A Day in Her Apron/Playing With

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Basic Trope: A wife leaves her domestic duties to her husband as a challenge.

  • Played Straight: Bob makes an insensitive remark about how Alice's job as a homemaker isn't "real" work. She leaves him in charge for the day, and Bob proves the trope Men Can't Keep House true.
  • Exaggerated: The house is practically destroyed when Alice comes back.
  • Downplayed: Bob does okay for the most part, but he just doesn't do housework as well as Alice.
  • Inverted: Alice is challenged (perhaps in addition to Bob looking after the house) to go to his work for the day.
    • Bob the House Husband challenges Alice the Career Woman to take care of the house; Alice learns that homemaking is every bit as much real work as her job is.
    • Bob does Alice's housework for the day and finds out it's as easy as he thought.
  • Justified: This is a challenge to prove that homemaking is real work, and not nearly as easy as it sounds.
  • Subverted: Bob seems to be managing the house alright while Alice is gone.
  • Double Subverted: But then the baby starts crying, and the roast burns in the oven, and chaos generally breaks loose.
  • Parodied: The house is in shambles as soon as Alice walks out the door.
  • Deconstructed: Because Bob is so inept at housekeeping, he ends up burning the house down and leaving them homeless.
  • Reconstructed: Alice and Bob find another home, which Bob promises to take better care of.
  • Lampshaded: "Oh, everything's fine dear...no, no that wasn't the fire extinguisher..."
  • Averted: Bob manages to hold down the house while Alice is gone.
  • Enforced: "Let's give 'em An Aesop about respecting the work done by an average Housewife!"
  • Invoked: Alice and Bob get into a Cavemen Versus Astronauts Debate about whose work is harder, who contributes more to the household, etc.
  • Defied: See "Reconstructed" without even using this trope.
    • Alice and Bob agree that they both work equally hard (if in different ways) and contribute equally to the running of the household.
  • Discussed: "Haha, Bob's gonna fail!"
  • Conversed: "Why can't Alice and Bob see that they both contribute a lot to the household?"
  • Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
  • Played For Drama: The argument becomes Serious Business that threatens their marriage.
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