I never thought it would be so hard to share the household chores!
I have spent the last four years staying at home. David has always helped with housework, but since I've stayed at home, he helped mostly on the weekends. I would do as much as possible during the week, and on the weekends we would do the minimum so we could focus on spending time as a family. When he stayed home during the week, even if he was sick, I would try to put off chores, also to spend time together.
Since starting the business, its felt like one reeeeeeeeally long weekend. I could not get into the mind frame of doing everyday normal housework with David here. It was like I just forgot that I had things to do. I felt like I was crazy! Then when he would do the dishes or laundry to help, which became quite frequently, I'd feel like he was stepping on my toes. I wasn't doing it, but he couldn't either. I expected a lot of things to have to transition, but housework was not one of them.
Then we have David who is use to a management position over the last 8 years...at home...ALL the time. On my turf, eyeing my duties. We used to always joke that he was the boss at work, and I was the boss at home. Now that work and home were the same place, we were completely lost. There were MANY unnecessary trips to the store for something we didn't really need.
We had some pretty interesting days! It wasn't like before where we would bicker a little, he'd go to work, I'd go on with my day, we'd both cool off, and then at the end of the day, he'd come home, we'd make up and move on. Oh no...we had to be around each other all day, sometimes in the same room. No time to cool off or even time to think about cooling off! Don't get me wrong, we don't get into hairy fights, but there were times that we both wondered what we got ourselves into. We knew we'd make it through, and stronger than before, we just didn't know when. Not knowing the when is really tough.
I feel like the dark clouds have lifted and things are returning to something we can call normal. Its still going to take some time, and I'm sure we'll have little relapses each time we get a new resident, or something changes but we'll get there.
I know there are many women who would have wanted to slap me for being upset about my husband doing dishes and laundry. I'm finally getting to a point where I am appreciating his work in the house, like making breakfast every morning. I think he's finally finding his place in the house again too.
I have spent the last four years staying at home. David has always helped with housework, but since I've stayed at home, he helped mostly on the weekends. I would do as much as possible during the week, and on the weekends we would do the minimum so we could focus on spending time as a family. When he stayed home during the week, even if he was sick, I would try to put off chores, also to spend time together.
Since starting the business, its felt like one reeeeeeeeally long weekend. I could not get into the mind frame of doing everyday normal housework with David here. It was like I just forgot that I had things to do. I felt like I was crazy! Then when he would do the dishes or laundry to help, which became quite frequently, I'd feel like he was stepping on my toes. I wasn't doing it, but he couldn't either. I expected a lot of things to have to transition, but housework was not one of them.
Then we have David who is use to a management position over the last 8 years...at home...ALL the time. On my turf, eyeing my duties. We used to always joke that he was the boss at work, and I was the boss at home. Now that work and home were the same place, we were completely lost. There were MANY unnecessary trips to the store for something we didn't really need.
We had some pretty interesting days! It wasn't like before where we would bicker a little, he'd go to work, I'd go on with my day, we'd both cool off, and then at the end of the day, he'd come home, we'd make up and move on. Oh no...we had to be around each other all day, sometimes in the same room. No time to cool off or even time to think about cooling off! Don't get me wrong, we don't get into hairy fights, but there were times that we both wondered what we got ourselves into. We knew we'd make it through, and stronger than before, we just didn't know when. Not knowing the when is really tough.
I feel like the dark clouds have lifted and things are returning to something we can call normal. Its still going to take some time, and I'm sure we'll have little relapses each time we get a new resident, or something changes but we'll get there.
I know there are many women who would have wanted to slap me for being upset about my husband doing dishes and laundry. I'm finally getting to a point where I am appreciating his work in the house, like making breakfast every morning. I think he's finally finding his place in the house again too.
