Relationships Talk

An agony aunt has dished out some unexpected advice to a wife at a loss at what to do about her husband’s laziness with chores – and just about everyone disagrees with her.

The woman, who wrote into the Washington Post’s columnist Carolyn Hax, explained that she does much more housework than her husband, estimating it to be a 70-30 split.

“When I complain, he says he doesn’t mind grimy bathtubs or piled-up paper, and since I do mind, then I should do the cleaning,” she said.

“He says it’s unfair for me to unilaterally set house standards and then force him to live up to them.”

This, of course, frustrated the woman, who was only asking for “a weekly vacuum, bathroom cleaning and laundry”.

But rather than just suggest ways the woman might convince her husband to pull his weight, Ms Hax advised the couple to invest in a cleaner.

“Hire a cleaning service for the weekly vacuum and bathroom cleaning, and split the remaining jobs 50-50, or as close to it as you can get.”

“Do this even if you have to cut other expenses to afford it.”

This solution was teamed with the advice to make sure if he didn’t do his remaining chores that they affected him directly – but it was the first suggestion that had fellow readers flabbergasted.

“Hire a cleaning service? Sure! That’ll teach him!” one reader sarcastically remarked.

“My experience: a man who is too lazy to help with the chores is also too lazy to help with paying someone else to do them, too. Just one more thing I would have to pay for while he gets off scot-free.”

Another commenter agreed that the husband probably wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice anything of his own to pay for the cleaning service, leading to more arguments.