The spirit of conquering the unconquered traveling to place no man has traveled before has been a part of human psyche. So be it go around the world or discover new continents or traverse the vast expanses of space men have always been fascinated by and eager to explore the uncharted waters however the irony of humans is that there are some bastions closer to home that still remain unconquered and unexplored by most men. Look no further check out your laundry room or perhaps your back yard where the wet clothes of your house are spread out to dry.
Had it not been the case then why would 76% of married men in India believe that not helping with Laundry at home still makes them a great role model for their children.
Then there are 81% of married men in India who agree that their daughters must learn household chores
That's not right as from early childhood the girls are made to believe that laundry is a women’s job and 78% of girls in India agree that they should learn Laundry as they will have to do it when they grow up.
The thought process that doing Laundry falls under a women’s domain the proof of which is the fact that
2 out of every 3 children think that washing clothes is a mothers job.
So when wearing clothes is not considered unmanly then what is it that men shy away from the act of cleaning the very clothes that they wear?
When I read these stats I feel really bad about these numbers as I really feel left out and in the minority suddenly. I find I am not in the league of the majority of men who do so many things in their lives like conquer mountains and scale the depth of the deepest oceans yet they do not do their own laundry.
Alas when I was a child, right from that time there was a culture of sharing the load. Be it doing the Laundry or other household chores the gender divide never entered our household.
We used to get together on weekends and do the laundry together. The process started with the separation of the colored clothes from the whites. Then we used large buckets and tubs to soak the clothes in detergents and soaps. Then after leaving them to get soaked well and get cleaned up we would take them out, wring out the excess soap and wash them in clean water. Then it would be time to spread them out on the clothes line to dry. Do you thing this was boring? Not at all we sang songs and asked riddles as we went about our job of washing our clothes merrily. Ones we had the clothes drying on the clothes lines it created the perfect opportunity for us children to play a game of hide and seek .The elders by now would have settled on easy chairs sipped some tea and chatted happily as they kept a watchful eye on us kids These were some memorable times we had while doing the laundry. Then when we got our first washing machine the schedule got modified a bit as there was no more soaking of clothes in buckets but we still continued the practice of drying the moist clothes on the cloth lines and our playing together and merrymaking continued as a family . Looking at these stats I wonder as to the fun and the family bonding that we enjoyed as we went through the ritual of washing our weekly laundry as a collective family chore without bothering about the fact that the rest of the country around us was being divided over gender lines as to who would and would not be doing the laundry
“I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.”
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