When He Who Hogs The Power Tools said he’d heard on the radio that women actually love doing house-cleaning chores, I laughed and laughed and laughed myself silly! And then I went to read the Times Online report.
Wow.
Apparently 6 out of 10 women (of the 2000 British women who were surveyed) said that cleaning the house “made them feel in control of their life” and the same proportion found cleaning “mentally therapeutic.”
Mind you, only 22% actually enjoyed the actual doing of the housework, but 64% “found happiness in the results” of their domestic efforts.
So far, so good — yes, there is something very rewarding about doing something to make a positive change in your surroundings. To have a clean and tidy house is to have somewhere restful and comfortable in which to relax and welcome friends… but, just read on!
Nearly half admitted some sort of addiction to cleaning; a similar proportion wished that they could cut down, and 4 in 10 said that they were “no longer in control of their cleaning habits”. A third said that they found more satisfaction in cleaning than in sex.
Got that?
One in every three women would rather get busy with Mr. Clean than get cosy with her significant other!
According to 76 per cent of respondents, spotless interiors in magazines were to blame for the compulsion to clean.
While 80 per cent compared the cleanliness of other homes with their own, 6 out of 10 mothers thought that a messy house would lead visitors to believe they were a “bad mother”…
Not only that, this cleaning obsession kept women were busy cleaning up around the house for something like 2 and a half hours a day — regardless of whatever obligations they may have had outside the home… like, oh, a full-time job!