45: Division of Household Labor – Part 2 with Sergio Rosario

Parents At Work

Lori Mihalich-Levin and Jason Levin continue with their two-part series on an issue that working parents in all careers, roles, and industries struggle with: how household labor gets divided.

In the second part of this series, Lori and Jason are excited to have an amazing dad, Sergio Rosario, joining them to carry on the conversation about the important, emotionally-charged, and controversial topic of who does what in the home!

Sergio was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Nine years ago, his life and work brought him to Virginia. He met his beautiful wife, also from Puerto Rico, and a US Army officer, seven years ago. They live in Fayetteville, North Carolina, but they will soon be moving back to Virginia. Sergio is a social worker, musician, educator, fatherhood advocate, the founder of Soy Super Papa, and the course coach and lead for Mindful Return’s Spanish Language Working Dad Course. Sergio and his wife have a five-year-old daughter named Stella.

In this episode of Parents at Work, Sergio dives into what makes household labor a critical topic and why it is so full of emotion. He offers some excellent advice to help couples start a conversation about household labor and avoid allowing emotion to interfere with our discussions about chores. He also talks about the benefits of good communication and explains how he progressed towards taking responsibility in his relationship.

Stay tuned to today’s conversation to hear what Sergio has to say about finding common ground around a healthy division of household labor!

Show highlights:

• When he met his wife, Sergio knew that he would have to make some lifestyle changes! (5:08)
• Sergio explains what motivated him to start helping parents communicate better. (9:03)
• Why does Sergio think household labor is such a critical and emotionally-charged topic? (11:55)
• Sergio and his wife approach their household labor as a common goal with no gender roles assigned. (12:37)
• Sergio offers some advice to help people avoid becoming emotional around household tasks. (14:07)
• Sergio describes the systems that he and his wife use in their home. (15:35)
• How Sergio and his wife progressed in their relationship around issues related to household labor. (21:42)
• How Sergio and his family have benefited from having good communication. (24:28)
• Lori randomly draws a birthday celebration card from Eve Rodsky’s Fair Play deck for Sergio. They talk about birthday celebrations to see what comes up around the division of labor on that topic. (27:10)
• Sergio explains how partners can start a conversation about household labor. (32:37)
• How to address breakdowns in the division of labor. (38:11)
• The importance of having conversations about gender roles. (41:04)

Links and resources:

Mindful Return’s Spanish Language Working Dad Course

Soy Super Papa

Mentioned in this episode:

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