A husband argues with his wife and complains he is the only breadwinner who works very hard. She challenges him to reverse roles, and he accepts it, assuming it would be child’s play. But the consequences are not what he had imagined.
At some point, every hard-working person is always taken for granted, and Alison was no exception. She was a lovely housewife to her husband Henry, who thought being a ‘housewife’ was very easy, unlike his 9 to 5 job.
Everything was going smoothly until one day Alison, a mother of four kids in her 10th year of marriage, asked a tired Henry, who had just returned from an exhausting day at work, for help with something in the kitchen…
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Henry threw his briefcase on the couch, loosened his tie, and sat down, panting. He grabbed the TV remote and tuned into the news when Alison called out to him. She was unable to reach the tin of flour on the shelf and needed his help to bring it down.
“Henry, honey, can you please come here and get this thing down for me? I’m not able to reach it.”
Henry heard Alison but turned a deaf ear and increased the TV volume instead.
“Darling, can you come here for a second? I need your help…” Alison shouted again. At this point, Henry lost his cool and stormed into the kitchen.
“Honey, I’ve just come home. I’ve been working all day…Can I have a little peaceful rest? You are at home all day doing NOTHING. Look at me…I’m dead tired.”
On the fourth day of their challenge, Alison came home to see something else that left her speechless.
Alison was offended by what Henry said. She started arguing, trying to defend she was not jobless at home but had spent ten years raising their kids and keeping things orderly at home.
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“I do NOTHING? I am so busy at home…I do all the household work, and how could you just say that I do nothing?” Alison argued.
But Henry wouldn’t give up just yet…
“Oh really? I am the only breadwinner of the family. I work hard from morning till evening. I come home tired. But you only look after our kids, cook food, and do some cleaning. You get a lot of rest in between, unlike me, who works hard and comes home tired, only to listen to your annoying chants of ‘honey, bring this down…honey, bring that down…’”
Alison disagreed. She was fuming and offered Henry to swap roles and see whose work was more complex and exhausting.
“Huh?! Are you kidding me? You cannot do my work, honey,” he boasted. “But I can do all your work. It’s child’s play for me. I’m working on a project. Will you be able to do it?!”
Alison stood her ground. She argued that she could pull off Henry’s job without a flaw. After all, they had both pursued the same major in college, where they met and fell in love.
Henry felt his ego was hurt, so he decided to prove Alison wrong. He talked to his boss and arranged to place Alison as his substitute for a few days, assuming she wouldn’t be able to stand working in his shoes even for a day. Confident about winning, he agreed to switch roles, starting the following day.
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The next morning, Alison was getting ready to go to work when she smelled something like burning garbage. “Eeeew, what is that funky smell?”
She saw smoke in the kitchen and hurried to check, coughing. Henry was standing in front of the stove, staring at the burnt scrambled eggs stuck to the pan like charred popcorn. He had left the toaster on, and the toast was another disaster.
Alison could not control her laughter.
“Get out of my way. I have to send our kids to school,” said Henry, hurrying out to escape her taunts. He got his kids ready clumsily, forgetting what color tie and socks they had to wear for the day. He forgot to pack half their books and gave them $10 each to buy lunch.
“Go on, treat yourself with some nice lunch today. Dad is just having a rough morning, kiddos!” he shyly said, leading them to the car.
“Can I help? I still have 15 minutes to leave. I can make some nice breakfast,” Alison offered to help. But Henry, who did not want his pride to get hurt, turned down her offer and left with the kids.
“No need. I can handle this. I’ve just started, and I’m picking up fast. I will beat you in this race. Just wait and watch.”
Alison sighed and left for work, failing to picture the mess Henry would make further.
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Henry returned home after dropping off the kids and started with the laundry. He stuffed all the dirty clothes in the washer without separating the whites from the colored clothes.
“Is this even tiring? Just stuff the clothes, pour the detergent, and voila! The washing machine will take care of everything. Now, let me start with dinner. I’ll follow some online recipe, surprise my wife, and prove that I’m a better cook than her!”
Henry went to the kitchen and could not figure out how to get started. He kept the tablet on the counter and watched different cooking videos. He had no idea what to make because everything seemed so complicated. Finally, he decided to make steak tortillas for dinner and started.
“Almost done! Wooohooo! Almost there, baby!” he exclaimed, putting the last tortilla on the pan. Suddenly, he remembered he had left the washing machine on. He hurried to check the clothes, only to find all his white shirts and vests dyed in different colors.
“Oh no! I did not separate the whites from the colored clothes. What will I do now?” he grumbled. He put his dyed clothes in the washer again and added some bleach, hoping it would fix it. He sighed relief and remembered he had left the tortilla on the pan and sprinted to the kitchen.
“Oh my God! Not again,” he gasped, running through the smoke, coughing. The tortilla was burnt black, and the pan was on fire. He splashed a mug of water on the stove, putting it off. He turned around, sighing relief when a sink overloaded with dirty dishes stared back at him. But Henry did not give up. He dusted the flour off his apron and lay on the couch to take a break.
He almost dozed off when suddenly he remembered he had to pick the kids up from school. “Oh, no…The kids…I got to go,” he shrieked and hurried 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 run when Henry reached. He rushed home with his children. But one of them, holding his hand, refused to walk in.
“What is it, Sadie?” he shouted and turned back, realizing that he had brought home the wrong kid. “Oh my God! Alison will kill me. Where is Sadie? And why didn’t you tell me that you were not SADIE???”
“I was scared, and I thought you were our new driver,” said the girl named Amanda.
He rushed back to the school with his kids and found Sadie at the gate, crying.
“Darling, I’m so sorry. I was in a hurry.”
Meanwhile, Amanda ran to her parents, who panicked, assuming she had gone missing or been kidnapped.
“I-I’m so sorry. I thought your daughter was mine. They look the same in the uniform,” he apologized to her parents and fled the spot with his kids to escape any blame or criticism.
“Phew! It’s been only one day, and it’s been a LONG DAY,” he grumbled.
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When Alison returned home from work that day, she found Henry fast asleep on the couch. She checked the kitchen and gasped in shock after seeing the mess and decided to have a gentle talk with Henry.
“Honey, I’m back home. Wake up…”
Henry got up and stretched, pretending that he had an equally fantastic day at home. “Hey, hon…How was your day? I just love this. I get to rest a lot as you used to when I was working my head off at the office,” he taunted.
“Look, we can still make this work. I can help you. I see that you still did not sweep the floor. You have messed up with the laundry too,” Alison tried convincing him, but Henry refused.
“I told you; it’s so easy to be in your shoes! I can do this. You don’t have to worry!” he said, taking the broom in his hand.
Alison could say nothing more. For the next few days, she returned home to encounter some new 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 astonished.
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“What the—?!” she stared in shock. “This is unbelievable!” Alison could smell delicious dinner that was neatly plated on the table. The kids were dressed well. The rooms were swept clean, and the curtains were changed. Everything was just perfect and too good to be true.
“Honey, did you do all this? Oh, I’m so proud of you! You are such a good homemaker!” she cried, approaching Henry to hug him. But he startled her with a bouquet of red roses.
“Darling, you are incredible. I am so sorry for taking advantage of you and your responsibilities towards us. I could not cope with your duties, so I hired a housemaid. She did all of this, not me!”
Alison was stunned…
“I did not know that running a household well requires hard work, understanding, and experience. I give up, and you WIN!” he praised.
Alison kissed Henry and forgave him. She was delighted that he understood he was wrong and came to his senses. They hired the housekeeper, and though Alison returned to her role as a housewife, having the maid around helped her find time to teach and entertain her kids.
In the end, Henry happily returned to his work. He never complained that he was tired of his job again and never argued whenever Alison needed his help at home.
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What can we learn from this story?
Do not take someone’s role or responsibilities for granted. Henry thought running a family in a woman’s shoes would be child’s play. But he realized he was wrong when he switched roles with his wife and did all her household work.
Appreciate and understand the hard work of others. Since Henry was the family’s only breadwinner, he was proud of himself and thought his wife Alison had never played a crucial role like him. He did not appreciate her hard work or understand the pain she endured to run the house smoothly until the roles were reversed.
An 11-year-old boy takes care of his sisters alone while their mother spends nights outside. One morning, the boy hears a knock on the door, but it is not his mom knocking. Click here to read the full story.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.
