Sunday, May 11, 2008

Gripe session

My wife is an elementary school principal. I love her, and respect what she does, but, frankly, sometimes her job gets on my last nerve.
Take this weekend, for example. It's the time of year when teacher evaluations are coming due, so my sweetheart has spent the last two days at her computer working on them. I took the kids to swimming and karate, did the grocery shopping, 5 loads of laundry, entertained the kids, got them bathed and put to bed.
I know. Many readers will say, "But that's not just her job! What kind of sexist pig are you? Can't a woman have a demanding job outside the family?"
Let me make this clear: I do not resent having to do these things because I feel they are not gender appropriate; I resent it because I have to do them all the time!
My wife and I have a wonderful relationship. In the 12 years we've been together, 10 of which we've been married, we have never had a fight. We've disagreed, certainly, but never stood in the living room yelling at each other. Our relationship has been an equal division of labor since the beginning, each of us taking responsibility for the things we prefer to do. I like to cook, she doesn't like the way I do laundry, so those tasks are divided accordingly. Under normal circumstances, things run very smoothly.
But the point of this whole thing is that, for the 2 years she's been a principal (and to a lesser extent when she was an assistant principal), I've had to take on more of the household responsibilities, and from time to time it annoys me.
When our kids were first born, we would have a conversation in the morning about who was going to pick up whom from daycare. Not anymore. Now it's assumed that I will pick them up, get them home, and get dinner started. She'll call me from work and ask if I have them, but I don't know what she would do if I was to say, "Gosh, I thought YOU were going to get them! I've gone to happy hour with my friends!" (Actually, I think I know what she would say, but this is a family-friendly blog!)
Don't get me wrong: I am fully aware that this is a selfish point of view, and I don't think I would ever actually tell my wife any of this really annoyed me, because I know she feels conflicted about it already. But here, in the safe anonymity of the blogosphere, I'm willing to let it out.
Anyone else have similar stories to tell?

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