Friday, August 05, 2005

Even Mike at Full Time Father is getting weary of the debate he started on housework, but I still think it's great that the issue has been raised. I have to admit to be conflicted on this one: I've used a cleaning service in the past (which did great things for my marriage), but I still have concerns about the cost, especially for a one-income family. It doesn't take many cleaning service visits to pay for an iPod ... or a family vacation.

For a more comprehensive set of critiques, surf through yesterday's comments or read through the comments at Half Changed World's post on the topic.

That said, I'll give Mike the last word (from his final post on this):
Fact One: Housework is a huge bone of contention among many, many moms, dads, mothers and fathers, based on what I hear at playgrounds, in the media, and read in blogs. Aside from a few housework fetishists who have emerged in the last 72 hours, for most it is a clear negative.

Fact Two: More than 90% of fathers with young children are in the workforce, as are more than 60% of mothers of young children. (I am citing these stats from memory--I could be off a bit.)

Now, I happen to believe that society would be better off if parents--some combination of dads and moms--spent more time with their kids. That is one reason I believe children would benefit if our society decoupled housework from child-rearing.

It is my contention that more dads, and more moms, would be willing to be at home parents if it did not mean they were expected to be housemaids as well.

So for me, spreading the message that you can be an at home parent without cleaning toilets is a way to advance my public policy goal, which is to get parents to spend more time with their kids.
Oh, and by the way: men's rights kingpin Glenn Sacks is on the case of NBC's Meet Mister Mom. Glenn, you may recall, was the guy who helped get Verizon to yank a dumb-dad commercial last year. I can't endorse (or relate to) much of what Glenn does, but it'll be interesting to see if anything comes of his anti-NBC crusade.

Also: I'm sure I promised some people links to their sites or posts about their groups this week. Those will be coming after the weekend. Promise.

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