So who brings home the bacon in your household? I don’t even remember what commercial that phrase comes from. The point behind bringing home the bacon is that this is the person upon whom the family relies for their food, their shelter and their survival.
The stereotype says that daddy brings home the bacon and momma fries it up in a pan. But many married couples today come from families where at least one divorce occurred and may not have been raised by a single father, a single mother, grandparents or any combination thereof. So when it comes to getting married and settling on the bacon and who will bring it home – spouses can have differing expectations.
Bacon & Sausage?
When both partners work, which is more likely the case today, it’s not just about who brings home the bacon and who fries it up in the pan, but rather who’s turn it is to pick up the bacon and who gets to fry it up in the pan. There’s lots written about the roles that spouses play in marriage and the trouble that can occur when a couple struggles with defining their role.
Still, there’s no reason in the world that couples with dual careers do not succeed admirably. The problem is more with perception than anything else. I am the last person who is going to point at ‘traditional’ marriage and say that they work because only one member of the couple works.
Sorry, no can do. Housewives work twice as hard as most other people, so those may not have been the ideal image of a power couple that both go into the office everyday. But housewives have maintained their careers, their home, their volunteer work and their parenting along with being wives for a lot longer than there have been blogs discussing it.
Balancing Act
Marriage is a balancing act of internal and external commitments. Whether you work outside the home or inside it, couples establish their roles in a variety of ways. In our household, my husband cooks more than I do. He loves to cook. I like cooking too. But he enjoys it so much that he pretty much tackles all of the cooking.
When it comes to housework, we split the chores. When it comes to bringing home the bacon – that’s right, we both bring in checks. The pendulum swings back and forth between us and we’ve both been in the position of staying at home while the other brings in the money.
So how do you make it work for the two of you?
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