My Betty Homemaker
Lately the routine in our house has been great. Kate and I both get home before 6, depending on traffic, and the major priority is, of course, the Beanster. He gets dinner and a bath and I usually cook dinner while Kate is putting him to bed. However, the other night Kate decides that she wants to switch roles and let me take care of Beanie while she cooks dinner. No big deal, I say, I would love to let you cook dinner while I relax with Bean.
Now I €™m not sure how your house works, but anytime I make the mess cooking dinner, I take full responsibility in cleaning up the kitchen. So I would think that this theory would go both ways. You make the mess, you clean it up, right? WRONG.
I don €™t know if Kate has ever told you this but, she HATES to do dishes. Personally, I think that the kitchen should be clean before we go to bed every night. This includes the dishes, taking the trash out, wiping down the counters, etc. Kate refuses to do this. Every night its the same thing, “Just leave them, do them tomorrow”.
On top of this Kate has a remarkable ability to create a kitchen FULL of dishes, even if she’s just cooking a frozen one pot dinner. I really don’t understand it. She can cook slice-and-bake cookies and somehow the kitchen looks like something exploded in there. And I know why. I can hear her talking in there, “Now add a 1/4″ tbsp of sugar, 2 tsp salt, and you want to stir this up until….” Yes, when Kate is in the kitchen and she doesn’t think anyone is around, she pretends like she is a host on the Food Network. I used to just hide around the corner and laugh at her in there, but now guess its ok because at least she has the Bean to talk to in there. This is how it gets SO dirty, when she’s hosting her imaginary cooking shows, she uses every tool in the kitchen. And she is just making SLICE-AND-BAKE cookies. So then guess who gets to clean up the slice-and-bake fiasco… yours truly.
But its not just cooking, Kate hates to clean period. Don’t get me wrong she likes the idea of cleaning… as in she likes everything to be clean. But the physical act of cleaning… nope… nada… no way… not going to happen. Take this past weekend for example. Katie jumped up Sunday morning and randomly decided she needed to clean her bathroom. I knew from the get-go that I would be dragged into this project somehow, so I just sat back and waited for it to happen. Twenty minutes later I was very surprised that I had not been bothered. “Wow,” I said to myself. “She is actually doing it! This is awesome!”
Then I hear her from the top of the steps… Poooookkkkeeeeyyyy? I need some help. Please…
What do you need help with sweetie?
Well, I mopped but there is all this gross stuff on the floor now?
Sweetheart… did you sweep before you started mopping?
… … well … No?….
When I got upstairs I found this:
When I walked into the bathroom after picking Kate up, I found clumps of wet dust all over bathroom floor (no need to show you those pics), so I showed her how to clean it up with a rag. And because she looked pathetic just sitting there…
… I decided to do the second round of mopping for her. I tried explaining how to do it while I mopped, but she didn’t seem interested. 
When I finished re-cleaning the REST of the bathroom, I turned around and saw Kate throw several dirty rags into the trash can. Apparently she has been using rags once and then throwing them out because they are dirty. And I don’t mean using them in one room. I mean she uses them once, on one object, and then throws them away. Like paper towels.
Sometimes I get really tired of cooking dinner every night. And I hate cleaning just as much as she does. But just about the time I start to get really mad at her for leaving the kitchen or the bathroom a mess, she leaves me a little something in the fridge for no reason at all.
Damn! How can I be mad at her after she goes and does something like that? She knows my weakness… and probably takes advantage of me sometimes because of it…
Oh well.. i guess its totally worth it. She DOES make my life easier (most of the time)… and I’m not sure what I would do without her… and we DO make good lookin babies.. yeah she’s worth it…
and she brings me treats…… 🙂
32 Comments
Lori @ I Can Grow People
Oh Chris, I love your posts!
Here we do the one of us cooks dinner, the other cleans up thing. It works out pretty well–especially since I cook 90% of the time. It isn’t that I can’t or refuse to clean, but that I am just a better cook than Aaron. And a girl can’t live on bacon alone!
And I am SOOOO jealous that you all are home by 6pm. I am technically off the clock at 6, but by the time I actually leave the shop and get home it is 7pm. Ick.
Chris
Yeah but I have to spend a ridiculous amount of time in the car… i get off at 4… so we are even. 🙂 We miss you guys, hope all is well!
Ilana
So let me get this straight…if I feed my husband snickers..he’ll do the dishes?
DEAR GOD. A BRAND NEW WORLD.
Thank you Chris…THANK YOU!!!!
(And keep updating! I love reading your side of the story too!!!!)
Chris
Keep us feed and we usually stay happy 🙂 good luck with your new outlook, let me know how it goes. Haha.
Katy
See, at our house the rule is that if you cook, you DON’T clean. Love that balance, although my Chris thinks I use too many dishes, too.
Chris
Well what’s the reason for the extra mess?? Do you really need all those?? 🙂
Lisa
My husband and I have a deal too where I will do all the cooking (except he cooks me breakfast on the weekend), and he will do all of the dishes afterward. I am also of the mentality that your kichen should be cleaned every night but hubby is not, so I would cook, then see dishes and measuring spoons and items that I would need for tomorrow night’s dinner not washed and it would make me upset with him, and I’d stew and seethe about it and pace and finally do the dishes myself! So we compromised…and he bought a dishwasher to help him with the workload (since I also cook like Katie and use multiple items to cook one meal at a time), and he cleans the measuring stuff every night. There is peace in our house now 🙂
Chris
Haha, I would’ve bought the dishwasher too!
Sue V.
We do the one cooks, the other cleans thing here too. It works out really well. It took some time to get used to it, but now we even do it when we visit other people. If they make us dinner, we do the dishes. As for the general cleaning my husband gets up early on Saturdays and tackles the house. I try during the week to keep the clutter to a minimum (no small task with 4 children) and dust and vacuum. He does the deep cleaning (mopping, scouring, bleaching) in the kitchen and bathroom, and with 3 boys using said bathroom, I am very grateful. I bake treats several times a week (I like to bake and he likes treats!)
The old saying “A way to a mans heart is through his stomach” holds true I guess.
Emily
I’m sorry – I can’t get past the part where you cook & clean…seriously????!!! Kate, he’s a keeper! Better buy alot more candy bars! 🙂
Chris
Did you hear that Kate! I’m a keeper. 🙂
Thanks Emily!
Jennifer
Chris- you know we love it when you post. We all need to hear from the “other” side sometimes. Now if we could just a little bit of insight from Katie wanting/needing a baby girl?!?!? Did you see those baby girl shoes, someone has to wear them.
Chris
Baby Girl….. hmmm… I don’t know… I think kate is crazy. 🙂
Tressa
WHAT A MAN!! COOK AND CLEAN?! Good for you Chris!
I applaud you, you have great qualities, please pass them on to Beanie! Raise another man that cooks, cleans and has the love and patience for his wife to do the dishes and finish cleaning the REST of bathroom!
I’m with Katie on tossing the dirty rags!! If they are that dirty, I don’t want them in my washer! ha. 😉
Yes, I totally agree, you two make gorgeous babies!! If Beanie is this handsome, I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOUR GIRL!
Chris
Unfortunately I think I learned these qualities cleaning up my high school parties.. That house had to be spotless or I was toast. 🙂 haha
Mindee
So for the price of a candy bar you clean the bathroom??
Wow.
I don’t think it’s really about the candy Chris. I think you love her.
And have you thought that perhaps, maybe, she screws stuff up on purpose so you won’t ask her to do it anymore? Cuz that’s totally what I would do if my cover weren’t already blown.
Chris
Hahaha…. Oh i’m sure she does. But i’m smarter than that because then I just make her suffer through me showing her how to do it a hundred times. And she REALLY hates that. Ha
Zoe
Haha that’s too funny. You’re such a lovely couple.
In our house, we cook together (or rather, I cook, and my man assists), and we clean together. We both get home quite late, usually 8 pm, so it’s nice to catch up and bond over cooking/cleaning, lame as that sounds.
Jean
Dang, your cute. You clean. And all you want is a candy bar? Do you have any brothers?
Holly Decker
fabulous post. i cant wait to read it to my husband. and boy oh boy do i love that i can get him a Coke to soothe anything between us. and yours is three muskateers, eh?
Mallory Torgersen
This is too funny!!
the Provident Woman
Wow, a man that cleans. Do you give lessons to other men?
Ashley
Stinking hilarious! I love that you both know each other SO WELL! This made my day!! PLEASE WRITE MORE OFTEN! 🙂
TeamHaynes
I’m so glad to know there is another woman out there that makes the kitchen a disaster zone with the simplest tasks! I swear it happens every time! Keep on posting Chris, we love it!
Shannon
This is hilarious! It also made me realize how long it’s been since I had a 3 Musketeers bar. I don’t know if I’d clean a bathroom for one, but I think it’s very sweet that you clean, especially after cooking!
Maureen
This is funny because this is almost the EXACT situation with me and my boyfriend (even though we don’t live together)
Lily
I am the exact same as Katie when it comes to dishes. I want to leave them until tomorrow – EVERYDAY. Luckily, my husband likes to be master and controller of the dishwasher….so he comes and puts all of the dishwasherable things away. But then I’ll leave my hand dish-washing/counter cleaning chores to do until…tomorrow….Until he finally growls at me to do my chores b/c the kitchen is a mess! Sigh. The candy bar treat is a good idea 😉
Bruce Teague
We had the opposite rule. I cook you clean, until one day I did the cooking. Turns out the rule is, doesn’t matter who cooks, I clean.
Kimberly Loomis
Chris,
When I was a kid our house was always clean. But I was always disorganized and messy. When I got married, our house was also always disorganized and messy. I realized one day that even though I was EXPOSED to a clean, neat house growing up, no one ever taught me HOW to do it! Then my husband got laid off and I spent some time cleaning houses. The lady I worked for trained me how to walk into a house and clean it from top to bottom in the most efficient and effective way. It was like the clouds had parted and angels were singing!! I could walk into a messy room and tackle it without feeling overwhelmed and frustrated because I had been given the right ammunition. Good intentions aside, knowing what you’re doing makes all the difference. I’ve never understood how women are just supposed to KNOW how to do stuff like that when we haven’t been properly trained for the job! Ovaries do not always come with a natural ability to organize and clean.
Your blogs are wonderful, I’m so glad I found them!
Jeska
It’s been almost a month Chris… what happened to weekly postings?
Chris
I know! I’m Sorry!! 🙂 Soon I promise.
Laura
Is no one going to comment on the fact that Katie likes to pretend she’s on the kitchen network? That is awesome! (Ahem…I may be known to do that too, although I have no real desire to have my own TV show.)
🙂
Good post!