"If I Give My Wife 15 Million Won a Month for Living Expenses, Do I Still Have to Share Childcare?"... Post by a Sole Breadwinner Husband Sparks Debate [What Do You Think?]

[The Financial News] A story has emerged about a sole breadwinner husband who is experiencing conflict with his wife over the division of household chores.
On the 23rd, a post titled "Should a man still do housework and childcare even under these circumstances?" was uploaded to an online community.
Mr. A, a businessman, stated, "My monthly income is about 50 million won, and I give my wife 15 million won of that as living expenses."
According to the post, Mr. A's wife handles most of the housework and childcare except for one day a week.
Mr. A explained, "My wife is a novelist, but she hasn't earned any significant income yet and is currently in the negative. She really struggles with childcare and housework due to adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)."
He added, "We even hire a housekeeper for her, but she still asks me to share childcare responsibilities," expressing his frustration.
He continued, "I know it's important to form an attachment with the child at an early age, but if I lose focus on my business, it could collapse in an instant. Even when I'm resting, I can't stop thinking about work, while my wife seems to want someone who doesn't think about work at all after office hours and just spends time together."
Mr. A insisted, "On weekends or occasionally on weekdays, I take the child out to a kids' cafe. It's not that I don't participate in childcare at all."
Finally, he asked netizens for their opinions, saying, "My wife's demands feel unfair to me. What do you think objectively? Honestly, I have no intention of getting a divorce. I just want someone to give me an objective answer."
Netizens who read the story mostly sided with the wife, commenting, "There is no such thing as 100% one-sided parenting," "No matter how much money you make, emotional bonding between a father and child is essential," "Parents should at least fulfill their minimum responsibilities," and "Office workers may leave at six, but childcare and housework don't end at six."
However, some opinions differed, such as, "If you already have hired help, it's unreasonable for someone who is essentially a stay-at-home spouse to expect you to share every little task," and "If the husband has little free time due to work, the wife will inevitably have to do more. If she doesn't like it, she should also earn money."
Meanwhile, according to the 2023 Family Survey released by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF), 73.3% of couples responded that the wife 'mainly' or 'generally' handles household chores (such as grocery shopping, meal preparation, and cleaning), up 2.8 percentage points from 70.5% in the 2020 survey.
In contrast, the percentage of couples who said both spouses share housework equally dropped from 26.6% in 2020 to 25.3% last year. The proportion of husbands who said they are solely responsible for housework also decreased from 2.8% to 1.4%.
Notably, in the category of 'daily life care,' which includes meal preparation, sleep, and hygiene management, the percentage of wives taking full responsibility rose to 78.3%, up from 77.3% three years ago. The only categories where the husband's share increased were academic supervision, school drop-off and pick-up, caring for a sick child, and playing with the child—a total of six areas.
moon@fnnews.com Moon Young-jin Reporter