Invisible work

Hey Anne. I no longer do 'invisible' or otherwise work. I keep the bathroom and my room clean and I vaccum upstairs. That's it for this kid. I figure I cleaned up after my daughter, had guardianship of my granddaughter for a dozen years and am now comitted to helping my daughter raise my grandson. Now it is her turn. She does the laundry, downstairs cleaning and meals. It works well.

The same in my home. I have to do invisible work and some visible online. Its hard to do everything the same time. When my partner coming back home he always asks the same stupid question. What you have been doing? I want to answer just nothing. Doing laundry, cleaning, ironing, preparing dinner, doing my job. Just nothing.

Hi Anne! You see each and every work is important, whether it is visible or invisible. If you do not do laundry everything will go Topsy turvy and hay wire.

i didn't know there is such thing as invisible work my friend. How i wish mine are invisible work because right now it is pretty much evident on my table hahahaha

People only see the "invisible work" when the invisible work is not done! no one misses what is there...they only miss what is not...

Am happy nobody asks me what I have done. But agree with you housekeeping is never ending and nobody is noticing. You just cleaned up, they all come in and it's a mess again. Realizing this it made me clear there is no need for me to work day and night anymore. So there are days I do way less and I can clean up, do the laundry within 20 min and it's looks all fine to the rest. The only thing I wonder about is how so many can say they have time to lay on the couch whole day. That never happend to me for 10 min. How come I am always so busy?

I hear you Anne, it's like our work is never done and yet our family doesn't realize how much work we do. This is why when my kids are on school break, I split up the chores and that makes them realize that I don't sit around all day long..Though I do admit, I spend some time here, but hey, at least I get something out of it, I either share knowledge, receive knowledge, and of course the financial benefits as well..

I do worse than invisible work. I do visible work. I take a bunch of stuff out of a box to sort. The entire couch is full of stuff. Then I'm too tired to do anything else. Now my hubbie comes home and there is junk all over the couch when it was clean.So when he asks what I've been doing, "sorting" looks like I've been making a mess.

Yeah, the life of a mother and housewife! IT never ends! Especially with kids! I didn't know it was called invisible work tho! Nice buzz word for a thankless job! But evenjust me and my husband now...I get up and do work, stop to do other things nad by noon I am back doing work again! Dusting is a constant thing...we live in the high desert with winds! But what annoys me most...my husband refuses to use the same glass twice. He will pour something to drink, and then put the glass in the sink. hour later when he wants something to drink, he gets out a clean glass...by noon the sink is filled with glasses! I keep asking him..do as I do...rinse it out and set it aside here...then when you want another drink, use the same glass for the day and sink it at the end of the day! But he won't do that. I have even left them in the sink for him to do at the end of the day and see the 10 glasses in there! But it doesn't phase him. He still used 10 glasses a day, and that doesn't count the 16oz water bottles we have. I wash the bottles and refill them with filtered water...but the bottles sit on the counter, the table, everywhere until I collect them and wash them and refill them and put them in the fridge! Men..not much better than kids!

There was once a story about such a thing. Where the husband would come home every day and ask his wife what she had done all day. Eventually the wife got so frustrated she did nothing for a couple of days and a mess began to accumulate in the home. When the husband came home he asked what she had done all day commenting on the disaray of the household. The wife then replied "You know how every day you come home and you ask me what I did all day? Well for the last 2 days I didn't do it." Perhaps you should take a couple of days off and let your family see just how much you do every day.

If you want someone to notice your invisible work. Try taking the day off. When they see what was not done they will see what you do. Then when they come home and ask what you did today you can say,"Nothing i took the day off."

Pick a good day to not just add to the mess and leave it. This way when the question gets asked you can say, "I was busy." That is a good day to cook something or make something you have wanted to create that leaves a lot of refuge around. You are right of course, cleaners are doing invisible work the same as cooks are making vanishing products or they would not be good cooks.

I know what you mean. Sometimes it's like that for me too. And if I look around and cant tell what I have done then I feel like I did not do enough. There are lots of tasks around the house that can go unnoticed and most often do.

oh dear, you touched the paining nerve.i get completely out of my ind when somebody accuses me of simply sitting at home and doing nothing.i agree that most of the time of the day i am at home but i never sit along or take rest during mid days.i am always engaged in one or the other thing.those who are too busy in accusing should stay back at home at least once and do all the cored same way as we are doing. they won;t ever understand if they don;t get into the shoes and explaining them what we do all day in the house is a waste of time. if the house is still looking the same i.e. clean and tidy then its because of us who is cleaning away the mess created by you by the time you left home.

Boy oh boy isn't that the truth! There are little fairies who go around doing all the household chores while everyone is asleep! Funniest thing I ever read was a retired man referred to what his wife does as "puttering around the house" like it's a hobby!

I get that all the time. It doesn't matter that I spent 1/2 the morning on the phone, have the laundry, and dishes done. I keep telling them that I am not their maid, and call them back to pick up after themselves, but it still ends up with a mess.

Tell them "keeping the house clean" and if they continue to wonder, stop cleaning for a week. They'll notice, and your work won't be invisible anymore!

My invisible work is from driving people all around after work. My kids and their cousin have after school activities which bring them to. I make sure all their equipment is ready, make sure they don't dilly-dally as one could be late for another. I say it's invisible, as it doesn't really do anything for me, it's all for the kids. It just gets me tired at the end of the day. So, what have you been doing lately?

No one ever told me what work 'being thanked out-loud' is---that's mostly because 'working on being thanked out-loud' almost works against what you really want to be thanked for when you're doing the "invisible work"! What you REALLY want is 'for your family to NOT EVEN WORRY ABOUT KEEPING CLEAN.' Yes, that may show up as 'a lack of appreciation for your labor in putting things away etc.,' but at least it avoids the hurt of the depreciation (of anyone who's supposed to clean there) when the job is not done! If the 'indignation' (the 'wanting to be thanked,' I guess ) comes to mind again, you can always remember (as God does about things that he's done), "I did that!" or something.

Hi Anne. My wife also is doing a day job as much as I do, though she spends a few hours lesser than me at work. Yet, she handles all the chores at home due to my non involvement.. So I have to be considerate. She spends a lot of time setting things in order as she is a stickler for tidiness. So it is never done for her. I realize the magnitude of her work when she goes for a few days to meet her relatives and I have to take charge. Oh God, even with bare minimum activity and no one else but my daughter with me, I find it so overwhelming, it never gets over. Only when someone steps into your shoes will they realize how it feels it being made light of. .