The new year is just around the corner and people are starting with self-optimization resolutions: more sport, less sweets. However, because in February at the latest the mind wanders and the middle of the body strengthens, we prefer to put our energy into a more original resolution: fair division of labor at home.
It's been over 15 years since a woman in an ad said, "I'm running a very successful, small family business!" - and you could see them ironing, cleaning, cooking and comforting the children. Back then, this spot felt like it was valued; today mothers only smile tiredly, because over 70 percent of women in Germany are employed, and the trend is rising. However, the housework shown in advertising is the same and mostly stuck with them.
Today, the mother is not only the managing director of her successful, small, family-owned company (here the promotion works without any quota system), but she also does her other paid work - mostly part-time, which makes it more difficult for her to get promoted there.
While there are more men on the boards of stock exchange companies with the names Thomas or Michael than women, it is reasonable to assume that more Claudias and Julias than men write the shopping list for the family about it - in such a way that they arrange the shelves in the supermarket agrees (the time window between the office and daycare is barely half an hour).
Welcome to the management!
This mental burden, which mothers carry around in the form of thoughts, to-do lists and multi-column calendars, leads to the great exhaustion of a generation that is in the rush hour of their lives anyway.
Let us go back to the image of the family as a company to get the problem under control. Here's what we could do in the new year:
The long-time managing director
- appoints the partner on 1.1. to an equal partner, works him into all company processes and outsources parts (otherwise she feels no relief and is a control freak),
- rethinks their previous demands and practices downsizing: schooling is not declared a state act, and the world keeps turning when the Christmas cake comes out of the supermarket.
The new managing director
- works independently, takes responsibility and brings new ideas,
- does not have to be constantly reminded of his tasks and only asks where his work materials are in the induction phase
What families learn from the auto industry
But how does this division of labor work in practice? The mother of three Laura Fröhlich devotes herself to the topic of mental stress in her blog and uses the so-called shop floor method at home. The principle originally came from the automotive industry, where the individual steps of production were noted on the floor. With the help of a plywood panel, Laura Fröhlich transferred the method to her family as follows:
- Divide a large board into four columns and many lines, in the first column categories such as household, finance, children, vacation, birthdays, etc. are listed.
- The second, third and fourth columns have the headings "To do", "In progress" and "Done".
- All necessary tasks are written on Post-its and assigned to the categories, then distributed among the family members and marked accordingly in color.
- Everyone postpones their notes until (hopefully) they are at the end under "Done".
The married couple Heidi and Christian Eineder also thought about how to make the mother's internal checklists visible and thus distribute the work more fairly. Your company Easyfam developed an organization tool consisting of:
- a task board on which the repetitive weekly tasks are attached with magnets and
- One bamboo figure per family member, to which completed weekly tasks are attached, but which also reminds of daily tasks such as "packing satchels" or "feeding pets".
Both systems require a long-overdue kick-off meeting, in which all family members understand what work is required daily and weekly.
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Mental Load: These tools help to distribute family work fairlyWonder Woman in the new housing development
But not only tasks have to be redistributed, claims also have to be reduced. Even Wonder Woman wouldn't be able to run a household like a woman in the 1950s - and work in parallel. How do we come up with the idea that one can pursue a profession and at the same time shop and cook freshly every day, help the children in the sparkling clean house with schoolwork and knit a second-degree cousin a scarf made of self-felted wool?
It is the legacy of our socialization that brings us to such crazy thoughts. The Golf generation in particular is characterized by the ideal idea of a mom who does not "have to work" but who prepares her own home in the new development, while Dad brings enough money home. If both parents work today and think they are emancipated, but these images are still burned onto their hard drive, the system will crash sooner or later:
- The woman never has a break, feels determined by others, thinks for everyone and believes that she is responsible for ensuring that everyone is well.
- As she is part of her job part-time, she seeks confirmation in domestic areas, but realizes that a table decoration she has made herself does not increase her self-esteem. That makes them dissatisfied.
- As soon as she feels guilty about her work, she wants to make everything as perfect as possible for her children.
- The man feels financially responsible, because the part-time salary of the often poorly paid woman is just enough for daycare and after-school care. He rarely works in family-friendly companies and he helps at home, but feels that he can never please the partner.
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Kleen, Heike
I was young in the past, now I just want to look like this: casual through the middle of life - an advanced cure - in-depth tips with an immediate effect
Publishing company:
Heyne publishing house
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256
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€ 15.00
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Women are more than earners
In order for a modern corporate culture to prevail in Germany's small family businesses, the following donations and pioneering signals from the state are urgently needed:
- Spouse splitting should be abolished. It degrades women to secondary income earners, driving them into poverty in old age.
- Wage differences must be eliminated through more transparency. Only when women are paid equal rights are parents free to decide how to split parental and working hours - currently the wage gap is 21 percent.
- Pension equity: In Germany women receive 53% less pension than men. The thanks for reducing their careers in order to raise tomorrow's pensioners is: poverty in old age. It is not only in the family that rules must be laid down on how to distribute pension rights fairly, the care work must also have a positive effect on the pension.
- Childcare in schools must be reliable. Many families put together an expensive, time-consuming and fault-prone system for the time from 1 p.m. that puts more strain on children than a well-thought-out school concept with spacious rooms and good staff. However, Germany recently spent only 4.2 percent of its gross domestic product on education, which is below the average for both the OECD and the EU countries.
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Most of all, families need one thing: time. Children shouldn't be problems that need to be organized away and care work is important. If both partners worked with children for a maximum of 30 hours in the first few years - with full wage compensation - family life could finally be shaped together. Both partners would have more time for themselves and their children, everyone would be more balanced and less sick.
And the best comes at the end: Those who give up half of the power in their small family business finally have the capacity to develop professionally and to take over the other half in society.
