The Week The Women Left
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What would happen if your wife were to disappear for a week, leaving you to continue working but also take care of the kids and home all on your own?
According to a story on Yahoo! News, Canada’s national broadcaster (CBC) has filmed a social experiment where all of the women in the town of Hardisty, a small town in the province of Alberta, were sent off to a resort for a week while the men were left to run things.
This might not come as much of a surprise but the expectations were clearly different between the men and the women involved.
“It will be a disaster, a complete disaster,” said Kelly Weatherly, one of the women heading off to the resort.
“Two people to take care of, both under the age of five,” Dustin Miller, one of the fathers involved, said. “How hard can it be?”
What would happen at your house?
There is no doubt that my wife runs our household and keeps everything moving in the right direction.
Without my wife, I would have a dilemma in that my work schedule would have to change or I would have to find someone that would be available to get the kids on the school bus every morning and be there in the afternoon after school.
Our health would likely deteriorate as well, as I hate cooking and would likely resort to take-out food more often than not.
The household finances are currently my responsibility so that would not be a problem, and I am certainly capable of keeping the house clean – although maybe not to the same level of cleanliness that my wife prefers. Clean clothes would not be a problem either as the laundry room is my domain.
Make no mistake, it would certainly be difficult to juggle everything on my own and is something that I would not enjoy but I do believe that we would find a way to manage.
Is this experiment sexist?
Apparently there has been quite a bit of discussion sparked as a result of this experiment, with the local media labeling it as sexist. One viewer of the television program had the following to say, “What a misandric (man hating) idea for show. What is wrong with Canadian society that we need to continuously promote how important women are to society at the expense of men.”
This might come across as sexist simply because the structure of the experiment does not place any value on the current contributions of the men involved, thus implying that the women are more important.
It would have been interesting for the experiment to continue a second week where the men travel to the resort for a week while the women handle everything. Unfortunately this was not done – which could be the reason that some consider this to be sexist.
In every relationship, each partner plays a role and typically handles certain responsibilities. As a result of this experiment, each partner has likely gained a new appreciation for the other and many men may have become a better dad and husband as a result.
What do you think?
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If it goes on for an extended period of time, men they know how to do chores will start running consulting services for those who don’t and charge a healthy buck. With no women and too many straight men, violence and crime rate will skyrocket. Taking care of children will be a less important issue in comparison… Of course I’m talking about an extended period of time, not one or two week experiment.
This post reminds me a lot of Cledus T. Judd’s music video “It’s a Great Day to be a Guy”. If you haven’t seen it, you should. =)
Kelvin Kao’s last blog post..Episode 14 – Tofu
I don’t have kids, so I don’t know…when my wife goes on trips I miss her, but I know how to handle all of the household tasks. I sure do miss her when she’s gone, though. My mother was a single mom, and I don’t ever wish that on anyone. It’s so hard. Don’t people know this? Seriously?
Cory Huff’s last blog post..Stereotypes of Men in Media
I had a bachelor pad, and I was a uni student living away from home before that. So I can pretty much “fend” for myself insofar as getting myself well-fed and my habitat maintained (Hey I cooked for dates at my pad
But since having a toddler, and her being left at my inlaws’ care, I think if my mother inlaw “disappeared” things would be tough on us, as we both work fulltime.
If, however, I was a SAHD not working fulltime, I *should* still be able to manage. For me it is a matter of available-time, rather than worrying about being all-thumbs.
JLow’s last blog post..“Why so long??â€
This isn’t as “new” as it sounds. My father was a single dad raising two little girls. Its been done before successfully by many men and will be done again.
lol, first I haven’t seen the word misandric since college, so you get a 4.0 Mr. Derek!
Yeah, it is a little misandric, but, keeping in mind that I haven’t seen it, my first thought was that it was making fun of traditionalists- or small towns, or something…Somehow saying that these people are backward because “look at them! they’re still stuck in their 50s roles!”
Allena the Parenting Diva’s last blog post..I Didn’t Like Breastfeeding.
@Kelvin :: I’ll have to hunt down that video as I haven’t seen it but am now intrigued.
@Cory :: There is no doubt that being a single parent presents a variety of challenges. Hopefully there is family or friends to lean on in times of need.
@JLow :: That is great to have family around to help out as it can certainly be hard to manage even with two parents around.
@flemm :: You’re absolutely correct that there have been and are plenty of single dads (and moms) raising their kids.
Despite my repeated attempts, my wife has resisted all learning anything about our finances. I’m currently in India, while she’s in the US.
she calls me whenever we get a bill and I pay it online. apparently a new set of username/password is too much to handle!
I’ve been following this show since it started, and I have to say that I love it. Something that isn’t mentioned here is that the community where this show was filmed is a very typical small town Alberta place. That is, most of the men are in blue collar jobs, either ranching, trucking, or off in the oil patch. That means that these men are very often away themselves for weeks at a time for work, leaving the women to run the homes and communities by themselves. So, yeah, the women have run things alone quite frequently.
Also not mentioned is that but for about six exceptions (the local MP, the town administrator, the tavern owner, a few ranchers, and the liquor store owner), most of the men took this week off work. There is a lot of time spent drinking beer with the buddies while the kids play in the backyard.
That being said, it’s a pretty good show. I think that the men and the women are learning quite a lot about each other, and what they are made of. I highly recommend checking it out, if you can.
I am a single father full time with no mother in the picture at all. I find this season and last season of this show extremely insulting. I work full time, raise my 4 year old daughter full time and take care of every aspect of the home. It is shows like this that get comments like “It is nice to see a man doing the right thing”. Yet when you see a single mother you hear, “It is a shame the father isn’t doing a thing.”
Also in my experiences in the last 3+ years I have been doing it, the system is very one sided. The government and local agencies set up to help the “Single parent” are there for the single mothers, yet when I approched them for help of any kind, I was told it was great to see a father doing the right thing, but then I was told to get a job and refused help.
Shows like this do nothing for helping the single parent and show that with out woman the house hold would fall apart and men would better people after learning this week long lesson. I would like to see a show where people like myself, the “single parent” doing it on our own ( both mothers and fathers) and we men are not idiots!!
I did complain to the CBC about this show and was met with silence. The same silence i was met with all the government agencies and local help centers.
I didn’t see this show, but find the whole idea of it very gender biased. Like they want to show what stupid bumbling idiots men are around the home and with the kids. Maybe they should do another series “the week the men left” and show the women not being able to pay bills, as no income in coming into the home. That would be as gender biased and stupid as this idea was. And I wonder how that show would go over with the public? NOT! Both sexes should be viewed with respect, not just one.
It seemed the men of “Tata” were so good humoured taking on the house and kids when their “women ” took off for the spa, but did they really show themselves off in the best light, Would one want Canada to see that leaking ceiling dripping onto the kitchen stove for a year or so never mind on anyone standing underneath trying to prepare a meal???
Using good garden produce substituting for clay pigeon shooting (I could not see the funny side) In fact there were so many negatives about this series -
how aggravating to watch the endless repeated shots of daily happenings when one expected each week to see an ongoing sequence of events. How many times did we have to see those repititions. The one hour show each week probably revealed maybe ten to fifteen minutes new film – I don’t know
why this show warrants a second showing.