Every weekday evening, Ash Krikorian, 35, comes home from work to a spotless apartment and an Armenian dish prepared by his 30-year-old wife, Gaya.
“I want him to be happy, and he loves how I cook and he appreciates it,” Gaya, who lives in Bayside, Queens, with her husband of five months, tells The Post. And though she has a part-time job and a master’s degree in English, her most prized position is homemaker.
“In my opinion, I think it’s a good balance for us that I do more [traditionally] ‘female’ things,” Gaya says. “Of course, now women can earn a lot more money, but it’s just not who I am. I’m good at keeping the house clean . . . It really works for us.”
In March, a multipart study at the University of Michigan and the University of Texas at Austin found that young people today are more likely to believe a man should be the head of the household than previous generations were.
Since the ’70s, sociologists have been surveying high school seniors about whether they agreed with the statement: “It is usually better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family.” In 2014, 42 percent of teens disagreed with the statement, compared to 58 percent in 1994.
“I am seeing a growing trend of millennial couples who follow traditional gender roles,” says Fran Walfish, a family and relationship psychotherapist based in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Ash, who owns his own audiovisual and DJ production company, says that being the breadwinner gives him “a feeling of accomplishment.”
“I have a sense of chivalry and was brought up that way,” he adds.
Since they both come from traditional patriarchal Armenian families, most people in their lives have been supportive of this arrangement.
“I have some friends who don’t agree, but they’re respectful and don’t really say anything,” says Gaya, who earns enough from a part-time job to cover her personal expenses.
“They ask me questions about it, and I always answer, ‘This is how I feel I should be living.’ ”
Midtown psychologist Anjhula Singh Bais says she’s seen more young people of late aspiring to “Leave It to Beaver”-style marriages. They either come from divorced households, are wary of the tumultuous online dating scene or want to diverge from their liberal parents’ relationships.
The latter was the case for Tesse Struve, a 33-year-old homemaker who grew up in a “very feminist” household in San Francisco. She followed her parents’ wishes and got a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and became a school teacher.
But when she married her husband, Erik, in 2012, she quit her job to take care of the house and, eventually, their daughter Kenna, now 3 years old. She now runs a blog, Millennial Housewife, devoted to Generation Y ladies who are more Betty Draper than Sheryl Sandberg.
“There is an exciting movement of millennial women who are choosing to stay home with their kids and run the household,” she enthuses on the blog. “They are re-creating what it means to be a ‘housewife.’ ”
While part of her decision to stop working was due to the high cost of child care, Struve feels privileged to be a full-time mother.
“I know so many millennial moms that want to be home with their kids, but financially just can’t afford it,” she says.
“I love being so involved in my daughter’s life and being there to support my husband,” adds Struve, who keeps the house tidy and makes dinner for her husband when he gets home.
But she admits that the job isn’t always fulfilling.
“It does get lonely being at home all day with a baby,” she says.
Some millennial couples just happen to slip into traditional roles. Farrah, a 35-year-old digital marketing coordinator, works full-time, and does most of the housework.
“I could make more of an effort to tell him to do the laundry, but it’s just easier for me to do it on my own,” says Farrah, who didn’t want to disclose her last name for professional reasons.
Farrah, who splits her time between Tel Aviv and Bayside, Queens, with her husband, Benjamin, 36, says she doesn’t resent having to do the bulk of the housework.
“I always get a thank you, and he makes me coffee,” she says. “I always feel appreciated.”
But having such defined roles in a relationship can lead to tension.
“The high price may be an emerging resentment in the man, who carries the heavy burden and expectation of sole earning,” says psychotherapist Walfish. “Millennial moms who direct the majority or all of their energy and attention onto the kids might find their marital relationship suffering.”
The Krikorians have sniped at each other over small grievances — such as Ash being too messy and Gaya tidying too much.
And so they made a compromise: Ash would try to pick up after himself more so Gaya wouldn’t have to clean more than once a day.
Ultimately, Gaya says she has no qualms about their setup.
“I’m good at keeping the house clean and everything in order,” she says. “He does his own thing with work, and I don’t want to mess with his stuff, and I don’t want him to be involved in my things. It really works for us, and it’s a good balance.”