A husband argues with his wife, complaining that she’s the sole breadwinner and the only one who really works hard. She challenges him to reverse the roles, and he agrees, thinking it would be a piece of cake. But things didn’t turn out as he imagined.
At some point, anyone who works hard is always taken for granted, and Alison was no exception. She was a charming homemaker to her husband Henry, who thought being a “housewife” was very easy, unlike his eight-hour workday.
Everything was going well until one day Alison, a mother of four and married for ten years, asked Henry, tired and returning from an exhausting day at work, to help her with something in the kitchen.
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Henry threw his briefcase on the sofa, loosened his tie, and sat up, panting. He grabbed the television remote and was watching the news when Alison called him. She couldn’t reach the box of flour on the shelf and needed his help to get it down.
“Henry, honey, can you come over here and get this thing down for me? I can’t reach it.”
Henry heard Alison but played it cool and turned up the TV volume instead.
“Honey, can you come here for a second? I need your help…” Alison shouted again. At that moment, Henry lost his temper and rushed into the kitchen.
“Honey, I just got home. I’ve been working all day… Can I rest a little? You’ve been home all day doing nothing. Look at me… I’m dead tired.”
On the fourth day of their challenge, Alison came home and saw something else that left her speechless.
Alison was offended by what Henry had just said. She began to argue, trying to defend the fact that she wasn’t unemployed at home and that she had spent ten years raising their children and keeping order at home.
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“I’m not doing ANYTHING? I’m so busy taking care of the house… I do all the housework, and how can you say I’m not doing anything?” Alison argued.
But Henry didn’t give up just yet…
“Oh really? I’m the sole breadwinner in the family. I work hard from morning to night. I come home tired. But you just take care of our kids, cook, and do a little cleaning. You get a lot of rest in between, unlike me, who works hard and comes home tired, to listen to your boring chants: ‘Honey, bring this down…Honey, bring that down…'”
Alison disagreed. Furious, she suggested to Henry that they swap roles and see which job was more complex and exhausting.
“Huh?! Are you kidding me? You can’t do my job, darling,” he bragged. “But I can do all your jobs. It’s a piece of cake for me. I’m working on a project. Will you be able to do it?!”
Alison stood her ground. She made it clear she could handle Henry’s job without a problem. After all, they had both majored in the same major at university, where they met and fell in love.
Henry felt his ego was hurt, so he decided to prove Alison wrong. He spoke to his boss and arranged for Alison to be his replacement for a few days, assuming she wouldn’t be able to stand to work in his place, even for a day. Confident of his victory, he agreed to switch roles, starting the next day.
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The next morning, Alison was getting ready for work when she smelled burning garbage. “Eeeew, what’s that weird smell?”
She saw smoke in the kitchen and rushed to check, coughing. Henry was standing at the stove, looking at the burnt scrambled eggs stuck to the pan like charred popcorn. He’d left the toaster on, and the toast was also a disaster.
Alison couldn’t control her laughter.
“Get out of my way. I have to send our kids to school,” Henry said, hurrying out the door to escape her taunts. He clumsily got his children ready, forgetting what color tie and socks they were supposed to wear for the day. He forgot to pack half their books and gave them $10 each to buy lunch.
“Go ahead and treat yourselves to a nice lunch today. Dad’s just having a rough morning, kids!” he told them shyly, leading them to the car.
“Can I help you? I still have 15 minutes before I leave. I can make a nice breakfast,” Alison offered. But Henry, who didn’t want his pride hurt, refused her offer and left with the children.
“No need. I can handle it. I’ve just started, and I’m improving fast. I’ll beat you in this race. Just wait and see.”
Alison sighed and left for work, not imagining the mess Henry was going to make again.
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Henry came home after dropping off the kids and started doing the laundry. He threw all the dirty clothes into the washing machine without separating the whites from the colored ones.
“Is it even tiring? Just put the clothes in, pour in the detergent, and voilà! The washing machine will take care of everything. Now let me start with dinner. I’ll follow an online recipe, surprise my wife, and prove I’m a better cook than she is!”
Henry went to the kitchen and couldn’t figure out how to begin. He kept the tablet on the counter and watched various cooking videos. He had no idea what to do because everything seemed so complicated. Finally, he decided to make steak tortillas for dinner and got started.
“Almost done! Wooohooo! Almost done, baby!” he exclaimed, placing the last tortilla on the pan. Suddenly, he remembered he’d left the washing machine running. He hurried to check the clothes, only to discover that all his white shirts and vests were dyed different colors.
“Oh no! I didn’t separate the whites from the colored clothes. What am I going to do now?” he grumbled. He put his dyed clothes back in the washing machine and added a little bleach, hoping that would fix things. He sighed in relief and remembered he’d left the tortilla on the pan and hurried into the kitchen.
“Oh my God! Again!” he exclaimed, running through the smoke and coughing. The tortilla was black from burning, and the pan was on fire. He threw a cup of water onto the stove, turning it off. He turned around and sighed with relief when a sink overloaded with dirty dishes faced him. But Henry didn’t give up. He dusted the flour off his apron and lay down on the couch to take a break.
He almost dozed off when suddenly he remembered he had to pick up the children from school. “Oh, no… Kids… I have to go,” he cried, rushing to his car.
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Henry drove as fast as he could because he was already late. Luckily, the school bell had just rung when Henry arrived. He hurried home with his children. But one of them, who was holding his hand, refused to go inside.
“What is it, Sadie?” he shouted, turning around, realizing he’d brought the wrong child. “Oh my God! Alison is going to kill me. Where’s Sadie? And why didn’t you tell me you weren’t SADIE???”
“I was scared, and I thought you were our new driver,” said the girl named Amanda.
He rushed to school with his children and found Sadie at the door, crying.
“Honey, I’m so sorry. I was in a hurry.”
Meanwhile, Amanda ran to her parents, who panicked, thinking she was missing or kidnapped.
“I’m so sorry. I thought your daughter was mine. They look alike in uniform,” he apologized to his parents and fled the scene with his children to escape any blame or criticism.
“Phew! It’s only been one day, and it’s been a LONG DAY,” he grumbled.
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When Alison came home from work that day, she found Henry asleep on the couch. She glanced into the kitchen and was shocked by the mess. She then decided to have a little chat with Henry.
“Honey, I’m home. Wake up…”
Henry stood up and stretched, pretending he’d had an equally fantastic day at home. “Hey, honey… How was your day? I love it. I can rest like you did when I was working like crazy at the office,” he teased.
“Look, we can still make this work. I can help you. I see you still haven’t swept the floor. You’ve been messing around with the laundry too,” Alison tried to convince him, but Henry refused.
“I told you; it’s so easy to be in your shoes! I can do it. You don’t have to worry!” he said, taking the broom in his hand.
Alison couldn’t say anything more. In the following days, she came home to find another mess Henry had made in the kitchen or while doing the laundry. But on the fourth day of their challenge, she came home to see something else that left her speechless and stunned.
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“What the…?!” she exclaimed in shock. “This is incredible!” Alison smelled the delicious dinner being carefully laid out on the table. The children were well dressed. The rooms were swept and the curtains were changed. Everything was just perfect and too good to be true.
“Darling, did you do all this? Oh, I’m so proud of you! You’re such a good housekeeper!” she cried, going to Henry to hug him. But he startled her with a bouquet of red roses.
“Honey, you’re amazing. I’m so sorry I took advantage of you and your responsibilities to us. I can’t handle your chores, so I hired a maid. She did all that, not me!”
Alison was amazed…
“I didn’t know that running a household well requires hard work, understanding, and experience. I give up, and you WIN!” he praised.
Alison embraced Henry and forgave him. She was delighted that he realized he was wrong and came to his senses. They hired the housekeeper, and although Alison resumed her role as a housewife, the maid’s presence helped her find time to teach and entertain her children.
In the end, Henry happily returned to his job. He never again complained about being tired of his job and never protested when Alison needed his help around the house.
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What can we learn from this story?
- Don’t take someone’s role or responsibilities for granted . Henry thought running a family in a woman’s place would be a breeze. But he realized he was wrong when he swapped roles with his wife and did all her household chores.
- Appreciate and understand the hard work of others . As Henry was the sole breadwinner, he was proud of himself and believed that his wife Alison had never played a crucial role like he did. He didn’t appreciate her hard work and didn’t understand the pain she endured to keep the household running smoothly until the roles were reversed.
Henry wasn’t the only man who neglected the chores women do to keep the home tidy. In this other story, this man mocked his wife for thinking that being a mother was easy until they switched places too.
This story is inspired by the daily lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to real names or places is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; it might change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com .
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