Son in tears doing housework (8)
I believe the answer is:
sweeping
'doing housework' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'son in tears' is the wordplay.
'son' becomes 's' (genealogical abbreviation for son).
'in tears' becomes 'weeping' (I've seen this before).
's'+'weeping'='SWEEPING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sweeping that I've seen before include "clearing the mess?" , "clearing the floor?" , "work for Mrs Mopp" , "Too general; cleaning" , "not very specific" .)