GENDER DIFFERENTIATED CHORES

Several people have asked me about sort of daily life in this place. Most of mine is spent dealing with government forms, inane faculty ego trips, and assorted other fun things. But of course that's not true of everyone. There are people here with regular lives, and with household chores.

One of the things that strikes me in fact is how much like the sort of normal stuff I remember as a kid goes on. Now I am not saying I had to fetch water from a village well like these little girls are doing or herd the animals to market like the boy below -- although I did walk 8 miles to school through raging hurricanes, uphill. Carrying my canoe for the trip home. in 100 degree heat. but that's another posting -- but if I had, then the differentiation of chores would probably have been very much the same as these kids have.

The younger male persons reading these postings were not raised this way, of course. For a great many reasons having to do with the wisdom and thoughtfulness of their parents, chores were distributed on a gender-neutral basis. Wood was chopped and large parcels hauled, to be sure, but floors were swept (well, occasionally) and meals cooked as well. I wonder if the daughters-in-law in the audience are fully appreciative of the effort and constant criticism form neighbors, family, and friends we endured in preparing these paragons among husbandry for their present places in the scheme of things?

We expect no reward! We demand no special services! But the occasional letter or email? Would it kill you to say hello every once in a while? Oh sorry, yet another post. No! No Rewards! But you do realize your old folks are piling up anniversaries at an astonishing rate, right? And that we are approaching one in a very few years that has lots of numbers in it, right? If someone(s) thought of doing something exceedingly special in recognition of that fact it would, I think, not be remiss.

Meanwhile we shall hum merrily along, waiting for more pictures of the brood to materialize. I do note with interest that Andrew has appeared a number of times, Matt once, and even Keiko once (after some badgering on my part, of course) but that we have no photos of Britt or Katie as yet. For shame!