Another reason to retire early: Men do double the housework!

Yes, you heard that right: men do more housework once they retire – up to 2 times more than they did before.

A new German study of 1,302 couples has found that men do 3.9 hours of house work each day which is up from 2 hours when they were working. Though when it comes to sharing the burden of house work, it is an area women lead in: they do around 6.1 hours if they’re at home.

The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, included chores such as the laundry and washing up, as well as running errands. Funnily enough, and we’re sure this is true in your house, men don’t want to wash up the dishes, whether they’re working or retired. Men much prefer repairing things or gardening once their retired, according to the survey.

There might be those women who say their husband does no housework so 2 x 0 = 0 but overall, men are doing more when they have less stress, and isn’t that a good thing?

Others may say that despite an increase in work done by the retired man of the house, there is still a ‘chore gap’. NY Mag has recently reported that even those who are cohabiting but not married, and even those who work more than their male partners still do the bulk of the household chores. Why is this happening?

Some suggest it’s because women generally stay healthier longer and some do enjoy cleaning. Some probably will admit to doing the bulk of the tidying up because they feel their partner is unable to do it correctly.

It would also be interesting to see what happens to the division of housework in households where both partners work, or among couples in which the woman works more. For the couples in this study, it seems the housework gender gap does appear to narrow later in life. It’s still not fair but it is less unfair! We’re sure many men can agree with that.

And for they don’t do in chores, they make up for in company and happiness, isn’t that right, ladies?

What do you think? Is your man more of a cleaner or a watcher? Do you clean or is your hubby a better tidier? Tell us below.