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| Way to gateaux |
Yesterday, I wrote of my worries about raising feminist boys when I’m in charge of domestic things.
The responses were supportive and considered – and really got me thinking. Especially one that more or less said “stop being a doormat and make things change”. You could call it “tough supportive”.
It was right. It’s time.
Let’s face it, the boys and man in this house aren’t in any rush to move towards equality – especially if it means they have more work to do. Why would they?
It did make me ponder whether or not some cases of sexism – gender role imbalances, if you like – aren’t entirely down to idleness. Today the doormat began to turn, or the worm decided no one was going to wipe their feet on her…
So I called a house meeting. Boys One, Two and the Panther of News all nodded and agreed. “Of course it wasn’t fair.” “Of course, we’ll do more.” “A rota, great idea.”
Boys One and Two are going to take alternate days of being in charge of keeping the kitchen and sitting room tidy while the Panther of News has promised to spend more time climbing laundry mountain. And, they all agree they’ll be cheery and enthusiastic when presented with a chore…
We’ll see. I suspect the family meeting will become a regular feature.
And the cake?
Today’s the last phase of Boy Two’s 11th birthday celebrations – the cinema sleepover. Currently three overexcited visiting boys and my son are plotting ways to keep themselves awake ALL NIGHT.
He asked for chocolate cake which I baked while the Panther snoozed and Boys One and Two played on their computers. Chocolate cake with added irony then.
The cake looks good. My conclusions are that boys/men really don't see jobs that need to be done, plus their tolerance of the mess/noise/lack of clean clothes or dishes is greater than ours. Mostly I do cleaning/tidying because I can't stand the way it looks….if I left it, probably, maybe, it would be sorted but I might have waited a week or more for that pile of newspapers to be put out. And the other thing is that trying to enforce order just turns me into a shrew and a nag!!! There's no win for anyone, unless we all have separate cocoons we are individually responsible for.