back in the day (50's and 60's) we did the blue and pink thing. My sister and I did most of the housework, cooking, dishes, gardening, canning, washing produce from the garden. My brothers did most of the lawn mowing, digging gardens, chopping and sawing wood, hauling it in, helping with the oil changes, etc. However, my parents believed in cross training so yep, by the time we were in high school, I could chop wood, use a swede say, change a tire, haul in the wood and my brother's could do the laundry, iron, cook, and clean the toilet. When I went to college, I could not believe the young adults there that did not know how to do laundry, cook them selve an egg, and figure out a budget. My conclusion to this was if your kids can't take care of themselves and do basic tasks by the time they leave the nest, they have failed as a parent no matter how good the kids' "self esteem" is. Oh, and my parents also taught us that other people sometimes know more than we did and our job was to figure that out and maybe change our views if warranted.