Professional fathers are downing tools to play with their children
AS THE rich have got richer and those in work ever busier, people with children have discovered a new way of spending their money: on handymen to do the sorts of odd jobs fathers used to roll up their sleeves and take care of. Despite the recent recession, dads, it seems, would rather spend quality time with their offspring than put up shelves or fix dripping taps at the weekend. So their wives, themselves hard pressed, are hiring other men to change fuses and the like, thus making time to dine out, kick a football or visit museums en famille.
Domestic help has long been a mostly female preserve, involving nannies, cleaners and laundry maids. That is changing, according to a forthcoming study by Majella Kilkey of the University of Hull and Diane Perrons of the London School of Economics. The pair reckon that nowadays 39% of domestic helpers in Britain are men, up from 17% in the early 1990s; in London, many are also migrants. Many households hiring handymen already employ a small army of nannies, cleaners and gardeners.
Geoff Willett, chief executive of Hire A Hubby, agrees that the market for handymen, as distinct from specialist plumbers, electricians, decorators and so forth, has grown. He bought his company from its Australian founders and launched it in Britain in October 2009. “Our guys are all reporting good business,” he claims.
Miss Perrons says that rich folk find the services of handymen more affordable than they were. Top people’s pay has risen significantly, and the influx of workers from eastern Europe, as well as the increased numbers of the home-grown unemployed, has expanded the supply of handymen, lowering wages. Though it is mostly mothers who contract and supervise the workers, for the most part fathers do—whatever the cynics suspect—spend the time thus liberated with their families, rather than in the office, at the gym or in the pub.
The trend also suggests a change in the way many professional men view themselves, the researchers reckon. Gone are the days when fathers spent their weekends promoting manliness by showing little Johnny how to hammer in nails. Now they derive their sense of identity from success at work and from fatherhood itself, rather than having to demonstrate their masculinity through a rugged grasp of power tools or an impressive collection of socket sets.
Which may be just as well. One colleague relates the ultimate metrosexual moment. “Just a minute”, carolled his young child to a handyman who had arrived without a vital tool. “I’ll run and get Mummy’s drill for you.”
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