You seem to miss the point of the thread.

This kind of invisible work almost always falls on women,

I don’t lord it over my wife, it is mostly invisible to her, that is the point. There is invisible work for each gender. In my message don’t you remember that I said “I am sure my wife does not notice all the things I do keep our home up.”

Jessica’s point is valid it is just one sided. Father’s who don’t do their fair share are to blame for some women’s in ability to launch a professional career or to advance at the pace of their male counterparts. For Men the challenge is different, many don’t have time for more than working, eating, and sleeping.

I think a big part of the story that is overlooked is working class families. Someone has to bring in enough money to pay the bills and neither parent is really on a career path. They are hourly workers. One thing about hourly work is time and a half and double time for overtime. If one of the parents can work a job that has paid overtime then one person working 67 hours a week makes the same money as two people working 40 hours a week. That is without considering, less commuting and no need for paid daycare.

That paradigm is going away but the consequences are not all good. Now you have both parents working and much longer commutes since both are commuting and someone has to take the kids to daycare and pick them up. If house work and child care is shared properly then it does have some benefits. Both parents have time with the kids and they have more time together. They are working more hours for less disposable income and the kids are spending a lot of time in someone else’s care. It does have the benefit that when the kids grow up both parents have a more substantial work history.

Don’t take this wrong. I expect that there are more dead beat Dad’s than dead beat Mom’s. Some dead beat Dad’s live with the Mom and kids. I don’t know if it is a thing anymore but when I was growing up one consequences of the kids growing up and leaving home was divorce. My Father-in-law ran off with his girlfriend while we were on our Honeymoon. My wife was the last child from that family to get settled.

TEK