Gender Wars

I received this email joke today, which was apparently voted as women's favourite email joke (I was never asked to vote):

"A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed home.
He wanted her to see what he went through so he prayed:"Dear Lord: I go to work
every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home. I want her to
know what I go through, so please allow her body to switch with mine for a day.
Amen. God, in his infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish. The next morning,
sure enough, the man awoke as a woman. He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate,
awakened the kids, set out their school clothes, fed them breakfast, packed
their lunches, drove them to school, came home and picked up the drycleaning,
took it to the cleaners and stopped at the bank to make a deposit, went grocery
shopping, then drove home to put away the groceries, paid the bills and balanced
the checkbook. He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog. Then it was
already 1 P.M. and he hurried to make the beds, do the laundry, vacuum, dust,
and sweep and mop the kitchen floor. Ran to the school to pick up the kids and
got into an argument with them on the way home. Set out milk and cookies and got
the kids organized to do their homework, then set up the ironing board and
watched TV while he did the ironing. At 4:30 he began peeling potatoes and
washing vegetables for salad, breaded the pork chops and snapped fresh beans for
supper. After supper, he cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, folded
laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed. At 9 P.M. he was exhausted and,
though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where he was expected
to make love, which he managed to get through without complaint. The next
morning, he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said: Lord, I don't know
what I was thinking. I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home
all day. Please, oh please, let us trade back." The Lord, in his infinite
wisdom, replied: "My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will be
happy to change things back to the way they were."You'll just have to wait nine
months, though. You got pregnant last night."

Now, you may get a chuckle out of it. Personally, these jokes make me a little discouraged. First off, we've all seen the cartoons. The adults become kids and the kids become grown ups. The moral of the story is that everyone has difficulties that they go through. So, the woman might well have learned some lessons about having a career too. Those aren't so easy either, so I hear. Secondly, I have to give my family the respect it deserves. I can't relate to this joke. I have never experienced that household or known anyone else that did. By the first grade, I was making my own lunch. Before you yell at my mother, know that I criticised how she made me my lunch until one day she told me it was my job. We were both relieved. I washed my own clothes at age ten for similar reasons. We didn't have one person who did all the laundry, cooked all the meals, or cleaned the house. If you got home first, you made food. If laundry needed doing, you did it. If you dirtied something, you were expected to clean it up. Does that mean we had a peaceful household that ran smoothly and cleanly all the time? Of course not. But it was a team effort.

If being "the woman" is so hard because you have to make your kids beds every day, mop the kitchen floor every day, bathe the dog every day, and snap fresh beans for your dinner every day? Well, I just have no sympathy for you. If you like doing it, then you ought not complain. If you don't like doing it, make your kids make their own beds, deal with a bit of excess dirt on the floor and make normal people food.

I know it's just a joke. And I guess it's funny. But I'm glad I can't relate to it.
PS: sorry about the formatting. don't know how to fix it. it looks normal until i publish it. sorry.