How do you find a happy balance of household duties?
I used to read articles about how stay at home parents always got the raw end of the deal, especially when it was stay at home moms. They were expected to do all the cooking, cleaning, child rearing etc... I vowed that I would never allow myself to be in that situation, either the person at home doing it all, or the person going to work leaving it all for my partner to do.
Well..... 2 years into things I am finding that reality is sometimes different then what you had planned on.
I work outside of the home at a 40 hour + a week job, plus 1 hour travel a day. So I'm gone from 7 am to 4:30, leaving the house before Liam and Hilary wake up. Hilary is a fulltime SAHM to our son Liam who is almost 2. When I get home from work, Hilary is usually wiped out out from a whole day alone with a toddler, so Liam and I head out to play giving her some much needed alone time to read, soak in the tub or watch some tv. She then makes dinner (I have very limited cooking skills vs her master chef abilities). We eat together, Liam and I play together for another 1/2 hour or so and then I get him ready for bed. I give him his bottle, he falls asleep, Hilary and I watch about a half hour of tv and then our bedtime ritual of getting clothes out, putting my lunch together and off to bed we go. This doesn't leave much (if any) time for me to do housework in the evening. Weekends we try to do things together, and I try to have some Me-time on Sunday afternoons.
Hilary has been very frustrated lately that she is doing more then the lion's share of housework. I realize this and feel horrible that I'm not keeping up my side of things, but I just don't know how.....
Any suggestions?
