1. The "Second Shift" is the activities that take place after a job, many times these are daily tasks that must be taken care of. Tasks in the "Second Shift" include paying bills, cooking, shopping, spending time with other family members and friend, taking care of the car, and doing yard work.
2. Evan and Nancy Holt were a couple who lived a very busy life with many stressors. Nancy was in charge of doing a majority of the house work. At one point the couple compromised and decided to divide the work but Nancy still ended up doing a majority of the work. Eventually Nancy began to resent Evan for his lack of help and the couple grew apart.
3. The myth created by Nancy and Evan Holt was that they compromised that Nancy would clean the upstairs part of the house and Evan would clean downstairs. The couple was suppose to "share the work" but instead Nancy still ended up doing a majority of the work while Evan just took care of the dog. Many times Evan tasks were fun and in fact it was not a fair solution or solving the issue like Nancy had hoped for.
4. According to Hochschild, the purpose of family myths is to make couple feel like their relationships are functioning more fairly than they actually are; many time this is to avoid conflict or because one spouse fears divorce.
5. This reading was not surprising to me, since it described the way many of todays families operate and I even see examples of it in my own family. Often times women are in charge of the house work on top of their day jobs; in my house my Mom always cooks dinners, cleans and pays the bills. However my Dad and Mom do rotate who walks the dog in the morning but nonetheless the responsibilities around the house are not divided equally. Some people, like my Mom, enjoy having these responsibilities and need to constantly be doing something but I hope that in my marriage chores and childcare will be evenly divided between myself and my husband. I believe that it is especially important that my future self and husband spend equal amounts of time with our children so they feel comfortable and close to the both of us.
