Greetings friends of Hive and dear community of weekend experiences.✨

Every Friday I look forward to the upcoming weekend engagement themes because I find it especially easy to associate them with an experience from the past, present, or things related to the future

This week I liked the topic of "Do you have to push your partner to do housework?" because housework is part of my day to day life, so I will share with you how chores are usually distributed in my home.

There are three of us at home, my partner, my baby and myself, we are both functional adults who can do any task, as we both know how to cook, clean, wash, etc.

He usually works outside the home, so during that time the responsibility for both the home and the baby and anything else that comes up is mine alone, at those times I have no options for help, so it is difficult when I am alone with the baby.

When he is at home the chores are distributed like this: one takes care of the baby and the other does the housework. I honestly prefer to do the housework because I feel I am faster and can do several things at once, while he does them one by one. In those cases, his responsibility is to take care of the baby.

There are other cases when there are many things that if we end up sharing the chores, he does some things and I do others. Normally I delegate the tasks, or I ask him which of all the options he wants to do. When he coordinates we end up watching TV hahaha.

It also happens that there are things that only he does, like going to buy the water bottles and changing the light bulbs. I don't buy the water bottles myself because it is difficult for me to go out with the stroller and the baby and also with the cart where the water bottles are put, plus I have to walk. Before I got pregnant I used to buy water, but now I can't, so only he has that responsibility. And with the light bulbs, it's because I'm afraid of electricity, so he always changes the bulbs.

Basically my strategy is negotiation, taking into account the housework and the care of Asami (the baby), and taking into account the fatigue of each one.

There are tasks that if there are the three of us, we do together, like going grocery shopping. Most of the time we walk, take the baby in the car and carry bags to bring things, each one carries a bag, one is watching the baby in the stroller and the other carries bags with food in his hands. When he is not there and I have to go alone, it is an odyssey between carrying the bag with food, carrying the stroller and being aware of the crossings in the street.

There are several meals that we like to make together, such as empanadas and pizza, both of which require attention, so one of us does one thing like kneading the dough and the other one prepares the filling. It also happens that sometimes someone is willing to do some work and the baby wants to be with that person, in those moments we exchange, the one who was doing the task goes to take care of the baby.

And it also happens that things don't work out perfectly, about two weeks ago we were going to watch a movie at home, so I went very excited to make cotufas and they all burned hahaha not a single one was saved. He came out as an expert in cotufas and they turned out great.

I don't have any favorite work, I think it depends on my mood, if I have a lot of motivation I can do everything with a lot of energy, if I don't I don't feel like doing anything (I still do it because it's a responsibility).

I know he likes to make pancakes and fast food; and above all to clean the floor with loud music.

Something we have in common and has been a conflict is that neither of us likes ironing, for me with or without motivation ironing is the ugliest thing of the trades, I don't like it and neither does he. Neither of us wants to do it and that is always a problem, the last deal we made on that subject was, "you iron yours and I'll iron mine".

And something important is that Asami, who is my one year old baby, loves to do a chore that only she has, which is to turn off the blender, she knows which is the off button. So when either one of us turns on the blender, she runs out to be held so she can turn it off; she saw me doing it and she learned. And whoever is holding her is watching to make sure she just presses the off button and doesn't hurt herself.

If I had to put it on a scale I would say 60% yes and 40% no, that if is because he normally does not have the initiative to do the tasks, if I do not indicate the tasks he will not do them, and this is given through negotiation, so we reach agreements and if he ends up doing his part.

Household chores are usually routine and tiresome, and the worst thing is that they are never finished, there is always something to do, distributing them as a couple contributes to equal responsibility (as far as possible). Communication plays a fundamental role in how these things happen, to know what the other thinks and so we can agree. The best thing about being in a couple is to feel that you are in a team.