my wife thank me for something that helps improve our family life?

Why should she thank me for something she often does without anyone seeing or thanking her?

That’s why I don’t consider it “helping” my wife. She doesn’t need anyone’s help. She is independent and fully capable of taking care of everything at home and at work.

What she and I both need is a companion. We need to support each other, even if she can only do it when she needs to.

I don’t help my wife clean the house. I too am just trying to make the space in which we live together decent. I disinfect and clean up for the simple reason that I also live here, under the same roof.

No, I don’t help my wife cook. I just jump in and share this responsibility, because I eat too. And by doing that, I’m getting dirty dishes and utensils, which means it’s also my responsibility to clean up afterwards.

I don’t help my wife with the kids. I care about the children because they are my children too. Ours.

I don’t help my wife at home, I do my part

Wash, make up, fold the clothes of the whole family. Cleaning up toys. Teaching the children mathematics. Working in the garden.

Whatever it is that needs to be done, know that I am not only helping at home, but a part of the family. That’s why I participate in it as I do.

I will never again think that household chores are just the woman’s job. Regardless of whether I grew up with ideas about the roles of the husband and wife, what my parents taught me, or what I learned in school. I’m lucky with the family I have. I want to be a positive example for my children.

I want to treat my wife like a partner and not act like a guest.  I want to do this because I appreciate my wife and everything she does for our family. I respect her as she is. That’s exactly how I want her to treat me.