Yes, my guess was that it was a bit dumbed down by the publisher. It was footnoted, but only loosely. I tried to find the source for some claims and they weren’t footnoted.

Either that or guilt.

Pavlov’s Cat:

In my own house-sharing phases, with one or more people of either or both genders, I have always been prepared to do the ironing in order to get out of cleaning the bathroom. Rosters based on task preference do actually work.

Not always! In my experience of share houses, having offered (and done) all sorts of tasks to get out of cleaning the bathroom, the person (of whatever gender) who’s offered to do the latter can always find a more pressing engagement.

One could also refer to false advertising on the part of those cleaning product makers who claim that you just have to spray your shower and all the scum will magically disappear in this context!

My neighbour tells me she can’t stand the sight of her husband doing those chores; she says it would worry her that he is becoming a poof (which I wouldn’t mind because he’s kinda cute).

This, however, may well be down to her “temperament”.

I agree with most of the distinctions you make. Particularly childcare and ‘housework’ are different, though there are plenty of people who enjoy housework. I think some people do get satisfaction from keeping a place clean and tidy – but I won’t press that point. But ‘housework’ usually includes cooking and I love cooking. (I do much less of it than when I was single because my wife is so fastidious!). When I said this to Mark B, he said he hates cooking but enjoys washing up. So it takes all sorts.

you asked “Is there the suggestion that the care of children and the fastidiousness of housecleaning is a biological/genetic difference?”

It’s not necessary to the argument I’m making. I’m saying that the division of labour is less foisted on women than is suggested in the quote – that it is more a freely chosen division of labour than it is given credit for in the quote. So I don’t need to know the extent to which it’s nature or nuture to make the claim. My own guess is that both reinforce each other.

Since you ask, ‘No Newts’ is a piece of foolishness from a series of cartoons I did featuring frogs such as the one you see above.

Is there the suggestion that the care of children and the fastidiousness of housecleaning is a biological/genetic difference? Admittedly people whose reproductive systems are based on vaginas and ovaries that are functioning* are required to give birth to offspring – but the rest doesn’t necessarily follow

Barbara Pocock has done some research on school aged pre teens and adolescents about their ideas of child rearing and house cleaning. What was interesting was over 90% of the respondents said that they wanted to share the cleaning and the caring, however it was mostly the male respondents who said that if they could get out of it they would – suggesting that culture plays a role as well (to what extent who can say).

* I use this terminology because there are many people who from birth had vaginas and ovaries but for whatever reason do not function, and the issue of transgender surgery…

Some of my best friends have been described as newts, well, pissed as newts anyway.

For more information petaining to newts http://www.newts.org/newt/

Also, heterosexually attached men should be aware that, however unPC it may be, any woman who is not knackered and resentful from a long day’s housework is going to be that much more up for a bit of a good time at the end of the day.

My wife always sees problems with my cleaning of the house and could never understand how I would play with them, both boys, to the detriment of not doing the household chores.

The young ones was not as hyperbolic as it seemed when first viewing the series!!

Housework – as a women myself (unlike most of your commentators) I don’t believe that we are more fastidious than men, just by the time we get into our twenties, the product of a huge amount of conditioning that (for women) says that its our job to pick up after people and (for men) says that pretending to be incompetent and waiting it out is a great way to get out of it (and that it’s women’s work). Have a look at an early twenties couple (without kids) these days. You’ll probably find a much more equal sharing of the housework than an equivalent older couple.

Childcare – that’s an incredibly complex topic. But the short answer is that as most women take at least six months maternity leave, they end up with a huge advantage in knowing how to do childcare by the time any couple moves back to full time work. If women weren’t better at it without six months fulltime training, compared with a bit of training on the weekends and evenings (and that’s providing the expert is willing to train them) then there would be something wrong with them. That doesn’t mean that women are innately better than men, just that they have learned on the job. And men are just as capable of learning, but rarely get the opportunity, as once someone is demonstrably more competent, it’s harder for them to learn without conscious effort from both parents.

A declaration of interest here – I’m the breadwinner in my family. My husband has an evening part time job, and he does a great job of looking after our children and our house in that order. We both made a conscious effort to give him some learning time at the beginning, and now he is the more competent parent (just watch either of us trying to get our two preschoolers out of the door in under 10 minutes).

Both of us hate housework, but he does more of it, as he is at home more, and has to live in it.

At the moment it seems to be okay to catch people who might know and torture them.

I know, a trash remark. Here’s a genuine oddity though: given that men are supposed to be temperamentally unable to be neat and tidy, how come so many sheds are meticulously organised?

Teething problems old boy – and I don’t really disagree with you either.

I’m reliably informed I’m logged in as NG this time – not ‘administrator’ and I’ve fixed the previous comment – as mine and not administrators too.

Btw – it’s a bit odd reading your comments as coming from “Administrator”.