Battle of the Sexes

In my home there are very clear boundaries about who is responsible for which household chores.  It is not so bad as to say the line is drawn between his and mine, but there is a balance of power that has to be choreographed.

Here is the thing, I can't live in chaos.  Chaos of any kind.  I believe that everything has a place and it needs to be in that place when it is not being used.  Captain Kid on the other hand has a more, shall we say, messy way liberal approach to organization.  In certain areas of the house I have learned to let it go.

His office.  When we first built our house we planned on sharing one office.  When I remember that I just smile and think to myself, "Oh Kelly, how young and naive you were back then."  Now.  The door to that room is shut pretty much on a permanent basis.  I respect that it is his room.  That being said I would be lying if I didn't mention that I sometimes find myself standing on the threshold looking into that black hole of disorganization wishing he would let me organized it.

The Garage is another one of those gray areas that falls under the category of places in the house I don't want to lay claim to.  Although there are times when I find myself being forced to venture into the man cave.  It is filled with greasy, dirty things.  And I don't like greasy, dirty things.  These are all things that he swears we can't live without.

For the most part his domain covers his office, the garage and the front and back yards.  This does include the cars.  My domain is the inside of the house and this seems to work well for us.

On Saturday he deemed that I needed to clean the pool since he was busy working on the inside getting everything ready for the floor installation this weekend.  (I will be so glad when this project is done) I hate cleaning the pool, okay I don't hate it, but it was like 120 degrees outside and there was no way he was releasing me from the chain gang long enough to clean the pool and than take a dip.  This called for drastic measures.

I started by spraying off the deck.  I made sure I threw enough water on the sliders to keep him aware that I was working in what is "technically" his domain.  I was also sending subliminal messages his way warning of my ineptitude when it comes to these projects.

In a much shorter time span than I expected, he came outside to check my work under the guise of taking a break.  It became very clear to him very quickly that I did not understand the finer nuances of taking care of the pool and the deck and he proceeded to tell me what I was doing wrong.  (He is very considerate that way.)

Unfortunately, I just did not seem to get it.  (I am a little slow that way) Thankfully he was there to take over.  So after five minutes outside in which time I halfheartedly sprayed off the deck, I was released from my sentence and sent back into the house. 

Yep, that's how it's done.  Besides I had to go inside and clean the kitchen, he forgot to clean the counters again.  Or did he?