'It's easier having 1 person to take care of instead of 2': Couple divorces after lazy dad refuses to help wife at home, gets 50/50 custody and she soars while he sinks

Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor

Mar 31, 2024 8:00 PM EDT

If you're old enough to have a kid, you shouldn't need somebody to tell you to take the trash out. Equitable distribution of housework within families is a hot-button issue that people discuss online with much frequency but with very little nuance. So many trad individuals like to say that since husbands work, the wife should take on the vast majority, or in more extreme cases all, of the housework. That framework might make sense if, in fact, the husband is the only one working in the family, but for the majority of households, that's simply untrue. 46% of households in the US have both parents working full time; even in homes where one parent is only working part-time or not at all, it's still unfair for one person to manage every single aspect of home life, including all chores and all childcare. One father realized he was slacking too late, quickly realizing that doing half the work his wife was doing was completely exhausting.