|
Family Groups - Mothers
The women who think housework
is better than sex
Of the 2,000 women questioned, 6 out of 10 said
that cleaning “made them feel in control of their life”
and the same proportion found cleaning “mentally therapeutic”.
Three quarters of the women surveyed kept up
this regime of cleaning despite being in full or part-time
work.
Only 22 per cent of respondents enjoyed the
process, but 64 per cent found happiness in the results of
their labours.
Nearly half admitted some sort of addiction
to cleaning; a similar proportion wished that they could cut
down, and 4 in 10 said that they were “no longer in
control of their cleaning habits”. A third said that
they found more satisfaction in cleaning than in sex.
According to 76 per cent of respondents, spotless
interiors in magazines were to blame for the compulsion to
clean.
While 80 per cent compared the cleanliness of
other homes with their own, 6 out of 10 mothers thought that
a messy house would lead visitors to believe they were a “bad
mother”.
The National Housework Survey of Great Britain
2006 was commissioned by the Discovery Home and Health channel,
which begins screening Cleanaholics today, following 27 women
and three men as they plough through their chores.
Gloria Bragg, 55, from Plymouth, gets up before
7am to clean. “It keeps me fit,” she said.
Marriage to a Royal Navy submariner further
encouraged the habit of a spotless house. “Being a Navy
man, he checks on my progress,” she said. Her routine
includes washing three crystal chandeliers in vinegar —
“half an hour each on a Sunday morning” —
done to Frank Sinatra, Eva Cassidy or the theme music to the
Winter Olympics.
Graham Peters, 40, of Dorking, one of the minority
of superclean men (about one in ten), says he wishes he could
cut down on his cleaning habit. “I’ve always been
tidy,” he said, “but if I got a young female to
clean for me, I would give up tomorrow.”
|
