Household Supply and Demand

When it comes to politics, economics and such, my wife and I don't agree on much. I, as you may have guessed by now, am an Objectivist, and she is a non-religious Buddhist. What being a non-religious Buddhist means exactly I'm not sure. Jes is a fairly rational girl, however, in my opinion, she doesn't speak up for what she wants as much as she should.

Example: last night we were bathing Evan and she asked me whether I would rather wash his hair or his body. So, I washed his hair ... as I have for most of the other baths. Jes wanted to wash his hair instead of his body too, but, for some reason, decided to give me the option. In this case, she learned her lesson quickly and instead of giving me the option, just asked me to dry him off while she disposed of the bath water (usually those roles are reversed).

Similarly, I've noticed a change in the division of household chores. In this case, the change has been an automatic response to a different dynamic in our home. Traditionally, Jes has done the vast majority of the day-to-day chores (cleaning, cooking, dishes, etc.). This has dismayed Jessica at times, but she takes solace in her grandmother's axiom that "marriage is never a 50/50 proposition." However, as her duties pertaining to Evan have increased more than mine have, I have stepped in to fill the ensuing gap. This by itself is not significant, nor am I looking for applause; as I will detail in a moment, I did it, automatically, out of my own self-interest.

Jes has been asking me since ... well, since we first moved in together to do more around the house. For the most part, her solicitations have fallen upon deaf ears. Growing up, I didn't do much in the way of chores. The prevailing parental opinion was that my job was going to school. This dismayed my mother at times. No matter the amount of nagging (not much really) from my mother, I was not budged to contribute, altruistically, to maintain a higher level of cleanliness and peace at home than I desired (especially with no ownership share in the house). As a sidebar, I didn't become an Objectivist until years after I had left home, but these thoughts were still floating around, unformed, in my head.

Now, in a free market-like response, I am contributing more without having to be asked, yelled at, or begged and without it having to be legislated in some kind of household chore list because I want the house to be maintained in a certain fashion. When Jes was maintaining that fashion at no mental, emotional, or financial cost to me what was my motivation to do more? Now, the supply of labour for chores has decreased while the my demand for a level of cleanliness and peace at home has remained constant. Consequently, I have stepped it up.

It took me almost three months to realise I was doing more.

~Adam