Woman’s work: A light hearted rant at modern day life

This being the holiday season, my usual work blog is having a rest.

  ‘A woman’s work is never done’, I muttered to myself as I emptied the dishwasher at 1030 pm before going to bed. Why is it that women have an in- built radar which send them in the direction of picking things up off the floor, putting things away, clearing up and tidying up, whereas a man would happy walk past all of them? May be it is a trait that is gender specific?

No, it can’t be because Teenage Daughter does not possess the words ‘tidying up’ in her vocabulary. Clothes, towel, shoes have all been taken off and continue to occupy the space where they fell.

And why is it that women do “women’s work”? Who defined what women should do – my mother, my family, society, me? It seems to be the accepted norm in our household that I will undertake the work ‘inside’ of the house whilst Never at Home Husband does the work outside. I can change a tyre, wash a car, mow the lawn, change a light bulb, clear the drains and clean the windows (completed my Health and Safety ladder awareness course) so how come I end up doing the washing, ironing, vacuuming and tidying?

Well there is one idiosyncrasy in our household. Never at Home Husband does the weekly shop (when he’s at home). 8.05 am and he is in Waitrose, followed by Lishman’s for meat, Betty’s for bread, Sylvia’s Rips and Zips for dry cleaning. We try to buy locally to support local businesses. Recalling a recent event that I attended which was hosted by a public sector organisation at a hotel in Leeds, I wondered why we do not do the same for other industry sectors.

 The facilitators for the event were from a London based company whose bill would have included travel and overnight accommodation. When I enquired why they chose XYZ over a local company, the response was “oh we have always used XYZ”.  How about shopping around for a better deal like you do for your gas, or electricity, or car insurance? Why not use an equally competent, credible and reliable Yorkshire based company?

Returning home that day in a cynical mood, Never at Home Husband is on his laptop catching up on his emails, Teenage Daughter is on the VLE (virtual learning environment) on her Netbook and Growing up Fast Son is on the iPad doing research for his homework.

“Hi, I’m home, have you had a good day?” is greeted by ‘huh’ from Growing up Fast Son, “food’s in the bottom oven” from Never at Home Husband and “I’m good” from Teenage Daughter.

What kind of a sentence is ‘I’m good’?  As opposed to “I’m bad”? What happened to, “I am fine thank you” or “I have had a good day”? The most enthusiastic “I missed you, glad you are home” welcome is from the dog. Who ever coined the phrase “man’s best friend” was right.

The World Wide Web and social media is rapidly encroaching over our lives; Facebook for keeping in touch with friends, LinkedIn for building professional relationships and networking and Twitter for keeping people informed.

And then there’s texting! No one wants to have a voice to voice conversation any more. It’s ‘send me a text ‘, or ‘send me an email’. By the time it takes me to send a text it would be quicker to pick up the phone and have the conversation!

The art of conversation, dialogue and story- telling is dying out. My children delight in the stories that my father in law tells of his life as a child growing up in Low Moor and of the trials and tribulations of bringing up a family and running a business in Bradford and of his travels around the world.

I wonder when I am old, what mode I will be using to tell my stories and who will be listening?