Summary

The text humorously explores the dynamics of household chores between spouses during lockdown, highlighting the frustrations and comedic aspects of being instructed on "the right way" to perform tasks by one's wife.

Abstract

The article titled "That’s Not How It’s Done!”- Lockdown Life with the Wife" delves into the author's experiences with increased household responsibilities due to the absence of domestic help during an extended lockdown. It underscores the challenges faced by the author, who is often corrected on the methods of completing chores, suggesting an unspoken rulebook called "The Wives Way." The piece humorously reflects on the role reversal in modern times, where women, historically sidelined, now take the lead in household management, leaving men to adapt. The author points out the specificity and urgency expected in performing tasks, which can lead to tension and a rise in domestic discord. Despite this, the article concludes on a positive note, acknowledging the resilience of couples who manage to coexist and even thrive amidst these challenges.

Opinions

The author suggests that the lockdown has revealed a "can...and has to do" attitude in wives, implying a sense of inflexibility in their approach to household chores.
There is an underlying appreciation for the system of work and delegation in household chores, but with a hint of frustration at the one-sided nature of these instructions.
The author humorously implies that wives have a mystical logic akin to planetary alignment when it comes to household tasks, emphasizing the perceived complexity and precision expected.
The text indicates a rise in discord among couples during lockdown, with a significant increase in divorce rates, attributing this to the challenges of cohabitation and the need for guidelines to navigate shared living spaces.
The author muses on the idea that opposites attract, suggesting that the differing approaches to chores between husbands and wives can balance each other out, despite the initial frustration.
The article concludes with a light-hearted endorsement of mutual understanding and adaptation, likening the situation to Spiderman's mantra of great power coming with great responsibility.

“That’s Not How It’s Done!”- Lockdown Life with the Wife

What’s more irritating than having to do a million chores a day?! Being told a billion ways how not to do them!! This may seem like an exaggeration to the ordinary minds, but to the ‘beautiful mind’ of a wife, anything is possible. Especially with their “can….and has to do” attitude.

It has been over 70 days in lockdown, which has meant social distancing from everybody you know and living in isolation with people you know…. only too well….and vice versa!

Don’t get me wrong, getting to spend time with loved ones, is always something we look forward to. It has its positives. But as always, with the good comes the bad……and quite frankly, one needn’t be aware of the benefits, it’s the negatives one needs to look out for! Also, it’s a good opportunity to vent out some frustration! Just kidding…..this is nothing personal.

The one common denominator through this entire lockdown has been the household chores. With our hired domestic helps being on ‘forced sabbatical’, no matter how rich or privileged one is, we haven’t been able to ‘isolate’ ourselves from the mop and all. We may have fixed office hours, but the work at home never stops! So much so, that even the overtimes at office seem more reasonable at times!

Anyways, having to do chores around the house isn’t all that bad! We’ve been ‘life-schooled’ to handle worse…..It’s the excessively long and exhaustive instruction manual that comes with it, that knocks the air right out of you. I mean we’re all for a system of work, even household chores for that matter! [But never heard of a system, that almost always ignores inputs from one specific source only.] As is obvious to any logical person, for any work to be executed efficiently, there needs to be a delegation channel. Assuming the wives are more hands-on around the house, they should be in charge of delegating the work. Now that this has been settled, let’s get to the actual problem at hand…..and have a little laugh while at it!

Considering how women in our ‘society’ have been sidelined since the patriarchal times, not having much of a say in anything at all. The reform in today’s times, well at least a reform in process….has given them an opportunity to speak their mind and much more! So much so, that the tables have turned! Leaving us men looking for a chance to get a word in sideways…..

In all fairness, being told what to do and how to do it, does make life so much easier. Any kind of help, however authoritative, is appreciated! But being told “how not to do” something, which mind you, we anyways didn’t know how to, can be quite frustrating. The people who have experienced something like this, know what I’m talking about!

Who would’ve thought that there is one specific and ‘right’ way to fold towels?! Those of you wondering what I’m talking about, you’re one fight away from learning the ‘towel rule’ that can shake up the most solid of marriages. So, no matter how wet you are, learn the rule first, unless you want to be wishing you’d rather used some sandpaper even instead of that towel! Also, imagine washing a full load of utensils after having cooked a meal, only to be tutored on the way you should be doing it. As if it were rocket science….come to think of it, this is true for every chore in the house. It’s almost like, there is some universal handbook of chores “The Wives Way” that we men aren’t aware of!

That’s not all, it’s not just about the way of doing things! There’s also the whole issue about timing. Apparently, no work around the house can be done at convenience, not ours at least. In just being told what to do, the urgency of that work is automatically implied! This is an actual thing, and those of you who don’t know about it wouldn’t know about wives understanding of planetary alignment either….the only explanation to their mystical logic. Even the slightest change in the order of things, creates a ‘disturbance’ in their ‘force’! It wouldn’t be the smartest thing to take that lightly, since they do have a secret weapon….much like the “Death Star”.

For those of you making a mental note of these, remember, no number of notes can save you from this situation. Since, for every uniquely irritating problem, there is an equally ingenious solution that each one of us needs to come up with on our own. Hoping that maybe, one day we might actually be able to compile all these together for the future of our kind!

It’s not without reason that there has been a very obvious rise in discord among couples during this period of lockdown. Some reports even say that the divorce rate in some countries has gone up by more than 30% just for this period. On a lighter note, I’m sure so has the craziness on everybody’s part. Still, just thinking about it, for conversation’s sake, leads one to realize that maybe the co-habitation of a man and woman would be so less strained if there were some set of guidelines that all could follow! Assuming that either would follow….

The increased amount of time spent together, has also led to an increase in disagreements. To make matters worse, there aren’t enough office distractions to abate the tensions! I mean, how is one supposed to manage a situation like this?! You either, avoid doing the work at the risk of disrupting your moral compass and more, or learn to follow the most illogical of instructions that we aren’t hardwired to understand!

It really is funny how one, who should be at their motivated best considering the personal growth accomplishing all these chores that they earlier weren’t doing, is left questioning their most basic of abilities!

Thanks to this unbelievably different thought process, there is a major give and take of information and emotions, that somehow creates a sort of balance in the equation. Or as the uninitiated know it ‘opposites attract’! Just like there’s a hammer to every nail, there’s an ingenuous husband to every wife that wants things done a certain way only. I think it’s safe to believe that they wouldn’t have any other way either. Tough husbands call for tougher wives….just make sure you know what you’ve signed up for!

In this battle of the sexes, the real winners are those couples that manage to stick together, despite the differences. In this equation, it is the variables that can’t do without each other. At least this lockdown has showed us that we can manage situations like these, without killing each other. In fact, learning to enjoy the challenge of differences and evolve into beings unaffected by them. Ready for the next phase in confinement. So, more power to all the wives and husbands out there, as long as they remember the wise words of Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility!”.