Life
The nagging wife and the hapless husband are tropes, to be sure, but it's a stereotype for a reason. The fact is, when you live with someone, they're inevitably going to do things that annoy you. It might be a parent or a roommate, but when it's the person you've chosen to spend your life with, those irritating habits can really get under your skin. I know I'm not the only one rolling my eyes at my husband, so I asked moms to reveal the one annoying thing their partner does that drives them up the wall. What I got was a veritable treasure trove of obnoxious behavior.
My husband is in the Army and gets up every morning, at 4:00 a.m., to head out for physical training. I know there are some spouses who get up with their soldiers in solidarity, but I'm a stay-at-home mom and sleep is more important to me than pretty much anything else. Look, I understand that my husband needs to turn on some lights and make a little bit of noise, but why does it take him approximately 17,000 trips to the car to be ready to go? I swear, if I hear the alarm beep to alert me to the fact that the door to the garage has been opened one more time, I will lose my actual sh*t.
Maybe we'll be accused of b*tching, but the reality is, sometimes we moms need to complain. Venting is good for the soul, and it gets stuff of our collective chests. Annoying habits won't change how we feel about our partners, either. We still think the world of them, even if they can't seem to put the toilet paper roll on going the right way.
Erin
"He's a loud eater. Like, I want to stab him with a fork sometimes. He's getting better, but his whole family are loud eaters."
Krystle
"The one thing my husband does that makes me come unglued... he never closes the baby wipes! Ever!"
Claire
"How about taking luxuriously long trips to the bathroom, getting lost in thought on the toilet (coincidentally at our busiest times with the kids)? And I can’t really be mad because it’s under the guise of an important bodily function, right?
And when he brings his phone with him, forget about it! He’s never coming out! Also, who even needs their phone in the bathroom?! No one! Sorry, getting worked up over here. I just wish I could completely turn off all sense of responsibility and common courtesy like that."
Joy
"My husband leaves the toilet seat up. It drives me mad mostly because he is such a clean and neat person, so his refusal to put it down is more out of stubbornness than anything else."
Melissa
"After I get everyone to bed with a story and teeth brushed, I climb in the bed to relax for most likely the first time that day, and the hubby always asks me to scratch his back... every night."
Marisa
"He doesn’t wake up when I have to be out of the house early, yet when I don’t have to be out early, and I’m awake, he sleeps in as long as possible. He never seems to notice things out of place. Ever. EVER. He could step over something on the floor that doesn’t belong for a week and never see it. He doesn’t empty or reload the dishwasher when either the sink is full or the dishwasher is finished. He can’t get dirty clothes into the hamper. He can get them about one inch away from the hamper, though. He moves laundry that is folded and not put away into empty baskets instead of just putting it away himself."
Jac
"When mine says 'we' need to do this (whatever it is) and I know 100 percent it means me. Just say, 'Hey, can you please do this?'”
Rachel
"Puts the basket of his and our son's dirty clothes in the washing machine but doesn’t start it and keeps adding to it."
Melinda
"Cupboard doors and dresser drawers never get closed. Are they just there for decoration?! And he leaves his boots in the middle of my path that I take to the bathroom at night so I can trip on them."
Megan
"My husband just drops everything as soon as he walks in the door and doesn't ever pick anything up. Example: boots, bag, lunch, etc. just right in the middle of the floor! Cups, beer cans, bowls, whatever — just laying wherever he left them. I'm like, 'Look, I have two kids to clean up after, I don't need a third!'"
Shay
"It's the super annoying things you miss, like he used to have me give him head massages (like you do with shampoo in the shower) after I finally got our son to bed. He always left his lunch box with trash inside sitting on the counter. Also, whenever our little boy threw a big fit, he would laugh so loudly.
Those things drove me nuts, but now I miss every one of them. It's the little things that remind us just how much they love us, rely on us, and adore us."
Check out Romper's new video series, Bearing The Motherload, where disagreeing parents from different sides of an issue sit down with a mediator and talk about how to support (and not judge) each other’s parenting perspectives. New episodes air Mondays on Facebook.
