Sarx

Odd to see this in print with a “gee we’re surprised” kinda voice… (in the Globe & Mail, no less, and I thought Canada was culturally advanced).

Psst, husbands: Vacuuming may spice up your sex life…

What has changed is that men are beginning to understand that doing housework, or at least participating in a discussion about the management of the house, unprompted, goes a long way to creating marital happiness.

And as Toronto sex therapist Betty Stockley notes, “What is or is not happening in the bedroom is what is happening in the kitchen and other parts of married life.”

Intimacy is not just for the bedroom, in other words. Foreplay can begin with a dishtowel.

And it’s not because men look cute in aprons.

I’m kind of surprised. My paternal Grandparents knew this… they taught it to Dad. My parents taught it to us kids, although I’m the only one ever to gets to use it (cuz my sibling has made a hobby of studying troglodytes in the mist). That time after dinner, when the dishes get done, is an important discussion time. The Saturday cleaning fit is the right time to raise all sorts of domestic issues. The “you wash, I’ll dry” trick works every time there’s something to discuss :-)

I note later in the article that it doesn’t even have to be shared work, just shared appreciation… THAT I find odd.

But really, apart from the aforementioned hobby, are there that many of you men who leave the housework to your wives and don’t ask any questions? I can think of only two. One who said of my grandfather “I think he’s the only man I know who does dishes…” He didn’t ever say that to any man in my family again. The other is no longer connected with my family.