Working while you sleep

I guess a lot of us read about that remarkable woman who does the housework while she's asleep.  Sleep working instead of sleep walking.  Interesting.  If she could figure out why and how she started doing this, she'd be on every talk show in the entire universe.  She could set up her own business and give seminars and lectures on "how to clean without knowing it" although I expect she'd come up with a snappier title than that.  And she could get in a cleaner to do the rough work although that might defeat the object.

But what about the millions of women who go out to work every day and come home to a routine of cooking, cleaning, ironing?  Not to mention helping with homework and sorting various little problems their children might have.  Oh and finding time to organise visits to grandmothers and buying presents for birthdays and newborns and having the neighbours in for a drink. These ladies only get a passing mention. Everyone knows they are there and the hard work they do but it's not something people want to see on talk shows.  'So how do you manage to get to the dry cleaners before they close, Mrs. Smith?'  'What's your quickest time for making supper and galloping off to a PTA meeting at your son's school, Mrs. Brown?'  I can't imagine a talk show host leaning closer to catch every word that Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Brown has to say on the subject.  And I bet the Mrs. Smiths and Browns of this world have plenty to say.

Now if a man were to do all that in addition to holding down a demanding job, he'd be cried up as the 'caring dad' always there for his children.  I'm not saying that modern fathers don't help with the children and the housework.  What I am saying that it is in most cases the woman who runs the household. And she gets very little credit for doing it.  Now if she got her elbows out, rolled up her sleeves and climbed the scary heights of the corporate ladder she'd get all the attention in the world.  Deservedly so.  It's good to see women in top jobs.  But who cheers for the 'ordinary' working mother as she juggles her workload with more skill than some top (male) executives can demonstrate?