He woke me up and asked if he could ask me a question.
(Sage, I think this might be how he wants me to address issues... )
I said, "Sure."
He said, "I know you used to get really furious at me because I never helped around the house. Is that still the case?"
Gasp. Be still my beating heart!!
I said, "Husband, first of off, let me tell you, just having you think about this, and ask me, means sooo much to me."
"Second, I have noticed that you do help out a lot! And I appreciate every bit of it."
"But, sometimes, I notice that you pile your dishes in the sink and just leave them there. I'd really appreciate it if you'd put your dishes into the dishwasher."
He acknowledge that he does this. Said that most of the time, he's not sure if the dishwasher is clean or not (I need to go buy one of those clean/dirty stickers) so, he just piles them into the sink. He said when 3 days go by, he knows the dishwasher is dirty.
I told him that the whole point of doing flylady is to NOT let things pile up.
He said, "Sometimes, you leave dishes in the sink and I pile them on top of yours."
I said, "Oh, well, in that case, I need to pay more attention too."
He said that he's really happy with the effort I've been going to in order to keep our house clean. He then went on and on about how filthy his ex-roomates were. How they'd leave dishes in the sink until there were flies.
How he used to take a wrapper off of something and throw it on the floor...cause their place was so messy/filthy, one more thing didn't matter.
How he feels sorry for his roomates' baby. That he thinks the baby has eaten tons of bird seed, computer screws, and no telling what else. (Shudder)
He then mentioned how since I keep the house so clean, he's happy to take the time to clean up what little mess there is.
Like, I have a habit of leaving a bunch of cups around.
He mentioned that he gathers up my cups pretty regularly and puts them in the sink for me.
I told him I hadn't noticed and really really appreciate it!
Then he went on to tell me that I've been doing something that he's really appreciated. That when I ask him for help, it's most often at the right time.
I told him I wasn't aware I was doing this correctly!
He said, absolutely..."the wrong time is right when I get home from work, or right before I leave for work. If you ask me when I'm relaxed, I'll be like, 'sure, no problem'".
I told him, "OOO, thank you for pointing out to me what I was doing right! That helps so much..now I can pay attention and make sure to do it on purpose. Cause, before, I think I was just doing it by accident and not realizing it."
And, folks, not a word was spoken about the conversation last night.
However, since he brought up the roomates, and told me how messy they were and how much he hated it. I think he was trying to tell me, subtly, that I don't have to worry about them encouraging him to move in with them.
I love how much he praised me. And I told him so this morning.
Told him how much it meant to me that he's paying attention to these things...and helping me with them.
Makes me feel sooo good!!
(And to my shame, I must confess that before I found flylady, husband and I had an apartment that was as horrible as he says his roomates house was. But apparently, my present efforts have wiped away this past nightmare...yeah!)