If you’ve been at home more, it may feel like you’ve been doing more housework – cooking, cleaning, laundry, walking the dog, etc. What to do though if it feels like you’re doing that all on your own. Your spouse isn’t helping too much. Well, something that might help with that in this week’s Tune Up Tuesday – A little nugget you might be able to use to “tune up” your relationship. In addition to hosting this here radio program, I am a masters level therapist in training.
So, there are problems that can be solved and those that can be managed. I think the division of labor in a household can be solved, but perhaps not now. I know of one couple where the wife has been working 12 hour hospital shifts and the husband has a flexible work schedule during the day…but he’s trying to balance that with home schooling and feeding the kids. So, this may not be the best time to have the… “honey, I need you to help out more” chat.
Table that and for now…I’ve heard it said that a good rule of thumb is this – do as much as you can, express gratitude for your partner’s contribution, and accept that for now there’s likely too much to do. Trust that your partner is probably doing their best. And as things begin to smooth out… that’s when you can have that conversation about making systematic changes to your division of household duties.
