Household Tasks Fill Weekends of Working Moms

Although almost all working mothers look forward to the weekend, more than half emerge from the two-day respite feeling tired and let down, according to a readers’ survey published in Working Mother magazine.

The survey, based on responses from 2,343 readers between the ages of 30 and 45, showed that 52% of working mothers feel “disappointed” or “exhausted” by whirlwind weekends dominated by household tasks. Ninety-five percent of the women surveyed said they anticipated the weekend with pleasure.

“There’s a constant conflict between what the weekend should be and what it ends up being for working women,” said Olivia Buehl, editor in chief of the magazine. “Ambivalence is the nature of the beast, with women feeling accomplishment at getting things done, but frustration at not having time to relax.”

After toiling at outside jobs all week, the working mothers surveyed still shoulder most of the burden of cooking, paying bills, ironing and doing laundry--activities almost half of all respondents report doing alone on weekends.

Only 4.6% of their husbands reported doing weekend chores--mostly house or property maintenance and non-food shopping--although they generally work the same number of hours as their wives during the week.