Domesticated Darling

Being married to the eldest of three sons is tough to begin with. All their lives, they have been pampered by the mother. Everything around the house is done by the mother to the point that they lack skills in handling household chores. I am not sure if the mother never expected the boys to do anything around the house, or she gave up asking, or she overprotects the boys and feels that they are incapable of doing things. Whatever it is, I know that they are spoilt.

Nonetheless, I am lucky enough that my husband is not the worst among the three. He could still attend to household chores, but he used to choose which he would do and which he wouldn't. Something that look close enough to difficult-to-do would be avoided by him.

On the other hand, I am used to do things on my own, around the house. Everything. Being single till my mid-thirties, I learned not to depend on anyone to get things done.

But things got to change when I got married. If I were to do everything on my own as I used to when I was single, then it defeats the purpose of being married. Marriage is about sharing, right?

And that includes household chores.

In the beginning, I used to eat my heart out, wondering how to tell him that he should share the chores with me. I didn't want to offend him and sounded like a control freak wife. But at the same time, I have to make him understand. Though at times I thought of going for strikes and leave things unattended around the house, but the thought of having a messy house stopped that. After all, it's my house.

Anyway, after a lot of trying to make him understand, I can now say that I am proud to have him as my housemate. He does a lot of things around the house now, much more than I do to the extend that some things are purely his territories. For example, laundry. That's his expertise. I wouldn't do any laundry anymore. He won't allow me. He does it from picking up the clothes that need to be laundered, sorting them out according to colour/white and God knows what, flip them inside out or whatever, the type of detergent to use, the softener, the bleaches if any, the order of putting detergent/softener/bleach, determine the cycle needed for each laundry, drying them up, up to folded them all! The only thing that I do is ironing them. According to him, watching me doing the laundry will send shivers down his spine. I do it the shortcut way. Whatever. I am fine with it.

He can also cook simple meals for both of us. And those simple meals include sambal ikan bilis. From someone who messed up the kitchen, to someone that I trust with my kitchen.. that's a huge leap. He knows how to clean up the kitchen after using it, wipe whatever necessary, wash up the dishes and stack them up when they are dried up. Isn't it awesome?

I told him that I am so proud of him, proud of his achievement. 17 months of being married, he has achieved a lot. In response, he said that it's not truly an achievement as he is a slow learner. To me, that's not the case. I know of some people whose husbands are still hopeless around the house even after a number of years living together. So what he has achieved is truly wonderful.

My Darling Babe, I love you!! Muahhh!

Angah