Tallying your own feeling of self-worth

With the arrival of our second child, I felt it was time to face the stark reality of our own mortality and look into getting life insurance for my wife and myself. We'll both soon pass 40 and time will probably only speed up from there. The insurance agent just emailed to let me know everything is ready if we'd like to go ahead with creating the policies. But, there's a catch.

We signed up to get two 1-million Euro policies covering the next 20 years, and chose for a version that scales both payout and premium to a regular increase to match average inflation.

Anyway, the catch: no problem, they're all set for the 1M for me. However, because of my wife's declared profession on the form ("homemaker" or "mom" or "source of sanity"), she'll only be covered for 750,000.

Excuse me?! What number do you put into a spreadsheet to figure out an annual Net Worth(tm) like that? Now, couple this with the fact that I have to sign our tax return but her signature (hidden on page 3) is optional.

A little more gender bias, anyone?

Poll: Should men cook for Christmas?

A friend is reading Maeve Binchy's book This Year It Will Be Different and brought up a hot potato (so to speak) at our bookclub the other night: are men supposed to help cook the Christmas meal? Is it inappropriate to even bring up the topic?

A lot of the stories in the book describe the woman doing all of the cooking and preparation, and nothing would sway you from thinking it's the Way It Should Be. TV shows do the same thing; commercials show women bringing food to the table to the smiles of her children and husband. To quote after a few glasses of wine : "Shouldn't that lazy bastard be up off his ass at least helping if not cooking the whole meal himself?"

Do you folks (guys and girls) think the media of all sorts still can't let go of the stereotype of Woman Cooks, Man Sits? Is it only the 21st century and we should wait longer? Or is it only if you're a famous TV chef that it's ok to be a man cooking?