Heed Ye the Woes of Guardian Readers
A pay cut means we have had to sack our cleaner to save the £25 a week she cost, but, a month on, nothing’s being cleaned and the house is starting to resemble a squat. We set aside two hours on a Saturday morning but it’s not happening. How do other couples divvy up the cleaning without major rows?
Sadly, there’s no word on the fate of the cleaner. Via Anna.
Is the Graun now trolling its own readers?
a month on, nothing’s being cleaned and the house is starting to resemble a squat.
Government intervention now!
When don’t they, lately?
How do other couples divvy up the cleaning without major rows?
I suppose seeing something that needs to be done and then just doing it without marking down in a mental ledger is out of the question? Perhaps I’m inferring too much, but it seems to me that if your relationship is zero sum, i.e. if I do the laundry, you must do dishes or the social justice equilibrium will be upset and the universe will collapse, then you’ve got problems which cleaning the bathroom will not solve.
if your relationship is zero sum, i.e. if I do the laundry, you must do dishes or the social justice equilibrium will be upset and the universe will collapse, then you’ve got problems which cleaning the bathroom will not solve.
Amen, brother. Testify.
Oh, the tribulations! No house-cleaner? Heavens!
First world problems, eh?
First world problems, eh?
Oddly enough, in this morning’s mail I received a card from a local oven-cleaning service, the existence of which had previously escaped me. I haven’t yet managed to throw the card in the bin. I’m holding out for a company that can put things in the bin for me.
Amen, brother. Testify.
All human interaction among Leftists is zero sum. That’s why they are perpetually aggrieved and unhappy. My happiness causes the unhappiness of others. The fact that my larder is full means someone is Subsaharan Africa is starving. Thus is explained the constant harping on “privilege.” What they fail to realize, of course, is that the perfect “Happiness Equilibrium” can never be attained. What can be attained, and what Leftists are quite adept at doing, is manufacturing an equilibrium of misery.
“How do other couples divvy up the cleaning without major rows?”
Er…negotiation and compromise? So where exactly is the problem?
They should just borrow the extra 100 quid a month, after all spending within your means is terrible austerity…
Or perhaps if they had less tax extorted there would be more left for them to employ cleaners etc.
I don’t know how long this Ebay auction link will be valid, but it’s appropriate here.
“nothing’s being cleaned and the house is starting to resemble a squat”
Didn’t the Onion do this a few years ago?
As Guardian readers they would surely be chest-thumping ‘solidarity with the workers!’ types.
This is their big moment, their chance to prove their proletarian cred. And they’re letting this precious opportunity slip away.
Oh, how it makes me weep.
One word: Roomba. At least it gets the floors clean.
well said R Sherman!
Side note, I do like your name and I even named one of my sons after Roger Sherman as he is a descendent on their Moms side.
How do other couples divvy up the cleaning without major rows?
Easy.
Chez james, she has a lower tolerance of untidiness and dirt than I have. Therefore, more often than not, she cleans.
However I have a much lower tolerance of hunger and indifferently cooked food, therefore I generally cook.
If there are mice to be killed, taps to be fixed, mechanical problems with the car to be sorted, DIY jobs which involve 8 stone bags of cement to be done, it is assumed that I do them. Patriarchy etc.
In return, Mrs james seems willing to do many of the jobs that don’t require physical strength, or a fascination with mechanical things, such as routine cleaning.
We never actually discussed this.
But we are, I think, happy enough with these arrangements after 25 years of marriage.
Dear Prudence,
The other mr-Ohms and I just had our 23rd anniversary and I patriarchied him up good by buying him a new washing machine. He seems very happy with it, it plays a little tune when it’s finished and he no longer has to open the door with a dessert spoon.
Was this wrong?
P.S. For his birthday I bought him a cool smart phone upon which he lavishes much attention – I find it saves me from quite a lot of gentle but persistent nagging.
Am I a monster?
@mr-Ohms – “Am I a monster?”
Of course. Report to the re-education camp for ideological correction.
There are two alternatives here.
(1) This is a desperate piece of clickbait by a newspaper which is losing readers and revenue hand over fist.
(2) Some Guardianista is tight enough to sack a cleaner rather than pay £25 a week (I sincerely doubt they’d be able to afford one if they were not pretty minted already), is callous enough to do so before Christmas, and is stupid enough not to be able to manage to work a hoover and Mr Muscle.
Sackcloth, I think it was the late James Cameron who advised: Never work for a liberal newspaper; they will sack you just before Christmas.
pst314 the Onion covered it with this story http://www.theonion.com/articles/marxists-apartment-a-microcosm-of-why-marxism-does,1382/
@ matt and pst314,
Yeah, that line was so reminiscent of that The Onion article I at first thought it was a quote from there.
@ sackcloth and ashes,
To be fair the post is a month and a half old which means they sacked their cleaner nearly three months before Christmas, which doesn’t seem all that callous to me. *shrug*
Heavens. Must be a tiny flat. In the American heartland, I pay (okay, my wife pays) $120 a week. Granted, we’re in a lovingly restored Victorian, not quite 4000 sq. feet….