I went on a mother’s strike – the mess was so bad I was ready to move into the garden
At first it seemed like a fairy tale when Simone and Michael met at the Hard Rock Café.
The two lovebirds hit it off right away. Simone, now 40, even announced that Michael, now 50, had officially become her ‘boyfriend’.
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But the relationship deteriorated when the Brummy duo moved in together and Simone realised how messy her partner, a former chef, really was.
”When we got Mia [their ten-year-old daughter]“It just made sense that we loved each other and it was like a chip went in and I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve got you now — now I’m just going to do whatever I want,’” Simone said.
The former chef is still a huge foodie and likes to spend his free time preparing elaborate meals. But although the dishes are delicious, Simone finds the cooking style unbearable.
On average, the mother of one spends a full two hours cleaning up the mess. Some of the mess comes from Michael’s huge collection of sneakers, which he ‘saves for a special occasion’.
The vast array of shoes has indeed made its way into the Birmingham family’s home, with the connoisseur keeping the items in large piles under the bed and on the porch.
”Half the time he struggles to get them together, so he can never carry them anyway. You can move them – but where do you move them?”
But it’s not just Michael’s enormous shoe collection that’s causing a mess: even the shed in the garden has fallen victim to his collecting mania.
Although the limited space is filled to the brim with various bags and loose items, the man sees this as a potential sideline, with which he can earn some extra money. For example, he has a hot dog stand, but he has not used it yet.
The ambitious businessman, as revealed in tonight’s episode of Wife on Strike on Channel 5, has also got his hands on an ice cream van which is parked outside on the street.
But after spending the last few years in total chaos, Simone had reached boiling point and admitted that she wouldn’t mind living apart.
“I don’t want to keep nagging him. But in the end, it stresses me out when there’s stuff lying around everywhere.”
My husband Michael, who now works in a school, saw it all from a different perspective and gave his household chores a score of ’60:40′ – for him that was ‘obvious’.
Although his cooking skills are exceptional, cleaning the kitchen is not on the agenda. The heated discussions lead Simone to burst into tears.
“Mia comes across as someone who is nagging and motherly,” she cried on the show.
Cleaning and household tasks in figures
Well Polished conducted a survey and the results are in!
Most hated household chores
- Cleaning the oven – 34%
- Ironing – 15%
- Cleaning toilet – 10%
- Washing dishes – 5%
- Cleaning up – 4%
Most loved household chores
- Cooking meals – 21%
- Cleaning up – 12%
- Vacuuming – 11%
- Doing the laundry – 9%
- Pet care 8%
Men vs. Women: Who’s in?
Men spend 7 hours and 54 minutes per week cleaning.
Women spend 12 hours and 15 minutes per week cleaning.
“I feel really guilty about that because that’s not who I am and that’s not what I want. And that’s not how I should be spending my days.”
This was the moment the mother of one decided to strike, leaving Michael and their almost-teenage daughter to fend for themselves while Michael relaxed in a boutique hotel.
While Simone was away, Michael finally decided to clean the house, moving shelves in the kitchen cabinets and even said he wanted to “keep up” with his newfound tidiness.
However, when Simone returned from her week-long mother strike, she felt like “nothing had changed.”
When she pulled back the sheets on the bed, she saw piles of laundry that had not been put away. She noticed that the surfaces were still ‘dirty’.
Michael was left with the question, “Are women ever happy?”
“Simone went to a hotel for a week and I felt like I was in a kennel,” he added jokingly.
The couple eventually concluded that the experiment worked to some extent.
You can watch episode 4 of Wife On Strike on My5.
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