‘We went on TV’s Mums on Strike – to show our husbands how little they do to help around the house’

Two Greater Manchester mums fed up of doing the lion’s share of their family’s housework took drastic action – going on “strike” and leaving their homes for their husbands to pick up the domestic load. They appear in the new series of Channel Five’s Mums on Strike which starts on Sunday, July 21.

The duo will be seen LEAVING their family homes in Bolton and Oldham for a week. They tell their husbands and kids to instead try their hand at household cleaning and management.

Gaynor Eckersley, 60, from Bolton, and Sarah Ogden, 54, from Oldham both agreed to take part in the TV show after becoming sick and tired of shouldering the majority of housework tasks like cooking, cleaning, food shopping and tidying.

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In the show, they will be seen quitting their family homes in despair. They go and live in a hotel for a week, with their husbands and kids left to attempt to cook and clean the family homes without them.

The two mums both say they signed up to the series in a bid to highlight the unfair division of labour at home. Statistically, women take on the majority of domestic tasks in the UK in male-female relationships, even within households where both partners are in paid employment.

Gaynor Eckersley is a self-employed hairdresser and is married to Paul, 59, a property developer; they live in a beautiful house in Heaton, Bolton and are parents to 17-year-old twin boys Devon and Dylan.

But Gaynor is fed up with doing “80% of the household chores” and thinks the twins are old enough to start putting in a shift too.

But dad Paul has different ideas and doesn’t want their abode to become a “work house”.

Gaynor and Paul Eckersley at home in Bolton with their twins Dylan and Devon
(Image: Charles Fearn/Channel 5)

Meanwhile in Grotton, Oldham, Sarah Ogden, 54, is fed up that husband David, also 54, and their 16-year-old son Alfie never help her out with the chores.

Mum-of-two Sarah, a part time dog groomer, felt that she’s morphed into a housemaid. For husband David, an operations manager, the old-fashioned status quo is working.

He’s the bread winner, and says he has no time for chores (or dates for that matter) and can’t let anything get in the way of watching his beloved Manchester City.

Sarah says on the show: “David’s attitude to housework is it is a woman’s work – simple as that. Typically I do everything in the house, David occasionally moves the odd cup – and tells you about it.

“I do the washing, the ironing, the cooking, the cleaning, the shopping, the windows, I do the blinds, I do the skirting boards, I do the sofa, under the cushions, it’s just an endless task.”

Both women choose to revolt in the TV show, and make their family understand their demands over video calls. As we see in the show, their husbands’ immediately ‘rude’ responses do not go down well as the women are shown videos of them while they’re sat in the pub.

David struggles to make an omelette at home in Oldham
(Image: Charles Fearn/Channel 5)

Paul pushes back on Gaynor’s plans to enlist their kids help and David and his son can’t get their heads around making an omelette, let alone the mess resulting from their bulldog’s dinner – and we see David unable to even find what cleaner he’d need to clean up from the cupboard.

After burning an omelette, David is then seen going to the pub to get a meal rather than cooking again. He talks to a pal at the pub and says: “She’s at home all day long, what else is she going to do? She’s got a dishwasher, she’s got a washing machine, she’s got a dryer, she’s got a hoover, some women want everything don’t they.”

Talking about why they wanted to take part in the show, Sarah, from Grotton, says: “I saw it advertised, and I thought do you know what that sounds it could be interesting. Since filming, things have changed for the better, I’m not saying things are perfect, I’m not saying I wouldn’t go on strike again, but yes things have changed, I do feel a bit more appreciated now, David realises what I do more now.

“Before I was invisible, I was just a wife and a mum I was juggling about 15 plates. Leaving home made them realise. He’s very old fashioned and thinks he goes to work and that’s his bit done then and everything else falls around him but he does seem to be changing his ways.

“I think me leaving home frightened him to death, there was literally no contact, I couldn’t answer my phone, but I’m a molly coddler me, they were all ringing me and at first I wanted to pack my bags and go home. But after 24 hours I didn’t even want to go home, I thought this could just be my life, I was like a real life Shirley Valentine. If I was on a beach in Greece, if Channel 5 had of flown me out there, I don’t think I’d have come back,” she laughs.

Gaynor says going on the show has brought big changes for her family
(Image: Charles Fearn/Channel 5)

Meanwhile Gaynor explains in the show her background. She says: “I’ve come from a council estate and started hairdressing at 13 and decided I wanted to be my own boss. I’m really proud of myself, I’ve worked my arse off for everything I’ve got.”

When asked what percentage share she tackles at home, she said: “I think it’s 80 per cent me, I do the majority if not all the housework. I would like the boys to do a little bit more.

“Slowly but surely I’m realising I can’t always be on top of it. It may come across as moany. I’m trying to install in my boys, leave it as you find it, and that will be forever a life skill.”

But husband Paul initially cannot understand Gaynor’s point of view. On the show he says: “We didn’t have kids to have slave labour around the house, we had them to have a family and have fun.”

Meanwhile a fuming David says: “So I go to work, I pay the bills, I come home, cook my tea, do the cleaning, do the ironing, clean the house? I don’t think so. I might as well get my own flat.”

David and Alfie try to tackle the housework
(Image: Charles Fearn/Channel 5)

But by the end of the show, both sets of families have a better appreciation of what the two mums do. Sarah is seen telling David: “I just want it to be 50/50 it’s not a lot to ask. I’ve had it up to here with this housewife thing.” David says: “None of the jobs are complicated are they, but I accept they’re time consuming, it must be tedious it must be boring.”

Gaynor told the MEN appearing on the show has “absolutely” changed things at home. She says: “People will definitely relate to either me or Sarah in different ways. I work at home all week and that in itself is juggling.”

On agreeing to do the show, Gaynor says of her boys: “They weren’t up for it but I said, look I’m doing it, I need to get my voice heard, I’m silently struggling, you don’t recognise I’m on my knees at the end of every day. I’m really grateful for this experience.”

She says things have now changed. She said: “I now feel appreciated, the boys don’t take the mickey out of me anymore, I used to say that’s it, I’m done and would go and sit in my car and cry. So that definitely has changed, I don’t do that anymore, they help with the shopping, they put that away.

Gaynor with husband Paul and the twins at home in Bolton
(Image: Charles Fearn/Channel 5)

“I felt drowned by testosterone, but I don’t get called a drama queen anymore, they make their beds, it’s the small things that make it so much better for me. I’m not saying you have to do all the big jobs, it’s just those tiny life skills that make a difference.”

Both Gaynor and Sarah hope that other women experiencing similar issues at home can take inspiration from the show. Gaynor said: “I think you just need to sit down calmly and maybe have a list, to say could I get help, would you be able to help with this? A lot of women just run themselves ragged and end up on their knees at the end of the day, they’re seen as putting others before themselves.”

Meanwhile Sarah has shared some of the changes in her life since the show. Her Blues-mad husband has now even taken her to watch Manchester City for the first time.

She said: “Alfie has just finished at school so I don’t have the school run now and we have made a lot of changes. I even went to watch City and I loved it! I thought there’s got to be a bit of give and take.

“I just think overall I feel a bit more appreciated. It has been a really, really good experience and I’ve got a threat now because I’ll say listen, I can always go on strike again. I think David is terrified there’s a series 2!”

Mums on Strike starts on Channel 5 on Sunday, July 21, at 9pm

MEN – Oldham