Are mothers underappreciated?

This article by Achenbach in last Sunday's WaPo is very funny. Its about his experiences following his wife's departure on a week-long vacation. I must confess, I relate to some (not all!) of what he says, which is in fact a compliment to Steph. With a tenure of less than five years, I'd say Steph has come close to mastering homemakery. Anyway, here are two humorous excerpts:

About halfway through my tenure, I discovered that the objects strewn all over the house had failed to move. They were stunningly inertial. What had been cast down on Sunday remained there on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Since the children were never going to pick anything up, I realized that it was up to me to learn once and for all how to ignore the debris.
...
By Friday I noticed that the clothes weren't laundered. The laundry has always been done on a regular basis. It's not entirely clear how that happens. I open drawers and find clean clothes, neatly folded. I'm pretty sure this is all done through miracle fibers. You wear a garment, toss it in the hamper, and the miracle fiber apparently manages to clean itself and fold itself and then transport itself back to your drawer. But the system broke down, the fibers stopped working, and the kids complained about the lack of clean clothes. I told them (as any sane parent would) to fetch clothes out of the hamper.