I very briefly quite liked the new ASDA ad when I saw it last night – have you seen it?
Until, that is, I got about about 15 seconds in. What I thought was going to be a funny take on the way families are at Christmas turned into a commentary on just how poor and downtrodden we mums are at Christmas. Bless me, we’re the only ones who do any work, aren’t we? But that’s okay, it’s all worth it.
“At Asda we know that behind every great Christmas there’s a mum working hard to make it magical for the whole family”
Oh PLEASE.
I know that I am blessed with a husband who does just as much as I do in the house – we split the domestic stuff 50/50, and we both work from home which makes that easier. But he’s not some lone husbandish icon of domestic virtue – I know PLENTY of couples who do the same. And dads who, even when they work full time, come home and do the domestic stuff in the evenings and weekends.
And Christmas is the time when everyone pulls their weight. Even dads who don’t lift a finger the rest of the year will willingly help out at Christmas.
And if you think that the ad is oh-so-true, and such a funny little story totally describing your life – then stop being such bloody martyrs, put your foot down and demand help, people!
Christmas is NOT ‘all about the children’. It’s about families – and families work best when everyone pulls their weight, so no one feels put upon or taken for granted. Get organised, write your list of chores and then delegate, dammit.
And those jobs you don’t trust someone else to do? Then have them do it WITH you. That way they learn how to do it for themselves for the future, and you get to have more fun in the doing.
Take the whole family to choose the tree, let parents prep and bring vegetables, ask husband to source best price and collect a particular gift. Let someone else make the cups of tea on Christmas day, have the MIL make and bring the Christmas Pudding, have the husband collect the turkey, make sure the children clear the table, put some carols on, pour some wine and have the husband write the cards and the tags whilst you wrap the presents.
I LOVE Christmas. A LOT. I take it very very seriously, and make it as magical and fun as I possibly can do. But I want to enjoy it too! Running myself ragged so everyone else has a good time? Pointless foolishness.
When will we stop seeing these ads celebrating poor old hard working heroic Mum? Stand UP for yourselves, ladies, for goodness sake. If you’re in a partnership, then make it an EQUAL one! You’re worth a fun Christmas too, y’know.
‘Behind every great Christmas is a great Mum‘. Ugh.
Someone pass me the mulled wine…
PS – what annoys me even more is that they’re choosing their Christmas tree while it is still wrapped. Do they know NOTHING?????
carol331
November 10, 2012 — 4:19 pm
Asda advert isnt just sexist its disgustingly ignorant to the fact that for every xmas thers mum isnt always the case,what about families sitting breaking ther hearts at this lovely time of year who have just lost ther mum?!Get a grip asda,ur obviously not considering this fact+only interested in sales pitching,my 10 yr old granson even picked up on this load of hearless nonsense+said your mums not here this xmas,yes honey thats rite for myself+thousands of others
Jackie
November 15, 2012 — 12:01 am
This has got my sociology class up in arms, the girls are appalled and none of them believe it is anything like their homelife at Christmas or any other time (which is a relief at least!). It has come at a time when I am teaching them about gender identity and stereotyping, there has been change but this advert proved my point to them (which they were having a hard time believing) that sexism and/or inequality still exists. At the very least there are from this group 7 young women who will demand equality and 8 young men who will expect to treat their wives as equals and expect their wives to want to be treated equally and not be martyrs! Next lesson, the media portrayal of gender………..