Most couples argue over who has done the most chores, but a new calculator aims to help partners finally settle the debate.
Starling Bank launched her Share the loading tool to help people in relationships plan household chores equally.
The calculator asks couples to separately enter the number of hours they spend on each chore, before calculating how the burden is currently shared.
It comes after research from the UK’s digital bank found that partners cannot agree on who makes the most contribution. 72 percent of women say they do the majority of household chores, while only 18 percent of men agree.
Rachel Kerrone, family finance expert at Starling, said: ‘Not many couples in Britain share the burden equally when it comes to household chores and chores, and fewer seem to agree on how much each other does.
Starling Bank has launched the Share the Load tool to help people in a relationship plan household tasks at the same time
‘To help couples find a better balance at home, we created the Share the Load tool, which allows people to see how household chores are really divided with their significant other.
‘We want to make conversations about household equality easier and clearer. That’s why we’ve made the tool free for everyone to use.’
Women take on even more burdens when starting a family, according to Starling Bank’s survey of more than 4,000 heterosexual and 250 cohabiting LGBTQ+ couples.
The research shows that mothers have more responsibility for 12 out of 13 different aspects of childcare than fathers, from bedtime and bathtime to helping with homework and shopping for clothes.
For example, mothers are eight times more likely than fathers to take on the responsibility of dressing their children, six times as likely to change diapers and five times as likely to prepare food.
The one aspect of parenting that fathers are more likely to take primary responsibility for is “teaching children how to use tools and fix things.”
The calculator (shown) asks couples to separately enter the number of hours they spend on each chore before calculating how the load is currently shared
Relationship expert Hayley Quinn said: ‘Dividing household chores can feel completely unromantic and even transactional.
‘But there are ways to improve your communication and the most practical way is to sit down, divide different tasks and make a schedule.
“Trying to talk about how to share the burden objectively can make it easier to navigate a topic of conversation that can be very emotional if you don’t feel appreciated.”
“Effective communication can help reduce the burden of carrying the mental load and hold both partners accountable for their responsibilities.”