So tonight we had an incident, not a big incident, but it could have blown up. We were both in the kitchen, I was doing dishes; he was cooking. And he dropped an empty jar of spaghetti sauce on the floor. It was a mess, broken glass and tomato sauce. He gave me a minute or two to run to his rescue and take control of the situation, and I didn't do it. So he asked for the dustpan, and started sweeping it up himself. He did an alright job of cleaning it up, but not complete. I could have criticized it. But I tried not to. It bothered him that I stood there watching, but I continued to watch, and when he missed some glass, I did point it out. Then we sat down and ate, and I complimented his cooking.
Later, I was baking a cake, and he came in. He jokingly referred to his mishap with the jar. I joked with him too. Then he knew it was OK. In the old days, it would have been different. Probably, I would have cleaned it up myself, and resented him for making a mess. Treated him like a child because he messed up. We did better.
