SHARING RESPONSIBILITIES

The woman realized how odd it felt that she was the only one bringing income into their home. although it felt odd, she knew that it was the only way for them to survive.

Her husband had lost his job of more than 10 years recently, and their savings were depleting by the days. He had registered with an employment agency and spent most of his mornings at the unemployment office. But she was thankful for his help with the housework now that he was home for most of the day.

Before he lost his job, they both were away from home for most of the day, and by the time she got home from work, she was too tired to do everything that needed to be done to keep their home maintained.

With the way the economy is today, we all have to except the fact that families are now having to share responsibilities at home. It used to be a time where the father went out and worked, while the mother stayed at the house, making it a happy home. Things have definitely changed today.

Today, we see many families where both parents are working. And not only working, but holding down more than one job, just to ensure that the bills are paid, and that the family needs are met.

I have witnessed some families who share the responsibilities as well as the needs of the family. Just like the example provided, you may witness or even hear about one of the heads of household losing a job, or getting disabled and this is a major reason for the family's source of income to decrease.

Once this happens, it's a general reaction and duty of the other members of the family to share the responsibilities. Not only by helping bring more sources of income into the household, but by coming together to help those who have taken on the load of being the only source of income for the family. The household chores have to be shared along with other duties, such as the cooking.

One way to ensure that everyone is sharing responsibilities, is to make a list, or a duty chart, where everyone is assigned a special task in the household; and the duties can be rotated to make sure no one is stuck doing something that they don't like, or are not good at doing. Another great idea for sharing the responsibilities comes from every other member of the household pulling together to make ends meet, and remain in good spirits about a sudden loss of employment, or even a disability.

Once the family arranges a schedule and chart for duties, there should be no problems with coping the loss of a source of income; That is if the loss is short term. Now if it's for an extreme amount of time, then, one may have to make some major adjustments, and we all don't wish that to happen to anyone. But it does. How would you handle a sudden loss of a source of income in your household?