Realization during Lockdown

What an irony it is that work is always valued, but household work is not only grossly undervalued, but even looked down upon. Fortunately, I was not the one who underestimated the household work. I have lived alone for a considerable period of time and have done all the chores by myself. Yet, it is equally true that post marriage, most of the household work was taken up by my wife. While I would be watching TV, she would be frying fresh batch of pakodas for me in the kitchen. While I would be surfing the net, she would be feeding the baby. Occasionally, I would help her out. But doesn’t the word occasionally say it all.

This lockdown changed the things for good. I was at home all the time. For the first time I saw all the effort that my wife undertook for the house. No selfish motives, no salary, no promotions, yet she continued to do the dread, uninteresting work every day and night. For all those men who ask their wives, what do you do the whole day, I ask them to give their wife a day’s off and do all the work by themselves.

Secondly, the house-help had stopped coming. The gym was closed. One fine day sitting with the calories counter in my hand, I calculated the calories burnt in doing all the household chores. They were far more than those which I would burn lifting the weights or running on the treadmill. ‘I will do the laundry and cook the dinner’, I said. ‘Thanks, but I will do it myself.’ She said. But I did not stop to listen to her. I was already picking clothes from the laundry bag.

As I did those manual chores suddenly my heart was filled with joy. Yes, I was providing the family with finances. But the joy of contributing to the family with physical labour is something which cannot be described in words. At the same time, I must also admit that the initial joy soon faded out, and the work became a routine, monotonous and boring activity. My wife was doing this for all these years. My heart was filled with gratitude and tears welled up in my eyes.  I committed to myself that I would continue doing these two tasks even after the lockdown was lifted. I promised myself that I would make it a lifelong task.

P.S. I don’t have a washing machine, so I manually wash the clothes. If I win this contest, I will wash in the machine.

ShareTheLoad  #ShareTheLaundry  #ShareChoresMultiplyLove

‘I will #ShareTheLoad and help in household chores in association with Ariel India and BlogAdda‘