My husband, Marc, is now officially unemployed. He’s still waiting for his last pay (which, we honestly think would just be a few cents since our loan would be credited from it), but so far, I think we’re holding up. Financially, at least.

Our web design company is doing quite ok, and though it takes about a month for dollar checks to be cleared, blogging is also helping. But the thing is, I’d have to work extra hard now in order to accommodate more design projects—laziness just isn’t an option. Marc’s the one who attends client meetings and all those organizational stuff so my work flow won’t be disrupted and I won’t get too tired, but the workload just doesn’t allow me to have some time to do household work.

Our dirty laundry reached incredible heights when Marc and I finally decided that we got to do a bit of role-reversal until we get organized in this new setup. To be honest, I’ve relaxed my work schedule a bit when I got married. Marc had a regular job then, so we didn’t have to worry about cash flowing in. But now, we only have two sources of income left, our web design company and blogging. And frankly, I’m a bit overwhelmed with the sudden change in work schedule that I’ve been frequently forgetting major things (but yes, my memory for minute details is still intact).

So there. I taught Marc how to do the laundry last Sunday. He seemed to enjoy it, and he didn’t stop until he finished all mountain-loads of dirty laundry. He washed the dishes and cleaned the house. But he didn’t cook, I did. I won’t say that I’m already a great cook, but I have been able to come up with dishes that are a bit more complicated than simply frying. Marc can fry stuff, but we thought it would be for both our interests to leave the cooking to me—unless we want to end up with heart attacks for eating oily food all the time.

Truth be told, I did enjoy doing the laundry when I first got married. I actually thought it was fun back then. But now? Heh. No way. Now, I’m really hoping Marc would continue to enjoy doing the laundry so we won’t have to switch back roles 😀

I have a feeling that our little role-reversal would be quite a topic among our relatives. Not surprising, considering that the Philippines is a bit of a patriarchal society. Men are “supposed” to be the breadwinners, women are supposed to stay home and do the laundry. Although more and more women are working nowadays, it’s still not considered “normal” when it’s the husband who stays at home to do the household chores (though technically, I stay at home for work too :P). Marc and I would probably get some wisecracks over our decision to do a role-reversal, but hey, it’s the most logical to do right now—we don’t want me to drop dead in stress and tiredness, nor do we want Marc to burn a hole right through our bed with his ass for sleeping too much.

What do you think, boys and girls? Is it ok for men to stay home and do housework while women bring home the bacon? Marc and I would stand firm with our decision no matter what, but it would be interesting to know what others think about a setup like this 😛

Fire away…