Hear the talk:
I’ve mentioned before that in my marriage, we have switched roles: she is the tool keeper, the fixer upper, the engineer; I shop, cook, try to keep the house clean and tidy.
I say keep the house clean & tidy because I am still a man when it comes to cleaning up. A man’s approach to a small area of the kitchen floor that is dirty is to grab a small scrub brush that is very wet and lots of paper towels. You attack the offending area by making the area wet, scrubbing, and then drying with a paper towel.
Clean the whole floor methodically? Use a squeegee and a pail of water? Are you kidding? That is called cleaning. I keep tidy. I make sure the visible dirt is kept to a minimum, and I make sure there isn’t too much clutter. I do a lot of that -- make sure there isn’t too much clutter.
Periodically I attack the many piles of things around the house and I create fewer piles of things. I consolidate three small piles and create one large pile. That way the center of a room, or desk, is relatively uncluttered.
My wife hates it when I create new piles. She screams she can’t find anything. I am insulted. I cleaned up. I made fewer piles. Remember those three piles on the left side of your desk? Well there is now only one high pile -- and it is at the back left. All you need to do is look through the high pile. You’ll find what you are looking for. Remember your bag of dance shoes and your small bag of instruments? They are still where you left them, just buried deeper back -- behind that stool and slightly left of where you left them.
And then I realized I was hearing from her the ultimate cry of the enraged husband who screams: “After you clean up, I can’t find anything.”
We wives work so hard & no one appreciates our efforts. We clean house and all those brutes can say is “Oh God No. He cleaned up again” -- which issues from my wife’s mouth after I clean house.
My wife did admit -- “I know, I know, I should be grateful, you do keep the house straight.” -- but she, like all male primates does not appreciate all the hard work we do for them.
One final example? I am the social secretary in the family, I schedule our vacations, our dance events -- and all she can say is “Must we talk about that now? You drive me nuts with your questions about something that won’t happen for another 12 months.” Of course they always thank us social secretaries after the event. But before the event? They are an ungrateful bunch….
This under appreciated wife wishes to join the great sisterhood of under appreciated housekeepers, house cleaners, clutter containers, social secretaries. So long
Copyright © 2007 Henry Morgenstein