How to secure a family unit where everyone has responsibilities and chores? How to avoid overloading any specific family member? With Covid-19 pandemic, kids having to be home-schooled, parents working from home and in many countries even lock-down, the workload increased in disproportional ways to all women.

Somehow it is expected that the women would be able to:

• carry their full-time job (from home),
• home-school the kids,
• prepare all meals to the family (now even lunch and snacks during the day),
• keep the house in order and
• be a loving wife and mother

Needless to say, this is absolutely un-sustainable.

The amount of stress, anxiety and feeling overwhelmed skyrocket among women in 2020.

We need to spread the message that in a family unit everyone has responsibilities and chores (even the kids). It’s important to have a family meeting and assign responsibilities to all.

Actionable advice: Make a chart with the decisions reached during the meeting and post on the fridge if necessary. Then hold everyone accountable!

In my house we have some clear divisions:

Husband:

Responsible for kitchen (keeping it clean, doing the dishes, cooking most of dinners with extra portions for lunch on the following day), doing weekly groceries, cleaning bathrooms on our cleaning days, supporting kids with homework. He also drops the kids to school every morning.

Wife (me):

Responsible for laundry, doing breakfast and snacks, supporting kids with homework, driving kids to extra-curricular activities, vacuuming and mopping the house on our cleaning days. I pick up the kids from school every day.

Kids:

Responsible to do their homework, read at least 30 minutes per day, study Portuguese/English for 30 minutes every day, collect and organize all toys before going to bed, fix their clothes for the following day every evening, play outdoors for at least 1 hour to get fresh air, shower and take care of their personal hygiene.

In our cleaning days, my son is responsible for wiping all surfaces in the house and my daughter to change all bedsheets and towels. During the other days, if they want to earn some money, they can choose to help with other additional house chores, as cooking, doing the dishes, laundry, watering the plants, etc. We made a price list of how much a chore is worth and pay them weekly.

With this split of tasks, it seldom feels overwhelming to anyone and we all can function well in the family unit and as individuals.

Take responsibility to achieve equality in your home. Build a a family unit where everyone has responsibilities.