Would You Ask Someone Else to Do This Task? Parents' and Children's Ideas About Household Work Requests

This article describes 2 studies, both concerned with the extent to which various household tasks are seen as easy or difficult to move from one family member to another. In Study 1, the informants, mothers and fathers, rated the ease of requests to a partner, teenaged son, or teenaged daughter. In Study 2, the informants, children aged 8, 11, and 14 years, commented on the feasibility of requests to a mother, father, sister, or brother. The studies were part of a general concern with the way work is understood, with particular attention given to distinctions drawn among tasks and among family members, and to variations among family members in the ideas held about work and its possible distribution.