For months, the advert dubbed ‘Share the load’ has been driving buzz in India. In it, a familiar, yet less thought about aspect of family life takes centre stage. The five-minute production shows how an elderly man, on a visit to his daughter’s home finds himself asking some pertinent questions.
While the old man is playing with his grandson, his daughter walks in from work. She is on phone, answering a client. She hands her dad his return ticket, undresses her son and puts the dirty laundry in the washing machine, gathers the little boy’s toys which had been strewn all over the sitting room and then heads to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Still on phone explaining the work issue to the client.
Her husband, on the couch with his laptop, calls out to her to find and iron his green shirt. With his gaze fixed on his daughter, the old man has a conversation with himself. First, he says how proud he is of the “superwoman” she had evolved into. Then, he makes an apology.
A mother’s job
First, for the fact that while she played housewife as a little girl, he forgot to tell her that housework was not only a mother’s job. Second, he apologises on behalf of his son-in-law, her husband, whose dad he bets didn’t do much around the house and consequently, could not feel the tug to help out.
He then makes a commitment, that even at that age, he was going to right his wrong, by helping out his wife, her mother, in house chores. True to his word, he is showed arriving home, unpacking and doing his laundry himself to the shock of his wife who watches him with a baffle. The advert ends with a question, why is laundry only a mother’s job?
Now, for all its good intentions, this ad was received with mixed feelings. The Youtube comments are marred with men calling out its creators for showing men in bad light, not showing the struggle the husband should have gone through the whole day to provide for the family.
Away from this ad, in real life, men’s lethargy towards housework is not new. Sharon Atieno, a housewife and mother of two attests to this. Her husband approaches housework like one would approach a plague.
“I’m used to the fact that he hates housework and there is nothing I can do to change that,” Atieno says. Although she has made peace with this, Atieno wishes he could do more, especially during the holiday when she has to multitask with the children around.
Timothy Mununa, a carpenter in Kireka, says he is not enthusiastic about chores, and with good reason. “With my hectic work, I go home tired and all I need is rest. I cannot imagine myself going back to wash utensils!” he confesses.
Impression on others
Collins Opio, 30, administrator, shares Mununa’s sentiments. However, for him, a certain occurrence led to change his attitude to chores. As newlyweds, Opio says he helped his wife with chores as he thought it only fair.
To his dismay, one day, when his elder brother visited them, his wife told him to take care of the dinner utensils while she waltzed away to the bedroom.
“It was embarrassing doing that with my brother around, it was demeaning. He left thinking of me as henpecked,” he explains. He now thinks men and women should stick to their lanes; men to provide for the family while the women administer the home.
Despite the above sentiments, there are men who have no qualms about chores such as Joseph Nsereko, a PR practitioner. To him, doing house work is not a big deal and whenever he is able to, he gladly chips in. As far as he is concerned, there is no such a thing as men’s or women’s roles, especially in this era. “Women contribute financially to the well being of households.
I don’t see why I should say I won’t help out with chores.” He does chores, as long as they benefit his homestead.
0 comments:
Post a Comment