Doing Chores

A good man should be doing plenty of chores around the house. I try to do that playing to my strengths: I do lots of cooking, plenty of yard work, and a bit more than half the dishes, usually, while only doing a mediocre (needs improvement) or bad job on general cleaning, trash, recycling, and laundry. It's even getting to be well-known that doing chores around the house might confer benefits that even not-that-good men would find attractive.

As for my experience, doing chores isn't really a chore. It's kind of my way of feeling like I contribute to the household and help it function, particularly in the kitchen. I love to cook, so I cook. That makes a mess of the dishes, and so I frequently wash them. The tough part about chores is continuing to feel positive about them, particularly when there are people in your house (children, for instance) that are not so good at doing their share (or anything else for that matter) and tend to frustrate you by making far more than their share of the mess even under threat of destruction of most of their belongings (some of which have been acted upon still to little or no effect!). It's all a matter of mindset really... which can be helped tremendously by picturing the children growing up, moving out, and living in squalor until they figure it out and then do as I do with my mom: call and apologize for something I did as a child (which happens at least weekly, I think).

So, men out there, you can prove your worth and earn some serious good-man points by doing some basic chores, particularly once you're living together. It's really not that hard. If you feel like there's just not time in the day for that kind of thing, you can do what I did: turn off the tv (for good). :-)