tubley, what works best for you might not work as well for others. My dinner preperations don't go nearly as well if I keep interupting them to do other things - maybe that male anti-multitasking gene. My ironing generally happens on as needs basis with occasional batch jobs (a quiet evening or wet weekend day etc) to clear the pile. Trying to get it ironed as I got it off the clothes line sounds like a pain.

I enjoy the house tidy but even more I prefer a life that lets me fit in otherthings that need doing (or which I want to do) as well. Clean, definately but cleanliness has degrees to it.

I suspect that this whole topic has a number of different faces.
- Guys like myself and others who have posted here who quite happily do housework but who may have different priorities to their partners when doing the housework.
- Men who think that housework is womens work and just don't do regardless of how their partners workload.
- Women who want the stay at home wife thingy but also want the shared housework bit regardless of their husbands external workload. Add to that women who think that housework should be shared 50/50 but car cleaning, gardening, mowing, gutter cleaning etc is "mens work".
- Maybe a small percentage of women who expect to be kept in the style they would like to become accustomed to and don't think they should have to do any work. Very rare I hope.
- Those couples who find a mix that works for them where they both find a way to live with the other without bullying or resentment.

Cheers
R0bert

RObert

While the prospect of housework, at least the way I described it, may seem daunting, it is actually not such a big task if you make the commitment to staying on top of it.

You mention that you prefer a life that allows you to do other things - same with me. I work as well as coach, and I participate in sport fairly often, and still have time to do all the housework and post on this wonderful site.

Not trying to criticise you, I'm just saying because the transition I have made to a stronger commitment to housework has been highly beneficial to my lifestyle and I highly recommend it.

ROFL, this thread is turning into a comparison of househusband notes :)

Well just to drag the male gender down, I have to admit that I am hopeless at housework, simply because I find it totally boring.

I don't believe that great housekeeping is gender related, its more about how our brains are wired. My brother shares my genetic background, the dna just combined in a different way, so we are totally different. His life is structured and ordered, within the 4 walls of a little box, everything in order. He has a 9-5 job.

My life has been one of innovation, thinking outside the square, creating new industries, pioneering new ideas, kind of organised chaos :) My house and lifestyle reflect all that.

So I find it far easier to just pay somebody to come in once a week and clean up the mess that the three dogs and I create...

I know women who insist on having their cd collection in alphabetical order, there are men like that too. Quite frankly somebody like that would drive me totally nuts.

So I've learnt to accept that I might have great cooking skills and other skills, but no housewifely skills whatsoever. Sheesh, we can't be good at everything :)

Ok all, it is with great deliberation that I bring myself to post here so as not to cause myself injury. I am a male but am now seriously looking at alternatives.

You can stereotype me till the cows come home if you wish but the dusting gets done when it is thick enough to plow and the mess is just a significant departure from the accepted system of filing. The woman that I am seeing is a great cook, wonderful organiser and a meticulous planner. What a waste it would be to double up on strengths such as these…NAY, it would be a cruel act on my part to diminish her contributions by arguing a case for my own input into improving her basic traits…

Around the home I am basically an ideas man. In the past, ‘ideas men’ have been cruelly subjected to taunts of laziness and I would spend much of my energies defending myself against such baseless allegations if I could be bothered and the cricket wasn’t on the tele. My ideas usually centre around the fact that they are better than one previously put forward that would obligate an unnecessary amount of exertion compared to outcome, on my part.

To some I am an anachronism, to others I am a stereotypical bloke and to the woman I am seeing…well, I must be something, I guess… but to me I am just me. I think I need a lie down now...

What's the point of having a dog if you have to do the barking yourself?

Nah, it's better for a bloke to stay single.

Very witty Craig Blanch.
oh Maximus, I wouldn't usually agree men should stay single, but in your case I make an necessary exception.