Cherrybim, you don’t have to sell this to me. I STAY HOME and do all of it (without cleaning help). And I clean for Pesach, NOT Spring Cleaning. I don’t usually throw chometz on my ceilings and walls, only my kitchen needs that type of extra attention, because I cook there, and things conceivably could go flying, especially when frying food or mixing flour into a cake batter.
But unless you are the woman of the household who is doing all this work, you have no shaychus whatsoever to comment about “enjoyment” that is derived from one’s own efforts. I throw down the gauntlet and issue a challenge to ALL the guys in the CR to tell their wives to take it easy for the next few weeks, and THEY will do all the cleaning, shopping, cooking, and preparations for yom tov (while holding down a job). If they are accustomed to having cleaning help, then the men may likewise have the same amount of help. It will never happen, though, because after one day (ONE day), the men will be tearing what little hair they have left out of their heads, and gratefully give back the assignments to their wives and daughters. Washing a floor, or polishing the leichter is well and good, but you have not been yotzei the chovah of getting ready for Pesach just because you do a couple of chores. In fact, I will make it even easier for you guys. I challenge you to simply take all the kids out of the house every day for several LONG hours, so your wives can work unencumbered by the little ones being underfoot. Let’s see how long that lasts!
Before you decide how fulfilling and wonderful your wives should feel about doing all this avodas perech, try actually DOING it. After one day of doing the real stuff of Pesach preparations, I guarantee that most of you will beg your wives to go away with you for yom tov. I must be nuts, but I still prefer to be home, but I totally get why other normal women prefer to be away and let someone else have their headache. Most people whom I know do not understand why I feel so happy to be home. It is because of the memories of my mother that are generated by every action I take, and especially on erev Pesach. But just because I feel that way does not mean every other woman has to feel that same way.