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Sharing housework between husbands and wives may not be the exclusive key to a successful marriage, but it is a major consideration.

Maintaining a home involves hard work. Add children and outside employment to the mix and the work compounds.

Proper division of labor is one component of success in any business venture. Venturing into a lifelong committment with another person to create and maintain a home and family is comparable to running a business; you might call it the "family business."

Marriage is a partnership not unlike a business partnership. When one partner is doing more, or less, of the labor, things become unbalanced and problems arise.

In compatible partnerships there is no need to scientifically divide duties and responsibilities. Both partners are invested and enthused about doing whatever it takes to achieve their goals and make a success of their partnership.

If one partner is working outside the home and the other partner is working to maintain the home, that is fair distribution of work. When both partners work outside the home, the home maintenance does not decrease. It is only common sense that both partners should share the housework.

The scenario of one partner relaxing in front of the television, unwinding from a busy day at work, while the other, who also worked, is making dinner and cleaning up is unnerving, to say the least.

How much healthier for the marriage if one cooks and the other cleans up, and they both relax and unwind together when the work is done.

Children benefit by witnessing their parents working together. Seeing fairness role modeled in their parent's partnership will increase their chances of being successful in their future relationships. They will enter into their own partnerships with realistic expectations and positive points of view about the importance of sharing.

In 49 years of marriage, I experienced an equal partnership. Sometimes I worked outside the home, sometimes I was a homemaker attending to five children. When my spouse returned from work in the evening, he pitched in and helped, for housework and childcare does not bow to a time clock. Today we are retired and continue to share chores around the house.

"There is nothing sexier than a man running a vacuum cleaner." I say this as a joke to my husband when he vacuums the house. Beneath the joke lies a truth that cannot be disputed.

Sharing housework may not be the only key to successful marriages, but it is one of the key ingredients to a happy home.

Learn more about this author, Carol Gioia.
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