The Second Shift

Alright, I guess I'd like to know that we were not always dealing with the most extreme cases in these readings. In Sociology of the Family there was always a discussion about the "second shift" for women, and I just feel like all we hear as young sociologists is how extreme cases work where women get the shaft and men do nothing.

Now, I'm not one to say that women aren't getting the shaft in most cases with the second shift, I am just saying I'd love to see a "normal" case presented. Some may think that the case was normal, but I am not so sure that it is. In the study done in this section, the fathers ended up getting more sleep than the wives/mothers did. They also watched more television. But here is my question, what if the wife didn't like television? I'm just saying. Trying to be the devil's advocate. I thought one of the interesting quotes from this section came from page 572 when they say "One reason women take a deeper interest than men in the problems of juggling work with family life is that even when husbands happily shared the hours of work, their wives felt more responsible for home and children". This is finally something relevant! Simply because it is real. The real deal is that there is a sense of responsibility that women have for home and children that men do not.
I also saw some interesting information on the same page about why it is that men seem to have more control over when they make their contributions. Men are usually able to tell the secretary to hold his calls, but a working mother would probably be the secretary. Meaning that the working mother would not have much control on what she is able to do as far as holding calls goes.
I know this post is really late, but hey, I got it up here. This is my opinion on the matter. We have got to get out of this idea of thinking for other situations and get into this idea of thinking for our situation. Fella's, help your lady out with things at home. I ask the question here, now, we always talk about situations that the wife has to deal with (laundry, dishes...), but we never talk about the outside house work that has to be done. I know that there are tests telling about much more relaxed the guys position is, and I am not really denying that, but we never look at the full spectrum I feel.
Article was sweet, another talk about the second shift. Perspective was different, but I think that the friction between couples starts far before the "second shift" hits. Maybe if people stopped marrying because of sex and started taking the time to get to know the individual we wouldn't have so many people unhappy with their relationships and wanting out or dreading their position. I'm just saying.
Alright, I'm off my soap box. Sorry this was SUPER late, but better late than never.