When T and I first started living together, it was good fun. First year uni was fairly cruisy, so while he worked 11-hour days, I took care of most of the stuff around the house. Eventually the situation reversed; I was busier, while he worked shorter days, and eventually, not at all. (I’ve written many a post about this trying time…very glad that’s behind us.) The thing is, while I needed him to step up at home, it wasn’t that easy. It’s an ongoing battle!
Cleaning: It’s a double edged sword. He doesn’t like to clean, nor does he do a good job of it….hence I basically do it all. That said, I had a 55-ish hour week this week, while he was at home (forced to take some leave before the end of the financial year) and was more helpful than usual. Kudos.
Bedtime: I like to stay up and read. Meanwhile, he goes to sleep a lot earlier than I do; he starts work at least four hours earlier than I do on a normal day. We don’t have a separate living room.
Food: Thank goodness he’s good in the kitchen. Nonetheless, as we’ve no longer eat convenience foods and cook more from scratch, our different tastes have made themselves known. For instance, having grown up on Chinese/SE Asian food, I’m used to dishes where stuff is already all cut up for me. I like things that are easy to eat. I never had prawns, steak, ribs, chops, roasts…and I often find them fiddly and irritating to deal with. I also hate anything that remotely resembles fat or rind on meat. If it were up to me, I would only ever eat chicken breast, stir fry beef, beef mince and the odd steak. Never pork. Instead, from time to time he serves up strange concoctions, like pork and kumara curry. They are not two of my favourite foods, but like almost all of his cooking, I was pleasantly surprised.
Luckily our taste in veggies is very similar – mushrooms, capsicums, and asparagus being three of our favourite. I am, however, a potato girl through and through while he’s a kumara devotee (sigh). Also, his opinion of what constitutes a dessert portion is obscene – think large dinner serving bowl or cereal bowl.
Oh it totally equals compromise doesn’t it! I am a morning person while Eric is a night owl so we very rarely go to sleep at the same time. I usually am in bed by 9 – 10 pm and he’s in bed more like 11 pm – 1 am. I like it though because I sleep better when it’s just me in the bed! This is why I can’t wait to get a king sized bed!!
As for the cleaning, Eric is helpful with dishes and does them regularly. Occasionally will vacuum. But NEVER does laundry. I don’t really mind though because I would rather do my own laundry to be honest!
My husband is very neat and I still don’t like the way he folds the laundry or makes the beds. I just have to be happy he does it though.
What’s a capsicum?
Aka bell pepper. Not that they’re actually bell shaped…..silly word!
[…] and say that maybe I was too hasty in calling it quits. And we certainly argued about money after moving in together. And again, nearly gave up on it all during the dark days of 2009, aka, the long employment drought […]
I’m going to give you a bit of advice that my Mom gave to me and my sister-in-law. Nana asked my Mom what was the secret to marriage on my parents’ 36th anniversary. My Mom said, “Compromise. When neither parties are truly satisfied, you know that you’re in a good marriage.”
XD
[…] we’re still here. Still compromising. Still going strong. -36.867000 174.767000 GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); […]
[…] It’s the key to any good relationship. […]
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[…] all it’s cracked up to be. I wouldn’t swap it for anything, but it’s definitely not a painless thing for us. Our story is much more like this than it is […]