Y世代的哀歌

Don't worry, mum will do it: parents pick up the slack for Gen lazY

DateNovember 23, 2012

Rachel Browne
Sun-Herald journalist

IT'S generation Y's dirty little secret. They might be working, studying and roaming the globe but it's mum who still picks up their grotty socks and puts a hot meal on the table.

The division of domestic labour in Australian households with adult children in residence has been examined for the first time and the results are not pretty.

Researchers from the University of NSW found that mothers do roughly six times more housework than their adult sons, 4.4 times times more than their grown up daughters and about twice as much as the father in the house.


Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

The author of the research, Associate Professor Lyn Craig of the university's Social Policy Research Centre, wanted to call her study ''Does it Ever End?'' to reflect the experiences of Australian mothers.
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''You might think as the children get older they would make a more equal contribution to housework, cleaning, cooking and washing, but it's really not the case,'' she said.

''It does seem to be a sticky problem. You would hope for more signs of change which are sadly not really there.''

The research, to be presented at the Australian Women and Gender Studies Association Biennial Conference at the university on Friday, analysed the housework habits of 5512 young people aged 15-34 years living in the family home, using Bureau of Statistics data.

It found that 97 per cent of mothers did some domestic work every day, compared to 81 per cent of fathers, 73 per cent of young women and 54 per cent of young men.

Mothers do 229 minutes of domestic work each day, compared with 111 minutes for fathers, 52 minutes for young women and 38 minutes for young men.

While one in four people aged 20-34 opt to live in the parental home, they are not necessarily becoming less of a burden on their parents, the study found.

''It's difficult to change roles within the family home,'' Professor Craig said.

''If mum has always done the laundry and dad has always mowed the lawn, there is an expectation that that will continue even when the adult children are old enough to do it themselves. The expectations don't really shift even though the children are old enough to live independently.''

Dr Jennifer Baxter, senior research fellow with the Australian Institute of Family Studies said inequitable division of housework could be a source of tension in some families.

Jess Kirkby, 24, still lives in the family home at Belrose.

''I take responsibility for things which directly affect me like my washing and tidying my bedroom,'' she said. ''But the general housework is still very much my parents' domain.''


Sydney Morning Herald這標題，把Gen Y諷刺成Gen lazy，頗有見地。怪獸家長不只在香港有，澳洲有，通處都有。不用調查，香港的Y世代，受保護程度肯定比澳洲厲害，在這裏起碼沒有聽過子女上大學迎新，也有父母跟隨。我不只一次大聲疾呼，救救孩子，救救Gen Y，扔掉掮帶，讓他們自立。

早前從報章報導看到，香港有父母給大學打電話，詢問自己的大一子女上課的情況。OMG, 就算上小學一年級，我也不會這樣做。把大學當作校舍大了的小學，大學生變成大個子的小學生，一切都由父母作主，做功課由父母決定題目，做工由父母決定僱主，這樣下去，Y世代便只能寄生母體，不能獨立生存。關心子女，天經地義，呵護備至，卻有年齡限制。過份保護，有害無益。成長過程中，遇到挫折，乃必經之路，挫折也是一種教育，一時避過了反而減低了免疫力。不讓他們承擔責任，他們會不負責任。不斷給他們提供金錢物質，他們便不需自食其力。如果父母認為自己死後，財產會留給子女，久而久之，子女覬覦你的財產，你稍為長壽，他們會希望你早日歸天，以免你消耗太多，所餘無幾。

看來Gen Y已經失救，我們只有把希望放在Gen Z好了。可是，這樣的Gen Y，又可以調教出甚麼模樣的Gen Z來？