Are you giving your wife chocolate or flowers for Valentine’s Day? Both? Perhaps neither. If you want your marriage to last, it might be wiser to clean up the kitchen instead.
A recent poll conducted by Gleedon, a French dating website for married women, found that 73% of female subscribers decided to cheat on their husbands because he didn’t help with the housework. For women, it would appear that the top reason to reach for another man’s arms is feeling over-burdened at home.
Infidelity may still top the list as the most crucial marital deal-breaker, but an uneven distribution of household chores is now rated as the number three reason for marital unhappiness, and its importance has risen the fastest over the last twenty odd years. Back in 1990, a Pew Research study found that only 47% of adults said chore sharing was important to the success of a marriage. By 2007, that number had risen to 62%, with the recent French Gleedon poll suggesting it is now higher still.
This change is likely due to the sharp change in women’s status from home-maker to breadwinner over the last several decades. And while men have increased their share of household chores, I’m sorry to say that it’s still the women who do the bulk of the work.
To reduce marital strife, maybe men should ditch the chocolates this Valentine’s Day and put on the rubber gloves instead? Just a suggestion. As for my own husband, I have no complaints. He cleans the dishes more than I do!
About the Author: Rebecca Wong has a BA in English Literature from the University of Waterloo and has been working in the herbal business since 2000. She studied at the Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine under respected authorities Paul Des Rosiers and Vu Le, and graduated from the East West School of Planetary Herbology under Michael Tierra. She received training as a yoga teacher at The Branches in Kitchener/Waterloo, and therapeutic yoga teacher training from the School for Somatic Soulwork under Deniz Aydoslu. She now teaches yoga for anxiety, depression and burnout at Rebecca's Restful Yoga Studio in Toronto.