Reversed clichés

In society there are still so many clichés on traditional task divisions in a household and of course each family has its own routines.  I've read this winter a blog post on reversed clichés but I can't find it anymore. Anyway, I thought it was fun to have some thoughts on how Jan and I do things and where we break the stereotypes.


The stereotypes: 
First of all we often fit the stereotypes.  It will be Jan who works with any tool and constructs of fixes things at home.  And if there is any new gadgets or technology at home, he's the one to introduce it and figure it out first.  And I must be honest and also admit that he is the main responsible to clean out the cats litter box.  I follow-up the children's homework more and be the planner for babysits or children's social activities.  And finally most of the laundry gets done by me . 

Breaking the stereotypes: 

Jan is the cook at home if he's home but lately I don't find that so much a stereotype anymore. There are so many families and men that I know that cook in their family. 

Jan usually takes out the trash. But funny enough, while he's well aware that ordinary trash is picked up on Tuesday mornings and he prepares and sets the bag ready , he leaves it in the hallway to allow me to add some more in it before it goes outside.   Because I'm the only one at home that realises we have more little bins across the house, so I can do a run to pick-up bins in the bathrooms above or the children's bedroom or the one hidden under Jan's desk now and then and run it in the bag too before it goes outside.
And then I am the only one who is aware that on other days in the week, there is a pick-up round for either paper or plastic or bio-degradable stuff. On the rare weeks that I travel and Jan is alone at home, I know 100% certain that he didn't take any of it out.   Plastic, paper or bio-degradable: that's my task. 

I am the only one working on our tax declaration. When we got together, Jan was living abroad and didn't have to declare hardly anything so I was more familiar with the Belgian tax mess than he did. He quickly proclaimed that it's not efficient if we both try to figure it out.   Hence, it's been my task and my sole task for the last 15 years and he simply signs when I tell him to sign.

Similar, I do most visits at the banks to discuss finances and investments although in the last years Jan could join me so now he is more following it together, but for a long time it was my thing.  You notice however when we visit a bank together that sometimes conversations seem to focus on him and not on me, although lately I didn't feel that, fortunately. 

Jan loves to shop more than I do.  When we go to the supermarket, I like to quickly and efficiently grab the things on my shopping list and get out of there, while he zigzags through the isles and looks at me when I show up with already some items from x isles further that we need with the remark "oh but I'd go by there in a few minutes".   He is the one to blame if parcel deliveries ring our doorbell regularly and he has a ridiculous amount of shoes that irritates me a lot. His shoes are everywhere. 


Doing it together:

There is also things we always do together. We have a cleaning lady but when we need to clean ourselves, it is a task that gets devided and tackled by the entire family together.  I usually clean one floor while Jan does the other and the children get task assignements.  It would entirely shock me to pieces if one of us would spend hours on cleaning and the other one is relaxing or so. 


Similarly Jan usually takes the initiative to fold the laundry I just finished but that's often something he starts before bedtime and then we also involve the entire family. Then we put all the clean laundry baskets on our bed and the 4 of us are around the bed and together we clear the task swiftly. 

How about you?  Do you fit many stereotypes or not at all?