For Women, Is Thanksgiving Really A Holiday?

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and if you're a woman, you've surely already begun to think about what's on your holiday table.

If it's anything like last year, you spent hours cooking dishes from scratch with fresh ingredients. You cooked all day up until dinner time which was great since everyone got to enjoy home-cooked food. The only drawback was that you and the other women in the family were stuck doing all of the cooking and cleanup - and it's not an exaggeration to say that you spent most of Thanksgiving day in the kitchen.

The men in your family, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying themselves plenty. They played football, watched sports and napped while you and the other women worked away in the kitchen.

Granted, this was only one Thanksgiving. But, what about all of your Thanksgivings growing up? Was it really a holiday for you and your family? Or were you and the other women expected to work while the men watched TV and relaxed (and ate, of course).

I say this not out of bitterness. I just want us all to have a happy Thanksgiving with our loved ones. If there are things that need to change about the way we celebrate the holiday in our families, then so be it.

There's a reason why there's a stereotype that women cook the entire holiday dinner...

...and it might be because of how Thanksgiving works in practice, not just in theory.

Women, is this really what you want to go through every year? Is it fair that only the women end up working while all of you enjoy your nap time?

Tired from last year, I think we've found a better way to approach the traditional holiday roles. In fact, this year we're going to change our model completely. I'm sure many of these ideas will work for other holidays as well!

Here are some new traditions for Christmas and Thanksgiving:

-First of all , if someone does something nice for others during the week, they get to choose the meal for Thanksgiving.

-Secondly, it's a good idea to rotate who hosts Thanksgiving from year to year. This might mean that one of your siblings hosts this year and provides you with a place to stay. Then next year, someone else in your family gets their turn at hosting dinner.

-Another idea would be for the women in a family to plan a separate activity while the men watch sports or play games - this could be going out for ice cream or doing some other fun thing together before coming back home for dinner later on in the day.

These new ideas should help so that both men and women can enjoy themselves during all aspects of the holiday season!

Best case scenario: If everyone in the family chooses to work together, it will be a wonderful day for everyone!

Let me know how you plan on changing Thanksgiving traditions in your household. I want to hear from all of you about what ideas YOU have to help make the holiday season fair and enjoyable for men and women alike. Did your family do anything different? If you were expected to cook and clean while the men played, what did you think about it? Was it fair or was it unfair? How could you make the process better next year?

Remember that both men and women should enjoy themselves equally during this wonderful celebration of holidays!