Division Of Labor

The cause of all disputes everywhere is, "I did so much work", "No one helps me", "Will no one help me with household chores/tasks", etc.

These are some of the common refrains we hear across homes from most women.

As humans, we all enjoy being left alone and not made to work at something, espcially helping around house! A single person, especially the woman of the house, cannot be expected to do all the work but this is true. 80% of the work is done by 20% members while 80% escape work and enjoy liesure at home.

But the woman of the house can get around with a simple solution to this problem.
She has to take a lead in listing out all important tasks.
Segregate tasks into outdoors and indoors.
Strictly allocate all members of the family, tasks from the list, on a daily basis which they have to finish.
Tasks should ideally be rotated so that no one feels his or her's is a tough one.
This way all will appreciate what the other one has to undergo while doing each of those tasks. There will be respect for each other.

Work will get done when there's such strict rule in place.
Mom will get some time to herself and will not be taken advantage of.
All will become experts in all tasks very soon, as practice makes one perfect :D

Most times women crib that their men don't help them out. If the woman can say what tasks the men or other members in the family can do to help her, she can have free time and enjoy her liesure. She has to express this loudly and clearly and not just think they will realise on their own and come to help her out. We will be sadly mistaken if we think help will come without asking.

One caution though, is to allow others to learn to do tasks and never to offer assistance while they are doing it, never to step in to do it, if that member fails to do it. She must gently remind and insist that this member does that task unless he or she is too sick or unable to, due to some reason.

Division of labor means more free time for all, no confusion, no presumption that she or he will do some work on their own. No one likes to volunteer work on one's own. Its all a matter of compulsion for all of us.
Many wait for an excuse to escape responsibilities of this type, so ask them to help you out, anyway.
But be specific which task you want them to help you with, like J has to prepare the evening tea and serve it with snacks, M has to prepare the breakfast for all in the mornings, N has to put the clothes in the washer and fold the dry and washed ones, etc.

Simple rules to follow:
Identify the task.
Identify the person for the task.
Identify the time of the day for performing the task, eg., breakfast cannot be prepared at 12 noon, for instance.
Bring as much clarity, regularity and follow ups in the task allocations, as possible.

Cheers!

Mahalakshmi.