audreyh1 said:
Funny how chores evolve to be assigned to one or the other.
I think it's a combination of people doing what they enjoy, are capable of, or don't hate
too much while avoiding the chores they can't stand.
She likes to tidy up but doesn't do the heavy duty cleaning and organizing - so she vacuums every day while I'm the one that polishes the wood floors or reseals the tile. She hates to cook, so I do most of the grocery shopping and cooking. The kids clean up, do the dishes and take out the trash - then she comes along and handles whatever they failed to do to her satisfaction.
I'll do laundry, but have a dislike of folding the finished product - so she winds up doing most of that chore while occasionally I just put stuff in the machines and then hand her the clean clothes to fold.
Purchasing and maintaining all things electrical, mechanical or computer are strictly my job. That includes gassing up the cars. She will put a few bucks in when she's on "E", but she can't stand to fill them up so I get that chore.
I do the investment research and wind up making most of the financial decisions(she can't stand dealing with it), but she's the shopping expert and finds bargains, as well as being the frugal one who points out when I'm being foolish with money.
She loves to paint, so she just spent a couple of weeks repainting some rooms and touching up the kitchen cabinets. I can do basic carpentry so I got to replace a door and frame, fix some damaged exterior siding, and hang new gutters.
She helped the kids with homework when they were younger, but I take over the primary responsibility for that once they get to middle school. She is the backup though, usually when one of them doesn't want to deal with dad's way of helping (
Mom, he makes me look up words in the dictionary / memorize the multiplication tables, etc.)
She loves to do the gardening (calls it "therapy"), but one of my projects in ER was to make them over. The result, IMHO, was better looking than what she had done. At the outset it was a chore because I just never found any enjoyment working in the yard. But after researching plants, doing the design work, shopping for materials, etc., I found it a fun challenge and I'm pleased with how it all turned out. Where responsibility lays for the continuing maintenance of the gardens is not clear at the moment. A landscape crew mows and trims the grass (they're very cheap and turn a half day job into a ten minute show for me to watch).