Mum goes on strike to get her husband to help with chores and says "it worked"
A mum who nearly left her partner because she was "fed up with him not helping with household chores" went on strike - and says it worked.
Karla Loft, 32, says she's spent most of her entire 11-year relationship keeping her house tidy, without much help from her partner, Carl Scott, 42, a youth work business owner.
From cooking, cleaning and dusting to washing up, looking after their children and cleaning bathrooms, Karla claims the majority of the housework and childcare fell on her.
Karla says she would often spend the day cleaning up after their children and Carl would complain if the house looked messy when he came home.
She even joked about wearing a GoPro camera throughout her day so Carl could see how much she was doing.
Karla Loft, 32, says she's spent most of her entire 11-year relationship keeping her house tidy, without much help from her partner, Carl Scott, 42, a youth work business owner.
From cooking, cleaning and dusting to washing up, looking after their children and cleaning bathrooms, Karla claims the majority of the housework and childcare fell on her.
Karla says she would often spend the day cleaning up after their children and Carl would complain if the house looked messy when he came home.
She even joked about wearing a GoPro camera throughout her day so Carl could see how much she was doing.
Transcript
00:00So I'm Carl. I'm Carla. And the reason why we took part of Mums on Strike was due to the fact of
00:08me really not understanding as much as what Carla does around the house really. I'm like, I'm a workaholic
00:14so everything consisted around work, work, work, work, work, work, and
00:18I just didn't understand or see the graph that Carla actually puts into the house. So like, you know, innit?
00:25Yeah, it did get to a point in our relationship where we actually separated because I felt, I just felt so
00:30sick to death of feeling like I'm the one that does everything and Carl not recognising what jobs I do and
00:35coming in the house huffing and puffing when I'd
00:37tried to make sure that the kids were okay all day, I'd tidied up multiple times and there might be a few toys on the
00:43floor and Carl would come home and he'd start huffing and puffing at me, so.
00:47Yeah, I think I learnt my lesson, as you say. You know, there was a lot to it.
00:51I didn't understand exactly what went into the cleaning of the house and the maintaining of the kids and the school runs and the packed
00:58lunches, so I think within, within two days, I think I wanted to pull my hair out.
01:03It was very stressful. You had to walk in my shoes, didn't you? Walk in the shoes and I did, yeah.
01:08And it felt like I was wearing high heels and I had a few blisters, so it was, it was,
01:13it was an eye-opener, I'll put it that way, but I think,
01:17you know, I think we're glad that we did the show.
01:20It's really helped us out. It's made me look at things a little bit differently and I think I've been right to say that
01:27I think, I think I'm a little bit better now, don't you?
01:29Oh, yeah, he does so much more now to help out.
01:31It's like 50-50, isn't it? And he identifies when there's different things that need doing, I don't have to say it to him.
01:37So now it's like a real family partnership and we have decided that the marriage is back on and we are going to get married, so
01:45yeah, it's all been good since we've took part in the show.
01:48The hardest part for me was identifying what jobs needed to be done
01:53because they're, like I said, there's so many, there's so many jobs within the house.
01:57It's like, I mean, because I didn't really help out with much of them,
02:00I didn't really get the gist of what I had to do. So I was winging it for the first day or so.
02:06But then as time went on,
02:09you know, it became known to me exactly what I needed to do around the house, you know, the washing,
02:14dishwasher obviously has to be done,
02:16you know, when you're getting the kids ready for school in the morning,
02:19for example, trying to find their school clothes, their pants, their boxes, their socks and
02:25getting them out on time to school because they have to be at school at a certain time.
02:29So it's, you know, sticking to certain schedules.
02:31Dusting, I've never even looked at dusting.
02:34So doing the dusting was like, you know, mirrors, cleaning mirrors, cleaning mirrors. I've never done cleaning mirrors.
02:39So, you know, there was just so many different aspects to it. You know, it was difficult.
02:44I'm not gonna lie and I'm quite, you know, I'm a man enough to say that it was hard work.
02:48It was something completely different for me.
02:51But I went with it and it's just a massive eye-opener and, you know,
02:58in the end it was the, I couldn't wait for her to come home.
03:01Yeah, and I think the gratitude that you have and the stuff that you take for granted,
03:07when once that was no longer there, it was just, I felt so grateful with actually, you know,
03:12with what she does around the house and for me to
03:16to sit there and just, you know, most of the time watch her while she's doing this job or the jobs around the house.
03:22So one of the key points that I used to say was that they used to always, you know, bite me in the bum was
03:27I've done the dishwasher for you or I've tidied the table.
03:31I used to look for a medal, didn't you?
03:32I used to look for a medal.
03:34But now obviously you've got to look at it as the fact I'm not doing it for her, I'm doing it for us.
03:38So it's for everybody. It's a whole household thing.
03:40So, you know, then mistakes don't happen anymore.
03:43And if I see something that needs to be done, I'll get it done and I'll help out a little bit more.