Growing up in the suburbs in the 1970s it was pretty standard for kids to get pocket money. I guess it still is today. But here’s the hitch. It was mostly premised on the carrying out of household chores. But not just any chores. The balance was steeply pitched towards chores of a manly nature. Putting the garbage out, mowing the lawn, hosing down the driveway, cutting back the ivy on the back fence. In fact, not only were these the favoured chores for earning pocket money, they could be deemed for extra cash, especially when doing it as a ‘favour’ for dad. Household chores considered domestic in nature weren’t really considered in the equation, and if they even received a mention, it was usually only token, something along the lines of, aren’t we all thankful for mum. These chores included, but were not limited to, meal planning, cooking, cleaning, washing, drying, mending, shopping, and budgeting. No one got extra cash for doing the jobs mum didn’t want to do -cleaning the toilet, washing the nappies, and dealing with any other body fluids festooned upon the house or yard.
Thing is, I don’t think much has changed at all. I reckon it’s worse.
Nowadays, most mums and dads both work. Yet, survey after survey show that the motherload of household chores are still carried out by mum. But it goes further and deeper than that. By and large men still get paid more than women. This is a carry over of when men were the breadwinners. If you supported a wife and/or children you were paid more than your single workmates for doing the same work. Domestic duties, child rearing, and keeping house and home were, and remain, unpaid labour. They are still considered women’s work. Take share houses for example. How often are all the daily cleaning duties, allotted to woman, equally weighed up against the weekly bin run, or the monthly grass cut, allotted to men. More to the point, if outside help is considered necessary, its usually the manly chores that are covered. Hiring someone to mow the lawns is okay, because its ‘real’ work. Hiring a cleaner is considered indulgent or laziness, but only on behalf of women. Of course in an all female share house, or a single mum household, they just crack on with it, while holding down a job of course. And have you seen the state of all male share houses? Get my point?
But wait there’s more. If a child is sick, or a parent needs care, who gets to stay home. Mum of course. Now I do understand anatomy, and how that all works, so I know there is only one physiological reason for it being mum, and that is if a child is still breastfeeding. Once weaned there is no reason dad can’t stay home. Of course many men would consider their staying home ludicrous, after all they’re the breadwinner! Hmm, I did mention, didn’t I, that women still get paid less than men, doing the same job? So, often men will be taking a bigger loss to stay at home. Which all perpetuates the poor status of women’s work. What do we call that again? That’s right, unpaid labour. Just for the record, the monetary value of unpaid care work in Australia has been estimated to be $650.1 billion, the equivalent to 50.6% of GDP. Women spend 64.4% of their average weekly working time on unpaid care work compared to 36.1% for men (https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/australian-unpaid-care-work-and-the-labour-market.pdf). Essentially, women do twice as much unpaid work as men. So this really is a BIG issue.
If you want to pay your kids pocket money, or not, have a good look at what’s expected of them, and teach them that sharing a house requires a fair distribution of tasks, and work load.
Andy Vagg 