A Mother Got Tired of Doing Housework Alone and Tried a Method That Taught Her Family a Lesson

year ago

More and more people are becoming aware of the enormous burden that is often placed on women at home and, through a division of labor, they decide to make way for a much more harmonious and equitable coexistence at home. Such is the case of Twitter user Miss Potkin, who decided to teach her family a lesson to get involved in household chores and prevent everything from falling on her.

At Now I’ve Seen Everything we want to show you to the ingenious technique this mother used to get her family to collaborate with household chores and make everyone aware of the titanic task she performs on a daily basis.

48 hours of inaction: how the story began

This mother said enough was enough. Her family did nothing to help her. She got tired of cooking, washing and, on top of that, taking care of the general cleaning of the house. So she simply stopped doing all the housework, and the pile of dirty dishes soon appeared. She decided to go all the way with her silent protest to see what effect this might have on the household mechanism.

Day 3: What do you mean the dishes don’t magically get washed?

72 hours after the experiment began, there were no large bowls or clean spoons left. Dirty dishes flooded the kitchen and no one said anything. This time, the dishwasher wouldn’t be loaded by mom, no. Nor would it magically load itself. Despite this visible mess, no one in the family had said anything, nor lifted a finger to solve the problem.

Not yet, not yet...

To the mother’s surprise, her husband found a cup and spoon so he could make himself some tea. He had to resort to nothing more and nothing less than the baby’s emergency cup and weaning spoon. Still no one was giving in. Chaos was beginning to spread throughout the house. It no longer just resided in the kitchen, but piles of laundry began to emerge in different spots.

The bathroom would not be spared either

With her patience almost exhausted, this mother thought of a momentary solution for her nerves. Yes, a shower, a nice hot shower to forget at least for a while the chaos in the house. But this was not to be, for once inside, she found the following.

“Empty”

The disaster tour continued through the house, and more and more points of disorder were found. In the rooms, not only were there clothes lying around, but things were beginning to accumulate without much relation to each other. Oh, the children...

Well, family, that’s enough, don’t you think?

A used, dirty plate and knife would be the last drop in the glass before spilling over. Why didn’t the mother go mad? Well, let’s say that the darkest moment of the day is the instant before dawn breaks.

At last, the family took the first step. No more bowls of cereal stuck together, hard and dry as a rock. No more empty dishwasher. The sun was beginning to rise for the mother, her point was being proved. Well, not quite, the father would forget a key step....

Applying a policy of carrot and stick

Her husband took the first step, but not quite right. He scraped the dishes, put them in the dishwasher, but never turned on the appliance. On the other hand, however, changes began to be seen in the bathroom. Changes that, in the context of the experiment, were worth celebrating: toilet paper appeared!

Time for dinner, are there clean dishes?

Recall that the dishwasher was full, but not on. The mother proceeded to prepare something with two pans and the last clean knife. As a backup, there were only 3 pans and baking pans left, but wait! Something unexpected happened.

Finally, somebody turned on the dishwasher. And other strange things began to happen in the house. As the mother entered the kitchen, she heard someone say: “Don’t walk there, it’s dirty!”, followed by someone cleaning up the floor. Finally she felt the roles being exchanged for the first time in a long time. She couldn’t believe it, was it really happening? And the answer is...

Three days, only three days were needed for any of the family members to understand what was happening. In 72 hours, the house that this mother kept clean and tidy went through different chaotic stages, but in the end, her family got the message and put themselves in their place. Lesson learned.