Therapist: Mr. Clean

In the article, “Maid to Order,” Ehrenreich points out that housework is more than just that. It is more than cleaning toilet, washing dishes or taking out the trash, but rather it is at the center of many fights that goes on between couples. Also it reaches further than just couples but the entire family. As housework being looked at as a priority and mandatory for women verses it being a joint effort and problem. It seems silly to say but cleaning always to seem to be a topic of conflict when in living with someone not just your boyfriend or husband but also who you live with. When growing up, one of the reason my parents bumped heads a lot was the fact that my dad like to live in a “sty.” My mom is your typical mother, “everything has its place.” She believed that if you ate wash your dishes, don’t let them sit. If you done sleeping in your bed than you should make your bed. She believed that since they both worked and both lived in the same place they should both clean. My dad, who is just like me, thinks that “why was the dishes, there is only two?” and “Why make the bed if I am going to sleep in it later?”

The issue of cleaning has always been a problem in our household. After a while, I realized that it is not worth the argument so I just fallow the cleaning natzi rules. Another thing that Ehrenreich brought up about cleaning is that now with hired help to clean parents do not teach their children to clean. My mother never hired a cleaning lady so I am proud to say I able to clean my own house. Sad to say, I cannot say the same about other people I know. What was strange to read was that parents teaching their kids how to clean and cleaning with them builds a relationship. I have a great relationship with my mother, I cannot say a hundred percent that due to our great relationship is due to cleaning together but it might have a factor.

My favorite part of the essay by Ehrenreich was the fact that a cleaning lady was recommended to some fighting couples as way to fix their relationship. Women have and will for a longtime, go hand in hand with cleaning. Not for the fact that we are more knowledgeable of it, but for the fact that women cannot break down society’s typical view on cleaning. Society cannot shake the idea of women being people who only bear children, clean, and stay home. Will house chores ever become a genderless role?