How It Is

I'm adding a new feature to my site, much like Alyson's Trends I Don't Get, called How It Is, where I school people like my husband, other drivers and white trash in the ways of the world, by telling them How It Is.

How It Is: 12-10-06

Us stay-home parents have plenty of things we like to bitch about.

But one thing I think we can all agree on is how annoying it is when the parent who works outside the home (read: Kyle) and usually doesn't do much of the housework complains about where things are placed, how they are arranged, and just in general lips off.

Here's an example. Since I clean up 95% of household messes, Kyle didn't even know where our "nasty" towels were until the recent Barf-Fest '06 descended upon the household. However, when he finally had to go get a towel to clean up a mess, he immediately complained because there were picture frames on top of them. "Those picture frames have GOT to go! Why on Earth would you put them there? That's the worst place for them!"

I had to explain to him that A: he was grabbing the wrong towels- those were the beach towels, and B: I put them there to make room for Christmas decorations, not thinking that the beach towels would come into play until long after Christmas when the frames were put back in their proper place.

Another example: Ordinarily I get up with the boys in the morning, so Kyle has no idea how early they get up (in the winter, it's typically between 6 and 6:30). However, yesterday, Stew woke up while I was feeding Wilbur, so it was hard to take care of both. Kyle came upstairs and immediately started complaining- "We need to set up some kind of alarm system so they don't get up so early...blah blah blah."

Funny how it never bothers him when I get up with them. I just told him to go back to sleep since he was obviously cranky :).

I find it amusing that he thinks the whole household should be set up for maximum convenience to him for the one time out of one hundred that he does something.

Please don't take that the wrong way- Kyle does a lot for our family, and I don't mean to say that he doesn't do anything around the house.

It's just annoying that when he steps out of his normal role to help me out a little, he then has to try to tell me where things should go and how they should be done.

I'm like, dude, when you do that EVERY DAY, like I do, then you get to pick how it's set up. When you do something once a month, then not so much. I will set things up how I like them and in a way that's convenient for ME.

I'm Sarah Ford, and that's How It Is.