(Side note: When I first started this blog, I planned to post to it as often as every day. But I've found that, not only is it sometimes hard to find the time, but sometimes I sit down to write something and I have nothing interesting to say!)
My husband and I are constantly frustrated that we have lists and lists of things to do around the house and are disgusted by the mess, and yet nothing ever seems to get done. I generally find that, even when I find some free time, I'm so overwhelmed by the amount there is to do, I don't even know where to begin. So I don't. And even when my mother-in-law comes over to play with the kids so I can get things done, the kids are a distraction. So hubby got an idea. Taking care of our kids and home is my job and his second job. At his other job, they hold weekly executive meetings to make sure that everyone knows what they're doing and staying on track. It keeps everyone accountable. His idea was that we should have weekly executive meetings at home. That way we set aside time to talk about what's going on in the house, set and reset priorities, and assign action items, for which we will be accountable at the next meeting. (Plus we can add agenda items that are fun, like watch a movie together, or visit the bedroom!) So far we've had one meeting. I have a long list of action items, but we tried to make each one a do-able chunk, and having a deadline really helps me to get things done.
I'll let you know how things are going after a few more meetings....
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2 comments:
I think it's a great idea. We've had a similar conversation - my primary job is child care, and house keeping is secondary. However, as the kids are in school more hours, I do find that I feel more obligated to do the "traditional" women's work - but it's not because my hubby is pushing that. So sitting down on a regular basis to allocate tasks and deadlines is good - otherwise it starts to sound like nagging, or you only think of things at inconvenient times.
One thing I am trying in getting us on the same page with what needs to be done (since we have traded to a house that has the same mortgage we had before but with a lot more to fix) is trying out Google Documents. You can use it through your gmail (which you have since you signed on to blogger I believe). It allows you to create documents that you can edit from anywhere with Internet access and the cool thing is that you can invite other people to edit the document also. I haven't convinced Jim to actually access the document yet, but I created a spreadsheet with our house projects on it and made columns for the job and the job status (and I divided the jobs by size). I could add in a column for priority. I figure that if I think of something at work then I can access the document to add it, and that with Jim as another editor he might move things around, add things I didn't think of, etc.
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