Why Housework Will Get You Some

Chances are that the thought of housework - you know: ironing, dishwashing, laundry folding, vacuuming, and window-cleaning - does not turn you on. But what if you think about someone else doing it? Now what if that someone else you are picturing is not a wonderfully chipper Mary Poppins-esque character but, instead, your husband. Does that turn you on?

If so, you're not alone. According to CNN, one expert says:

A more equitable division of household duties may lead to more intimacy in the bedroom.

"When a man does housework, it feels to the woman like an expression of caring and concern, which then physically reduces her stress," says Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-area psychologist and author of The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework.

"A guy can be completely stressed out and want to have sex to burn it off, but women are not wired like that," says Coleman, who is also a member of the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research organization. Instead, he says, women need to feel relaxed in order to feel sexy -- and it's hard to unwind when there are chores to be done and a husband who's oblivious to them.

And there's even more good news! According to the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research:

Men are doing more than they used to...For example, in 1976, men did about six hours of housework per week; in 2005, that had increased to about 13 hours. Women, meanwhile, decreased their weekly housework from 26 hours in 1976 to 17 hours in 2005. Researchers based their conclusions on economic, health and social data collected on 8,000 American families since 1968.

So is everybody getting more nooky nowadays? Well, not quite. The problem is that "men create, on average, seven more hours of housework a week for women," so while they're helping out, they're still only doing about "30 percent of the housework, according to a report released in March by the Council on Contemporary Families."

The bottom line? The more egalitarian the housework is, the more happy everyone will be in the bedroom.

Read the rest of the article here, including 4 ways to get the menfolk to pull their own weight around the house.

What do you think? How evenly do you share the work? Does watching your man vacuum get you all hot and bothered? And for the men out there, is there anything sexier (or perhaps decidedly unsexy) about watching a woman wash your dinner plate? Tell us below!

Comments

[BookQueen]

Why does the bad word filter refuse the word s e x? That is what this article is about.

[BookQueen]

But you're already doing housework. You don't know what your love life would be like if you weren't. Tired, overworked women aren't going to be interested in intimacy.

National statistics show women doing hours more of housework daily, so maybe in some families things are different. That might make some women get turned off.

[dadw5boys]

MEN!!!!!!!!!

HEY YOU!!!!!!!

Sit down make a list of the chores that need to be done around the house before you get married.
Compare her list with yours.
Try her list for a month then have her try your list for a month.

ELIMINATE SOME CHORES LIKE IRONING UNDERWEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

[MiddleRoadLiberal]

My wife thinks it's sexier when I don't do anything around the house and I keep pointing out things she could be doing. At least I tell her she does.

[RNiemi]

Another longterm husband (30 years) who thinks this theory is complete hogwash.
Intelligent, modern women expect their mates to pull their own weight- and those of us who have changed diapers, shopped, cooked and cleaned for our entire adult lives do it because its fair, because everybody is busy, and because women dont know how to load a dishwasher properly.
I never have noticed any correlation between sexual activity and housework.

[sandiegoconservative]

That's what I was thinking. First of all, I cannot imagine a household where the wife does all the work and the husband does nothing, even if she is a stay at home wife and he works full time. Or vice-versa if the roles are reversed. Does anyone actually know of a situation where this is the case and it is a happy home?

My parents had a "he is at work she is at home" relationship because my Mom wanted to stay home with the kids, so my Dad worked, sometimes two jobs. The agreement was that kids have some chores, my Mom handles most of the items in the house, my Dad helps out some in the evening and he had all of the chores outside of the home (gardening, cars, garage, etc.).

My wife and I have a few places that are "our" responsibility. She spends the majority of the time in, and therefore likes to clean the computer room and I handle the bathrooms. We clean these rooms once a week for major cleaning and minor as needed. We handle the kitchen and laundry together and my daughter takes care of her room and some smaller chores. I handle the backyard and usually the garage and the living room is a territory for all. We each keep our side of the bedroom as we see fit. That seems to work well for us.

[stephenswain]

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah! This is one of those urban legends from metrosexual-land. I ironed, washed, cooked, vacuumed, kept the cars in good repair, baby-sat, changed diapers, changed tires, took the kids to the doctor (otitis media: $35.00), mowed the yard(s), assembled toys at Christmas. Ya-da-yada-no-boom-boom.

When men do these things their labor and commitment are as taken-for-granted as when women do them. Trust me guys: This dog won't hunt.

If you have to compensate in some way: Try robbing a bank w/o getting caught. Show her the cash. Hire the work done. Take her out to some dazzling place that you can't possibly afford w/o robbing-a-bank-and-not-getting-caught. Then, when you have proven that you are a great "P R O V I D E R" you will not be disdained as another Richard Simmons wannabe. Fuhgetaboutit!

Sorry. It's nothing personal. It's just the way the ones and zeroes are programmed into the DNA. Of course, you may be the very couple that gets to beat the odds. But I wouldn't recommend it. It's the ultimate long shot.

[BoyHowdy]

I couldn't agree more. Since we first started living together, I happily shared in all the household chores. Not because I thought I was going to get laid, but because it was the right thing to do. If I got laid as a result, that would be a bonus. But, in fact, there is no such reward, at least over the long haul. What happened instead, is that my wife did less and less, and expected me to do more and more to the point where she has completely withdrawn from these types of activities (hopefully, for the short term, because I'm getting kinda tired). What makes things worse is that when one of her friends comments on how much I do (especially in comparison with their husbands), it really steams her (not to mention my male friends who happen to be married to my wive's friends). So, do the housework because it's the right thing to do and because it will demonstrate to your children that wives are not maids and couples should share the load equally, but don't expect any nookie as a result. Oh, and I'm not at all bitter (although re-reading this, it might appears to be so). I never went into this expecting a sexual quid pro quo for the work I believe a couple should share anyway, so I haven't been disappointed on that basis.