As a woman who has learned to live with her man in relative peace and harmony, I am a firm believer in using positive reinforcement to reinforce desirable behavior in my mate. We jokingly call this "training" him and I thought I had been rather subtle about it over the years. It keeps me from having to nag and I don't kill him for not being a woman able to understand hints. These behaviors that we have worked on tasks having to do with dirty laundry making it to the hamper, learning to actually use a dishwasher, taking out the trash and other simple tasks.
It occurred to me while talking to a friend today about doing laundry that I have been trained as well and never even realized it. My friend asked why Rob couldn't help with the laundry and after I expressed horror over the thought it dawned on me. There is no reason why a man as intelligent as Rob should be unable to master folding clothes or grocery shopping from a specific list. The only conclusion that I have been able to reach is that he has mastered ineptness in these tasks so that I will only ask him to do them as a last resort.
Of course there are chores that both of us hate and the other doesn't mind so a natural division of chores has evolved, but with laundry and grocery shopping, chores we both dislike, I feel I have been outmaneuvered.
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