向前一步:第154期 让你的另一半成为你真正的人生搭档(12)

 　　We sit down at the beginning of every week and figure out which one of us will drive our children to school each day. 我俩每个周末都会坐下来讨论谁每天送孩子去上学，

　　We both try to be home for dinner as many nights as we can. 并保证尽可能多地回家吃晚餐。

　　(At dinner, we go around the table and share the best and worst event from our day; （当天的好事坏事我们都会在晚餐时间里交流分享。

　　I refrain from saying so, but my best is usually being home for dinner in the first place.) 尽管不太好意思，但我还是得说，我最大的优点就是常常第一时间赶回家吃晚餐。）

　　If one of us is scheduled to be away, the other almost always arranges to be home. 如果谁当天有安排不能按时回家，另一个人就得调整日程先赶回家。

　　On weekends, I try to focus completely on my kids (although I have been known to sneak¹ off a few e-mails from the bathroom of the local soccer field). 周末的时候，我会努力把注意力完全放在孩子身上（尽管大家也知道，我会偷偷溜到足球场的洗手间里去发邮件）。

　　Like all marriages, ours is a work in progress. 和所有的婚姻一样，我和戴夫仍然需要努力经营。

　　Dave and I have had our share of bumps on our path to achieving a roughly fifty-fifty split. 为了共同分担生活责任，我们遇到了各种各样的困难。

　　After a lot of effort and seemingly endless discussion, we are partners not just in what we do, but in who is in charge. 经过坚持不懈的努力和无休无止的讨论后，我们在行动安排和责任分担方面成了不错的搭档，

　　Each of us makes sure that things that need to get done do indeed get done. 大家都会确保完成各自既定的任务。

　　Our division of household chores is actually pretty traditional. 我们对家务劳动的分工实际上相当传统：

　　Dave pays bills, handles our finances, provides tech support. 戴夫负责处理账单和家庭理财，提供技术支持；

　　I schedule the kids' activities, make sure there is food in the fridge, plan the birthday parties. 我安排孩子们的日常活动，确保冰箱里有食物，并计划他们的生日派对。

　　Sometimes I'm bothered by this classic gender² division of labor³. 有时候我对这种劳动分工的传统性感到很烦恼，

　　Am I perpetuating⁴ stereotypes⁵ by falling into these patterns? 陷入这样的模式不还是在延续老一套吗？

　　But I would rather plan a Dora the Explorer party than pay an insurance bill, and since Dave feels the exact opposite, this arrangement works for us. 不过，比起处理保险账单来，我更愿意去策划一个“小探险家朵拉”的主题派对。所幸戴夫和我的感受恰好相反，所以这种分工对我们来说还算有效。

1 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 perpetuating   

perpetuate的现在进行式

参考例句：

• Revenge leads to a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. 怨怨相报会导致永不休止的暴力。
• It'set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. 它的目的只是要根除异端邪说，结果却巩固了异端邪说。 来自英汉文学

5 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》