Have you ever noticed something strange about all the laundry commercials you've watched on TV throughout the years? Think about it. What do they all have in common? Better put — what are they all missing?

The answer: men.

With rare exception, most TV spots promoting detergents or dryer sheets feature a cheerful woman diligently folding her family's linens.

Finally, however, one commercial is asking a seriously important question: "Why is laundry a mother's job?"

As part of a greater #ShareTheLoad [1] campaign, Ariel India has released one of the most powerful videos you'll ever see about gender stereotyping — and how it starts at home, with us and our children.

As a grandfather watches his grown daughter balance cooking dinner, answering an after-hours phone call from the office, and yes, prepping a basket of stained kids' clothes, he's reminded of how it's as if she were still a little girl playing house, pretending to cook and clean and care for others.

"Sorry that I never stopped you, while you were playing house," the man says in the moving ad. "I never told you that it's not your job alone — but your husband's, too. But how could I say it when I never helped your mom, either. And what you saw, you learned."

The message is clear: that these stereotypes are passed from generation to generation and that the most innocent of childhood notions can go on to shape a girl's or boy's entire future identity. But another lesson? That it's never too late to right the course, to practice equality, and to share the load.