Domestic Duties

When I approach our shelf of candy-coloured cleaning chemicals, or take the vacuum in my hand, something happens to my attention span. It collapses in on itself like an anemone.

As a cleaner, I exhibit all the worst characteristics in any worker – I’m inefficient, tardy, lacking in initiative and I can’t concentrate on one thing long enough to get it done properly.

So that’s me. As to the other cleaner within the family, I will table the last census as Exhibit A. The census landed like an incendiary device in our household. All thanks to that one little question, which asked Person 1 (me) to calculate the average weekly hours Person 2 (him) spent on domestic work.

Continue reading "I’m coming clean about my aversion to housework" »

A story recently published on news.com.au about a policy from Million Dollar Woman offering stay at home parents compensation if they are unable to work, totally bemused me. Well not so much the story, which was great. It was the accompanying poll that grabbed my attention. The poll simply asked “Should stay-at-home mums be compensated if they get sick?”

Now given that in order to receive the compensation you have to have taken out an insurance policy to the tune of $40 or $60 a month for the Day-to-Day Living Expenses Cover to pay you either $1,000 or $1,500 fortnightly, it seems a no-brainer to me. Absolutely I say, compensate.

This is a simple insurance policy protecting in most cases the primary care giver in the family. It is not subsidised by the tax payer. It costs us nothing. So given that it is a self-funded voluntary insurance, why would anyone respond to that poll question with a No?

Continue reading "Why shouldn’t we be able to insure domestic labour?" »

Young Australians have often been labelled as lazy and lacking many crucial skills, leaving many older Australians to worry about the future of this country, left in the hands of those who lack the ability to look after themselves.

A bunch of survey results released recently echo these fears, focusing on the loss of traditional knowledge in the younger generation.

Simply put, women are not learning the skills that traditionally women once knew, and men are losing the manly abilities they once had.

Continue reading "HE SAYS: At least I can use an Allen key" »