- I can't clean every morning, I can't cook every day.
I couldn't even do it for a week.
(upbeat music)
- So this week I'm gonna be living
like a 1950s housewife.
The primary cleaning in my household growing up
was my mother, she did everything.
- I would say there was a pretty even dynamic
between duties and chores to the family.
So it wasn't like oh, the mom is the cooker and cleaner
of the house and the dad sits and watches baseball.
- So that was always my mom who taking care of us
because we are like four brother and sister.
So she used to work but when I came to this planet
she stopped work.
- Everyday by herself cooking and cleaning
I could see that being so strenuous.
Outside of just the cooking and cleaning every day,
you still have to partake in your daily activities
of your life whether you work or your me time.
- In our home in Brooklyn, I would say it's 50-50.
She's cooking when she got home
but I'm the one taking care of the cleaning and everything.
- I love cooking, I would say three to four times a week
I'm cooking for myself.
(classic rock music)
- Let's see just how long the duties of a housewife take.
It is currently 5:42, getting out the mason jars,
the yogurt, the fruit, my cold press coffee.
So let's see how long it takes me to make breakfast,
clean, dust the window sills, shave my legs,
do the hot towel do some more moisturizing,
moisturize my hands and then get ready
for work myself.
- Getting my pores all hooked up, definitely not good,
this oh see, I got a week to get this straight.
Feel like I'm about to fry myself.
- Bacon is crispy like you asked me
so now it's time to eat.
Here is your breakfast my dear Daniela.
- [Daniela] Thank you.
- With an omelet, bacon, bread, and orange juice.
- [Daniela] What are you wearing on your face?
- A beautiful cream that's gonna me me shine.
- Right now, I gotta do some dishes
and I must say this is probably my least favorite
of all moments.
If anything could drive me insane, it's doing dishes.
I'm not gonna complain, not gonna complain.
- I just left work early so I could bike to Whole Foods
and get some groceries for dinner
for the next couple of nights.
I want to stay true to the 1950s challenge
so tonight I'm going to be making my take
on chicken a la king.
- A good housewife you're are always tense,
so it's always good to take care of your feet.
So after a good cleaning, really nice relaxing feet.
- Normally I would sleep in a little later
but gotta make the breakfast.
- Oh man, it's not even light outside
and it's 5:30 in the morning.
Time to get up and start cooking and cleaning for my wives.
- Today I'm supposed to shave my armpit and my hot legs
but as you can see it's pretty hairy over there,
so let's try it.
Ew.
That's gonna take forever, I can't do that.
- Made breakfast, and now as we can tell,
I gotta do the dishes again.
- Part of the challenge is that I'm supposed
to shave my armpits but I already shaved my armpits
for a body painting challenge that I did
and it was super uncomfortable and I really want
to be committed to this challenge so I'm gonna take it
a different step and I'm gonna shave my beard.
- Hello, as you can see I'm wearing
a beautiful face mask today.
A bit lazy so I'm just gonna
get her some cereal for breakfast.
Here is your breakfast Daniela.
- This is kind of bull(beeps) okay, thank you.
- This is bull(beeps).
- We're going to a concert tonight,
I really wanted her to be fed when she got home
in case I wasn't here so,
I am going to make pork roast
put it in the crock pot, cook it all day
that way it's nice and tender and fall off the bone
and ready to eat whenever we get home.
- Every morning after cooking, after cleaning,
I put this hot towel which is like very hot on my face
to reduce poofiness.
- I must say my skin feels great.
- Gotta make sure my wife gets fed.
But I am tired as hell.
- I been doing a lot of cleaning,
I didn't realize how much cleaning on a day to day
you would be doing consistently,
that's a job in itself.
Not being able to voice your opinion or complain
kind of takes away from your identity
so it's like you go throughout your day giving something
for the collective but then you're one the outside
because you can't speak.
- [Daniela] The house is a little bit
of a mess because we have people
staying over, look at all that stuff
that we need to throw out.
And bother being a good wife.
- I can't, take care of my face, prepare the breakfast,
and clean at the same time.
- Wife is out, we're simulating the moment of seeing
a 50s house being home alone with the kids
and still got to prepare dinner.
Today I have no help.
We're gonna cook dinner.
What you guys want for dinner?
- Crunchy cereal.
- You want crunchy cereal.
How bout like rice, beans, or something?
- I would like some broccoli and salad.
- So we got request for broccoli, salad
and crunchy cereal.
The crunchy cereal is quick-a-roo.
I could do that one fast.
- Daniela made a mess last night when she came home
and of course who has to clean it?
That's me be, so let's do it.
- I got majority of dinner going.
Beans,
got the kind of fried rice going on,
and I was gonna make fish but,
I'm a go to a quick fish sticks,
the kids are getting antsy.
I am rushing along to do some laundry as well.
Trying to sneak in maybe two loads
in between time and then we gotta clean the girls room.
And I gotta check homework.
- So I woke up super excited thinking
I would have breakfast done but I think Paul got lazy
and he just left me this.
- I screwed up, I screwed up real bad.
I read that housewives put moisturizer on their eyelashes.
I failed to neglect the fact that they said
don't put it in your eyeballs.
And now this housewife is crying.
- Hey babe.
- Hey.
- I got a question for you,
is there anything that stands out that you see
or that you notice a change.
- I would be highly impressed if you could do
all this stuff you been doing,
which you been doing very well.
I'll be impressed if you could do it with PMS
and like menstruation and other things that women
have to deal with.
- Today I woke up and I thought things were getting better
but they are not 'cause he just left me this,
no note or anything and then I asked him why
and he said, 'cause I heard Americans like Pop tarts.
- Just finished making the parfaits, sweeping
and cleaning in 20 minutes, I'm really starting
to get these morning duties down pat.
- There are some pitfalls and hardships
of being a housewife that you kind of lose yourself.
It's not really for you, even though you're doing
the moisturizing and trying to keep up
with the bag on our eyes and so forth.
A lot of it seems, I don't want to say superficial,
but it's not really done for you.
It's more of a presentation.
- Here is the last meal that I cooked.
I prepare that before I'm going to work
and she will have this ready for tonight.
To be honest with you, I'm pretty happy
that this week ends.
Its been a long week and I don't know
how my mom did that for like my brother and my sister,
like I'm pretty proud of myself actually.
(upbeat music)
- It was interesting, somewhat exciting
and at mornings I learned so much about myself.
- After this whole week I think we have to share
all of these tasks, that's the main thing.
Because if one person have to do everything
that's just a nightmare.
- This whole process told me so much more about self care
and awareness to it.
Just tending to the little parts of your self
which in another since builds up your whole morale.
- Even though I love doing chores, cooking and cleaning,
I could not do this 365 days a year
and the biggest thing that I learned from this
is that these women were forced to play these roles.
There should be an even separation of labors,
like if there's one person in the household doing
all the cooking and cleaning and chores and shopping,
they're gonna break because it takes a lot.
- We all have a busy schedule so basically if we don't share
all these tasks that's a nightmare for all of us.
(upbeat music)