Let’s Go Dutch

During my travels, I read the International Herald Tribune on occasion and I came upon a very fascinating article about Dutch blood pressure women. The piece made the case that while French and Japanese women may never get fat, Dutch women never get depressed. And it was based on some kind of statistically sound study.

Apparently, the Dutch women seem to have it right. Not only do they get a lot of exercise because they bike everywhere (and my parents live in Holland now and have attested that this is, in fact, very much the case). They also eat right but see, there’s more to it. Sure, they can smoke weed whenever they want and prostitution’s legal. But get your mind out of the gutter.

Apparently they have a work-life balance that most of us would dream of. And add to it, they have a home-marital relationship that seems made of fairy tales and jiminy crickit.

It would seem that while most Dutch women do return back to work after having babies, about 70% of them work part-time. In fact, they scoff at women who work full-time. Indeed, they shamelessly admitted to just plain old judging those women. Why would one do that, they wonder? When they have a culture that supports and advocates working but not full-time? And by no means did the piece suggest that they are working part-time so that they can cram in racing their children to various activities during “down time.” Mais non! It just seems that work-life balance and some relaxing quiet time is the way to go when you go Dutch.

Furthermore, there’s the home life.

Apparently Dutch women are bossy and their husbands know this going into marriage. Seems that they also know that the role of a husband is to PERFORM CHORES AT HOME.

Even better -to just simply take the initiative and DO IT. In fact, apparently the men do more work around the house in Holland than the women do. And that’s been the case for centuries. They didn’t need to burn any bras to reach that point. Hell, they figured out that system long before anyone even invented the bra. All of this seemed even more relevant to me after reading yesterday’s Washington Post page A story about happiness in marriage in America and about how the role of doing household chores has increased 15% points in terms of happy marriages since 1990.

SO, in case you think I’ve been smoking a little weed and have everything confused. Let’s review.

First, today is not opposite day.

Second, it’s only 9:22am on a Monday so I most definitely have not been drinking or doing drugs. I barely even had enough coffee this morning to crank out some lies.

Third, I would never lie to you.

So – apparently Dutch women don’t get depressed because they are bossy. Because their husbands do the majority of painful work around the household and just take the initiative to do it, because they work part-time and maintain a good life balance, and because they get lots of exercise with their bikes and wooden shoes.

Oh – and sure, I guess they can just smoke some dope if they’ve had a bad day.

Anyone else thinking of going dutch with me?

One Response to Let’s Go Dutch
  1. emily
    July 3, 2007 | 1:28 am

    I’m in! Besides, bicycling is my favorite of all activities, after skateboarding of course.

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