Guys, if you want a happy marriage, roll up your sleeves and do the dishes! According to new research we found in Science Daily, couples who share housework have better relationships and are more satisfied with their lives. Researchers at The University of Western Ontario had couples track how much time each person spent doing chores. They also had each partner fill out a questionnaire that rated their satisfaction with their own lives, as well as with their marriages. The results?
Those who split chores down the middle reported the highest levels of happiness and overall fulfillment.
In old-school couples, where the wife does nearly all the housework, both the husband and the wife were very dissatisfied with their lives - their satisfaction scores were in the basement, and the contentment levels of the marriages weren’t far behind. In fact, studies show that when women do twice as much housework as their spouses, both partners have a greater risk of depression.
Despite all the evidence, it turns out that only about one in four couples come close to splitting household chores fifty-fifty. Why? Scott Stanley is co-director of the Center for Marital & Family Studies at the University of Denver. He believes that most couples ignore the issue until one of them feels overworked. By then, the focus isn’t on getting tasks accomplished - it’s about finger-pointing. Joshua Coleman, author of The Lazy Husband, agrees. He suggests having a neutral meeting to divvy up chores. That way, everyone will know what their responsibilities are before problems develop. To motivate the guys, let me leave them with this: According to marriage expert John Gottman, men who do their fair share of housework don’t just have happier marriages – their children have more friends and get better grades in school.
