In the outside world, both men and women play equal roles in their professional lives but they do not follow or understand the same equality at home. When a man and woman come together to make a home for them, usually the mental pressure to keep the household in place is put on to the women. As a result, women tend to overstretch their days to finish off the workload before and after their day jobs that leave them sleep-deprived.
Here, I would like to share my story of #ShareChoresMultiplyLove. I live in a family with 2 women in the house, my mother and wife. Both of them are housewives and indulge in household chores every time I see them. I never had a thought to share #ShareTheLoad with them because I thought women are meant to do all these works and it is only their responsibility to never complain and keep working. But when my mother felt ill and my house is the only one to take care of everything, I felt a bit sad. Few days after that, I started doing all my work by myself. Despite having limited knowledge of cooking, I started taking charge of the household chores. It made everyone so happy that they also got inspired by me and started doing everything on their own. This is how I #ShareTheLoad with my family. Now, we all had assigned chores from bedding, dusting the house, drying the clothes, folding them in the evening, and helping with the kitchen. Now, my mother is very proud to see how men in the family can #ShareTheLaundry and balance everything in everyone’s life.
But the story doesn’t end here. Later, I realized that most households did not run like that. “If each individual in the family does their basic part, and looks after themselves, women too will have better lives. One of the most infuriating scenarios of Indian society that I have observed in most households is that men are not even taught to keep their unclean dishes in the sink.
Change indeed begins at home and one step towards that is to involve the entire household in chores and treat housework like everyone’s responsibility. I am really happy to see the wave of change Ariel is trying to bring through its #ShareTheLoad movement and curb gender inequality starting from home.
I will #ShareTheLoad and help in household chores in association with Ariel India and Blog Adda.’
