A Melbourne woman is challenging fathers to take on single handedly one of the hardest jobs in the world for 48 hours. It involves obstacles, point scoring, possibly drinking and sex, and has been designed to ensure at least one person breaks down in tears.

The Tough Mother challenge sees mums taking a mini-holiday from Friday to Sunday while their partners care for the children and work through a list of domestic challenges. It has been developed by activist Alice Morell, who is also behind the Mothering Movement.

How many men with prove to be Tough Mothers?

Obligatory chores (apart from keeping the children alive, fed and watered) include shopping for food for the weekend with the kids in tow, taking the children swimming, spending five hours playing at home, doing the laundry, making dinner, cleaning the house on Sunday evening and getting ready for some love-making. Men should also write down what they learnt from the experience.

The obstacles included a mixture of mundane domestic work with drama-inducing chores like a trip to the toy store to buy a present for another child, but not your own, which was sure to leave the father dealing with a public tantrum.