In my house as a kid we had what we called “Blue Jobs” – things like filling the wood box, changing the oil in the cars, etc. “Pink Jobs” existed too, but those are trickier. Maybe picking the fat off the meat – men seem to be squeamish about those sorts of things, at least my dad was! My husband just doesn’t care, so I guess these things are relative.
I am very meticulous about pointing out Blue Jobs in our household. For me, Blue Jobs are really anything that I don’t want to do; not that I can’t, I just would rather not. Taking out the trash, for example, filling the car up with gas, using a drill, and many other things that I can’t remember at this moment. When something comes up, I’ll be sure to edit this post.
My husband doesn’t always appreciate my selective and arbitrary use of the Blue Job designation; however, designating tasks as Blue or Pink always has and always will be my favorite Pink Job.
Thanks for contributing this post to this week’s Carnival of Family Life, hosted at Intensive Care for the Nurturer’s Soul! The Carnival will be live on March 31, 2008, so make sure you stop by and check out all of the other wonderful posts included in this week’s edition!
Funny you mention it… I JUST started a blog that talks all about pink and blue jobs–I call them chores.
blog.pinkandbluechores.com (forgive the design! I’m still working on it!)
I love that you call designating the tasks the pink job! I never thought of it that way, but that’s totally a pink chore in our house, too. Although, we do bicker sometimes about the gray areas–purple areas? My husband and I just got married and we’re drawing the lines all the time. Or at least trying to.
With my blog, I want to examine what pink and blue chores are to different people and how much they reflect gender norms and stereotypes in society. Sounds a little thick, I know, but I’m hoping to get feedback from a variety of view points. I’d love for you to check it out!
I have never in my life heard of blue/pink jobs – but I think I like it. Especially if determining which one is which is a pink job. lol