Week 12: Family

When filling out the chart and reflecting on the way my family divided roles and responsibilities, I found that most things listed were done by both of my parents, with some of the chores being taken over by the kids. Before their divorce, my parents generally split the workload very evenly. The one thing I would say as an exception is that my mom decided to take some time off of her career when my brother and I were very young, which would indicate that she took over more of the household duties during that time. However, after my parents divorced when I was 9, all of the sudden everything became both parent’s individual responsibility. Both my mom and my dad took care of their own cleaning and cooking, took time off work to pick us up from school, paid the bills, etc. We were very fortunate to have both parents actively engaged in our lives. Many families I know have a mom who does more of the child rearing and household work. In addition, many of the women in these families are also trying to develop careers or working part time jobs. This would be what the textbook describes as a second shift, where the woman comes home from work and basically has a second job of doing most of the cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. Even though I did not see this occur in my family when I was growing up, I do tend to see it happening in many other families I know.