I cringe when someone points out kitchen as mother’s or ladies space. Though patriarchal misogyny is deeply ingrained in Indian society, I am in disbelief how is it not obsolete yet, amongst dubiously enlightened society. Love for mother is not just owing to her caring nature, more so due to perks associated with it. Amount of hardwork that goes into making other’s life easier couldn’t be overlooked as just love or care. The shower of praises wouldn’t do justice either.
Age old practice of woman handling household chores hasn’t gone through major shifts as it should have. Multitasking mother is hailed as a hero with fancy tags as everyone gets trapped into their convenience zone. For ages, bias towards children based on gender that was seen as a norm, has become a social evil now. Sadly, it all started when mothers themselves discriminated their children.
How absurd is that learning basic life skills is mandatory for one and an option for the other. No matter what they got to offer in terms of income generation, household work is indispensable. Offering decent livelihood is not a responsibility of one gender either. Females have gone too far in contributing to income while struggling to balance between work and home as no attempt has been made to normalise division of work at home.
When duties are replaced with quick solutions there is a constant clash of ego with no practical solutions. Responsibility is not ‘help’ as it is described in most situations, neither additional effort in other areas of work could substitute that. Clearly, there shouldn’t be any division of duties.
Affordability for a househelp and dislike or unwillingness to do certain work is the most lame excuse that gets buried in selfless deed of someone. Reward for sacrifice with friendly applaud gets hidden in facade of love. Let’s try not to glorify and rationalize the suffering that one particular gender has to bear with. Unconditional love shouldn’t put onus on someone while trying to chase perfection from others viewpoint.
vinayagowda 