Wife Insists Husband Pay Her If He Wants Her To Do More Housework
Her hourly rate is quite high.
VGstockstudio / Shutterstock Balancing work responsibilities with other parts of your life isn’t easy. With so much to do, it can feel like you don’t have a spare minute. One woman started feeling that way, so she decided to propose a compromise to her husband that didn’t go over well.
A wife who works long days out of town suggested her husband pay her to do housework.
One woman took to Reddit to discuss her job situation and family. She explained that she has a good job and makes good money.
“I am a steamfitter,” she said. “But I’ve been at it for a while, and I’m in supervision. With bonuses and incentives, but not counting benefits, I earn over $100 an hour.”
She also explained that she usually works out of town and isn’t home much.
“I also work out of town,” she said. “I started doing that once the kids were old enough to take care of themselves with their dad at home.”
It’s a fantastic situation that works almost perfectly for her family. There’s just one problem.
“My husband is upset, however, because I decided to pay for a cleaning lady,” she said. “He and I discussed it, and we agreed that [he] and the kids didn’t do a great job keeping the house clean and tidy while I was away. I hated coming home to a mess. It caused a few fights because it was like they expected me to come home and clean up after them.”
Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels
Despite her husband being upset, having a professional clean their house on a regular basis has worked great. “Having her is fantastic,” she stated. “I come home to a clean house, and I am happier. My kids have more time to study and do extracurriculars. They still have chores and they are still expected to clean up after themselves.”
The fight over the housekeeper has come to a head. “My husband came to me last time I was home and said we should cut back on the service when I’m home. That I should be doing more housework. He thinks that we are wasting money,” the woman said.
She, on the other hand, argued that there was no way she could do that with the long hours she worked out of town. “I said that I work 14 days in a row and that those are 13-hour days,” she said. “Yes, it is mostly paperwork, but his job as a teacher isn’t much more physically challenging.”
Photo: Tima Miroshnichenko / Pexels
That was when the wife offered her husband two alternatives to having the housekeeper come to the house since he was so adamant about it.
“I said that I could offer him two options,” she said. “If he wanted, we could completely get rid of the service, and [he] and the kids could make sure the house was in good shape when I got home. Or, he could pay me my hourly rate to do extra housework when I am on my days off.”
In other words, she proposed that her husband pay her $100 an hour to do housework.
Meanwhile, the cost to hire a cleaning service is much less expensive.
While the husband may find it disconcerting to have strangers come in and clean his home, paying his wife would cost much more.
According to Angi, the price for a cleaning service varies depending on the size of the house. They estimate that it typically costs between $100 and $300.
If his wife spent just three hours doing housework, he would be paying her as much or more than they pay for the cleaning service.
He may not like it, but even the husband has to admit using the cleaning service is a pretty good deal.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.