Blog # 3- Carework

Carework is something that I have experienced my whole life. I have watched my mom doing it my whole life and now that I am older I have began taking part in carework myself. Growing up my mom stayed home with my brother and I from the time I was 3 to about 5 when I went to school. Then after that point both my parents worked. During my entire life my mom has always done the carework. She took care of all the cooking, cleaning, laundry and child raising. My dad took care of the traditional male stuff such as yard work, keeping our vehicles running properly and making sure we had the best sports equipment available. Through my childhood until I was 15 he was our main source of income. Generally my mom would work a full day and then she would have to come home and do dinner and make sure our homework was all done. I always helped my mom with the carework, but when I was fifteen I realized exactly how difficult things were for my mom. My parents were going through a divorce and my mom moved so she could make more money, then my grandmother got sick and I moved in to take care of her. I would go to school and have to come home and cook, clean, get medication, and just help my grandparents until she recovered. Once I moved with my mom, she worked 12 and 15 hour days to support us, so I began doing the cooking, cleaning, and laundry for the two of us. This carework was on top of my school work during high school. Now that I am in college my mom moved out here to help my brother and I get by, and she is still the one doing the majority of the carework.
I think our society needs to better accommodate the thought of it being okay for men to do housework as well. If there was an equal contribution for the carework in families I think many relationships would have more satisfaction and it would help with stress levels. I think it is a great idea that the UK has sites that provide support for the main careworkers where they can reflect on their experiences and also reflect on policies that should be changed. I think if we implemented something like this in the US it would help with the job segregation, because many women choose jobs that are more flexible to allow for carework. In my opinion the UK seems more willing to assist families and are more open to men helping with the carework. Even though it is primarily a women’s task in the past, the UK seems to be moving in the direction to allow for an equal share of carework, which is very important. If both women and men have an equal understanding of the work load, I believe that there will be more appreciation of those who do the carework.