Men and women both work hard to keep a home running. They just don't always see each other doing it.
672,502
divorces were recorded in the U.S. in 2023. That's 2.4 for every 1,000 people.
CDC, National Center for Health Statistics (45 reporting states and D.C.)
62%
of Americans say sharing household chores is very important to a good marriage. That's third out of nine, ahead of money and kids.
Pew Research Center, 2007
75%of men87%of women
do some housework, cooking, yard work, or household planning on an average day. Pretty much everybody's pitching in.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey, 2025 results
55%
of U.S. marriages have a husband who's the main or only earner. Even when they earn about the same, husbands work more paid hours and wives do more housework and caregiving.
Pew Research Center, 2023 (2022 data)
100%+
is the total when a husband and wife each guess their own share of the household work. Nobody's lying. You just remember your own work best.
Ross & Sicoly, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1979 (37 married couples)
Divorce papers don't have a box for "never remembers trash night," so nobody knows exactly how many marriages end over chores. What researchers do know is that when the split feels unfair, relationships suffer.
In one U.S. study, husbands and wives who thought the housework split was unfair were less happy in their marriages. Another found that feeling appreciated takes some of the sting out of an uneven split.
It's not only the divorce itself. In one long-running study, kids from high-conflict marriages did better as young adults after their parents split up, while kids from calmer marriages that ended did worse. How parents get along matters to kids, whether they stay together or not.
I'm Alec Matyas, the founder of Dibs, and everything I know about hard work, I learned from my parents.
My dad was a corrections officer who often worked double and triple shifts so our family had what we needed, and somehow he never missed one of our games or practices. My mom worked as a caregiver for older adults while running our entire household. She paid the bills, did the shopping, drove my brother and me to school and practice every day, and kept our home spotless.
They gave everything they had, usually on opposite schedules, so they didn't always get to see how much the other was doing. That led to some hard moments, and during some of them, the word "divorce" got thrown around.
Kids notice more than adults realize. When a child hears that word, it doesn't matter that it came from two exhausted people at the end of a long day. What sticks is the fear that their family might not stay together.
Thankfully, my parents are still together, and they're still the hardest-working people I know. For many families, though, the outcome is different. That's why I'm building Dibs: so the people in a home can see what everyone is doing, and nobody's hard work goes unnoticed. And if it means fewer kids grow up worrying about their parents, that's what matters most to me.
Alec Matyas, founder of Dibs