Wife Shares 'Housework Rota' Husband Assigned Her, Sparks Outrage

A woman has taken to Mumsnet to share how her husband created a chores rota which she deems uneven, and the internet has rallied around her in support.

In the post, shared to the discussion-based forum by an account called Homerenonovice, the mom-of-two revealed that she does the "lion share" of the housework while working three days a week.

When he asked her to do a task before Christmas and she didn't have the time she explained her husband "got annoyed."

She added that he "told me that I'd have more to think about when we start renovating our house so I tried to explain about mental load and how it all falls to me, he didn't get it."

The mother went on to describe how her husband thinks he does 50 percent of the tasks "but he doesn't understand he really isn't."

According to 2020 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in the U.S., women spend on average four hours per day doing unpaid housework, as opposed to just 2.5 hours a day for men.

Nevertheless, as a result of "another row" her husband created a "housework rota," divvying up the housework between the two.

This includes tasks such as cooking dinner, using the dishwasher, ironing and washing, and bathing the kids.

More things are attributed to the wife's section of the rota, however she laments: "Is that all he thinks is needed to run a house and parent two small children?"

She ended the post by asking the forum how they would react to the rota.

The story, which was shared on January 9, has garnered over 180 comments online, with many criticizing the use of the spreadsheet.

One Mumsnet user, Luredbyapomegranate, wrote: "Re-write the rota with all the things that really need doing, to make the point."

Another person, NoCapesDarling, added: "This calls for some malicious compliance. Do nothing else. Let us know how it goes!"

Latticeallure88 explained: "I would write every single thing down that you do in say a fortnight and show it to him."

Diggersaursarethebest commented: "He's forgotten that you and he need to eat even on the days the kids are in nursery, and that means dishwasher. I'd add in more things to give a more realistic rota."

Mynameiscalypso observed: "Well it's only going to take until Weds [Wednesday] for it all to fall apart when nobody has been rota'd to make dinner."

1winterblues typed: "Wow [your husband] is brave or stupid! I would stick to the rota for a week and like others have said just act surprised when you can't cook dinner as there is no shopping and all the other things haven't been done."