Are men really that bad at home?

If you have nothing to watch at 7am in the morning on UK TV then please do tune in to this show.

It's the epitome of fathers taking care of children. It goes about showing 2 families with children and how the mother whom is also the primary care giver goes on strike therefore leaving the husband/partner (who is portrayed as being useless and not lending a hand) for the weekend to go about dealing with the kids, household chores and cooking etc on their own! Some women out there might go – "finally they can get a taste of what our lives are really like" but is this how we mould our fathers in to a new set of responsibility.

I am all for tough love and no better way to learn then as Nike would say "just do it" but at the same time in this program do we take the mothers out of the equation and then hope the men will come to the party?? I mean it would be like taking the Colonel out of the war and saying to the platoon "ok boys you get to run the war yourselves for the weekend whilst we have a well deserved and earned break". I don’t think life is like that!

If my wife said that I resembled these men on the show I would probably without a doubt, wholeheartedly call her some nice names that shouldn't be repeated out loud unless you work on a chain gang! I mean to say if this is what men are really like – having no idea how to do the vacuuming or putting washing on do we need to re-educate the male to do this? Was there a time when the male as a young man before getting married had to do the laundry and cook himself? Do parents not teach basic survival skills? If that's the case I would rather take my chances in a war – probably not WWI or II probably something more my style – like a price war – (I'm tight with money).

I remember my mum making me cook bland food when I was young and living at home but hey I never forgot how to peel a potato – hmm if only my teachers could see me now! Anyway the point is fathers are doing their best and we should instead of making them look stupid or like they should be in a cone of silence just like "Get Smart" Agent 86 & the Chief we should be encouraging them to get out there and make their partners proud. Wives/partners should be giving them tasks to do – We are creatures of habit and like most men I know we only procrastinate or simply detest things when we have no idea what we are doing and children can definitely fall in to this category i.e. we don't know what we are doing so we leave them alone.

I personally know that the fathers who are either stay home dads or general fathers do their best and want to know more, I hope there isn't a case of "mother knows best" either?

My final words on this program are don't take it too seriously and if women are worried about their partners not contributing to the family dynamics - then perhaps ask them, and if they still don't respond gently remind them that their share of dinner might have a certain tinge/smell of almonds.

-Scott