| As nanny(保姆)，cook cleaner shopper driver and gardener she has one of the most demanding jobs in Britain today．And paying someone else to do the chores(家务活)which take the average housewife 71 hours a week would cost ?349． At over ?18 000 a year that’s more than the earnings of 70 percent of the population including train drivers firemen prison officers and social worker．Looking after a baby less than a year old takes a housewife into a even higher pay league．According to a stud she earns ?457 a week－at nearly ?24 000 a year the same as teachers engineers and chemists． Researchers put a price on each chore then tried to find out how long the average person takes doing them．They found housewives spend an average 70 . 7 hours a week on housework－with looking after the children(17 . 9 hours)and cooking and cleaning(12 . 9 hours each)the most time-consuming(费时)． A wife with a part-time job still works and average of 59 hours a week at home．Those in full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace．The good news is that these hours sharply as children get older．While the average mother with child under one puts in 90 hours weekly the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66 hours from five to ten． Mother-of-four Karen Williams from London said “Paying the housewives may not be practical but the government should recognize the value of housework perhaps through the tax．Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don’t understand this．For example my husband only puts a shelf up now and again．He never cleans the kitchen－that’s the real test．” |