Men & Domesticity

Photo Credit

Talk about a whirlwind weekend. Between Friday and Saturday, we celebrated five birthdays at three separate parties, ran errands (groceries + laundry + gardening) and found some time to catch up on life (Mani + Padi + Real Housewives of Vancouver). In addition to all this activity, I also uncovered some insights into men & chores. Chatting with three different groups of girlfriends, we naturally veered in the direction of men & domestic abilities after a few glasses of this and this. 

"Does your husband fold laundry?"
"Does your boyfriend wash dishes?"
"Does your partner put together IKEA furniture?" 

What emerged from those conversations had my jaw to the floor (in disbelief).  Some of our partners had identical behaviours/responses to common domestic tasks. Could there be a universal guide book that these men read and follow?

Photo Credit

Whether it is their quick response to doing the laundry ("Sure honey, I'll take care of laundry. You can vacuum, grab groceries and clean the bathrooms." Still leaving the folding & putting away the laundry to you) to avoiding washing the dishes (by leaving a bite or two in the container and selling it as, "I saved it for you.") to giving up after spending 5 minutes reviewing the IKEA furniture instructions to spending anywhere from 25-45 minutes in the bathroom "reading," it became quite clear that there is some kind of a pattern with these dudes. I can tell you that hungry husband is probably one of the smartest people I know - a political nerd and a history buff - yet he still amazes me with questions like,

"Where's the milk?"

No. He isn't asking where in the refrigerator is the milk. He is actually asking me where we keep the milk. This guy makes a living navigating complex public policy files yet when it comes to domesticity, the wiring is totally off. Anyway, I (sadly) am a sucker and feel slightly sorry for my domestically challenged partner. So, this Sunday as a way to say "hang in there champ," I made him a breakfast that totally blew his mind.  Organic all-beef hot dogs cut and fried with two sunny side eggs upside down with a side of organic blueberry filled waffles. *drool drool drool* That was the look in his eyes. I watched him eat it (like Kristi Alley does on this show) while I enjoyed a cup of black coffee with some kale & goat cheese.

Now to be fair, Hungry Husband can do all of the things that he tries sooooo hard to avoid (cooking, cleaning, assembling) but if given the chance, he'd come up with some pretty creative ways to get out of our shared responsibilities. Thankfully, he has me to keep him in line. ;-)
Enjoy!