The problem is that I have used the last 7+ years with my
husband to become more selfish and lazy at his expense. I always thought: “He gets 15 days off a month – he can do
this.”
This thought process is not fair. My poor husband does have 15 days off each month because of his rotating schedule;
however, the days he works, he works 12
hour days! I cannot imagine leaving
for work at 4AM and getting
home at 6:45 in the
evenings. No wonder he is always so
tired. He needs those “extra” days to
re-coop: not for me to create a never-ending honey-do list!
Even though I feel loved most when getting help from my
husband (my love language is acts of service), I have been requiring too much
from him. Every week, there was a list
on the white-board of things for him to accomplish. One day, I erased them all. Clean shower?
I guess I better get to it. (I hate cleaning the shower – I will do
toilets, counter-tops and wipe down the walls every day if I have to, just don’t
ask me to do the shower!) Clip puppy
nails? I just started taking over this
task about a month ago. Come to find out, it isn’t
as difficult as I thought it would be (Lana’s nails are jet black and
there is no telling where the quick is so I cut her nails a little every week
to keep them under control.) Clean upthe house a little every night? I’m on
it! The dog’s water dish needs refilled? I’ll take care of it! Call cell phone company for credit – I got
it! (I have more patience with customer service reps than hubby does.)
It was the menial little tasks I did not feel like doing that
I put Todd in charge of. It never
occurred to me he did not enjoy doing them either!
As of late, I have been trying to take over as much of these
silly little tasks as possible in an effort to keep Todd’s stress down so he
can focus on chores that really need completed (and I prefer not to do) such
as: mow the lawn, clean up the garage, install new flooring in the living room
and cut wood for winter.
I always told myself that I didn’t need a man – I could do
everything I wanted to do by myself.
That is not necessarily true.
It’s nice to have a husband who can do home improvements, cook and even
clean! However, it is liberating knowing that I can do many tasks myself
without his help. The problem was that I was
just too lazy and selfish to do them myself!
