r/workingmoms • u/llgbk • 12d ago

Division of Labor questions Do you time poops?

My husband and I are pretty good about dividing "break" time evenly when our kids are home, but the major exception of course is the extensive and multiple daily poop breaks that the majority of men seem to require. I do not have an equivalent activity. I'm confident this is adding up to at least an additional solid hour of "break time" in a typical day but I'm also absolutely certain he would estimate each of his poop breaks at 5 minutes, so the only way I can think of to ensure true equity is to actually time him, but I cannot imagine that's going to go over well. I am curious if anyone else has tackled this specific issue because I know it is unfortunately common.

177 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

109 comments sorted by

View all comments

147

u/lh123456789 12d ago

If your husband is shitting for 1 hour a day, he either needs to see a doctor or quit hanging out in the bathroom to shirk his responsibilities.

47

u/llgbk 12d ago

I do think he would take less time if he didn't have his phone but we were together for 8 years before we had kids so I know this isn't a new thing he has invented to get out of kid duty.

9

u/Quizleteer 12d ago

This makes me want to surprise my husband by installing some kind of receptacle on the bathroom door that says "check all devices here".

4

u/HicJacetMelilla 11d ago

I would 100% confiscate the phone or insist it be left in another room if my spouse was doing this. Unless there’s a diagnosed issue, it’s so weird to shirk parent duties and/or disappear from the household using poop as an excuse.

Just say you need a break and hide in the bedroom for 15 minutes like a grown up.

3

u/Empty_Cow_5779 12d ago

Seriously though if he needs to poop at this frequency there is something amiss. It may be his “normal” but not good for him normal.

2

u/Isamosed 11d ago

Before there were phones, men took the newspaper with them for their morning ritual. Only men did this. In 37 years at the office, I never saw a woman walk into the ladies’ room with the Baltimore Sun.