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Household division of labor - dead bird vent
Is there anything around your house that you don't ever do? or rarely do?
Obviously since I am at home I do most of the housework, but DH does help out on weekends and he does a lot of the dishes (while I do most of the cooking.) He takes the trash out about 80% of the time, but I do bring the empty trash cans back in during the day.
So one thing I really don't like doing and fortunately doesn't have to be done often is deal w/ dead animals. Like the 3 birds that have kamikazed into our house over the last week and a half.
The last bird flew into either our slider or the big window above it and landed on our small deck- hmmm, maybe 2 days ago. I immediately told DH. He still hasn't taken care of it and now I am totally grossed out by the dead wet festering bird corpse on our deck.
Re: Household division of labor - dead bird vent
Jeez, that's an excessive amount of dead birds. Your windows must be squeaky clean. I'm surprised foxes or hawks haven't taken care of the corpses for you by now.
I absolutely hate to clean out the kitchen sink drain. I also hate to clean off other people's dishes. I don't like touching food that is wet or soaking in the sink. It makes me gag.
I don't take out the trash and recycling. Ever. I have no desire to drag those large cans up a slippery hillside to the front of out house in the dark.
Everything else we kind of split up.
First of all, ew to the dead bird
I hope it gets taken care of soon!!
There are plenty of things around that house that I don't do...but DH doesn't necessarily do them either
But he does the dishes from dinner because I cook. Bathroom cleaning is his job too which I love (though I wish he actually did it more often). He also takes out the trash/recycling, takes care of the lawn, takes care of any maintenance (like calling someone to come out if the AC breaks, etc).
ETA: Since we started TTC 2+ years ago now, he has cleaned out the litter box. Now that I'm not pregnant anymore, I suppose I could start doing it again, but DH is in the habit now so why disturb that
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
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There are no steps/access from the ground to the deck and it's probably too small of an area for a hawk to see/get down to, if that makes sense.
I wish I had asked our painter to take care of it for me the other day when he was here.
We normally split chores 50/50, but with me being pregnant and always tired, DH has stepped up to the plate.
I can't stick my head into the dishwasher and put the dirty dishes in. It makes me want to gag. I don't mind putting the clothes in the laundry, but I HATE folding.
I take care of the dishes normally by handwashing unless there are a ton of them. But usually there aren't since I try to keep up with it. I take out the trash and recyleables and normally DH will bring the cans back in. We each do our own laundry, I do the sheets/towels, Jade's stuff (toys, bed cover). DH likes vacuuming and dusting. I do the bathrooms but not nearly as often as I should. DH does a lot of the outside stuff like mowing, weed-eating, weeding the garden, etc.
I really need to get out of the habit of not paying attention to things laying around. I don't look at/for it therefore I don't see it (if that makes sense?). I also have been trying to set the timer on the microwave for 15 minutes every night and I go around like a tornado and staighten, clean, move stuff to where it should be. Most of the time the timer goes off and I keep going which makes me proud!
DH takes care of the outside and trash and I take care of most of the inside.
Daisy-have you tried placing cling-ons on the window? When I worked in Annapolis we had hallways that were all glass and there were pictures of birds on the window so the birds wouldn't fly into them. I know its tacky but it might help.
that IS a lot of dead birds!
The one thing that I absolutely refuse to do and always have is clean the floor around the toilet. Gross. (even when I was little, I wouldn't do that.)
Lately the chores have been shaking out in my favor.
DH has been doing all the laundry, cleaning the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, vacuuming and wiping up the floors and cleaning the bathrooms. He also takes out the trash and recycling and takes the dogs out in the morning. i'm not sure when this became so lop-sided (it didnt used to be this way) but I'll enjoy it for a bit before my guilt kicks in.
Ew to the dead birds. I'm thankful we don't have that issue, but if we did, that would firmly be his territory. I think the neighborhood cats once left us a dead bird present and he took care of moving it before he even told me it'd happened.
Now that I'm home, I do the bulk of the chores around the house. DH still hauls the trash and recycling out every week, but I've taken over actually emptying all of the trashcans in the house into the outside bin and cleaning the litter boxes each week - he used to do all of that indoor stuff before taking it all to the curb.
DH does all of the lawn mowing and edging or trimming or whatever it is. I don't know. In the winter we both do the snow removal stuff, which is a pet peeve of mine. I (unfairly) think he should do it all, and while he may do a bit more than I do, I think he does a crappy job of digging out cars so I dig out my own.
Oh, and bugs are by far and large his job.
When I was working we divided things up more 50/50 and I never, ever did bathrooms because I HATED them. I cleaned all three bathrooms this week, which is three more than I've cleaned in the prior 4 years. Boo.
Re: the birds- we have had them hit here and there, 3 hitting in such a short time span is weird, but my one neighbor pointed out it could be because it's migration season? nevertheless it makes me sad.
The issue is there trapezoidal windows we have above the sliders and windows on the ends of the house- you can see the short end of one on the left hand side of this picture- sorry I can't PIP because I am in Chrome. http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/72998_459703720822_713500822_6337798_4701742_n.jpg
DH does all the yard stuff - I haven't cut the grass or trimmed anything in 7 years - although I did cut my grass and trim at my old townhouse.
He does the kitty litter most of the time and anything bug or wildlife related.
This is a bone of contention in our house. DH hates shoveling the snow and unless there is a HUGE blizzard he pretty much won't shovel the driveway and just says we should drive over it, which we can, but I just think its trashy to not do the driveway. I think this is because he grew up in the country and thinks there's no need to shovel. He's also SLOOOOOW to shovel the sidewalks and will wait until the snows been there awhile. Meanwhile, all our 80 yo neighbors are out shoveling. I just think its bad protocol to not shovel ASAP, but it really doesn't bother him. I can shovel and don't mind it, but I'm not as strong as him, plus DD always wants to be helping me.
OMG I should loan you my DH. As soon as the snow starts falling he is out there with the shovel going nuts. He doesn't even barely let any accumulate. I've never seen anyone so obsessive about shoveling snow. He does our walk, all our neighbors' sidewalks, and even the common areas that our neighborhood pays someone to do. Its like he can't get enough shoveling. Its so weird.
My husband hates it, too, and will wait until a good bit has accumulated before even considering going outside. Then when he does it, gets the top layer of snow, but especially around the cars, he doesn't get down to the pavement. Which means that when it warms and re-freezes, I have a solid ice skating rink encircling my parking spot. It pisses me off so, SO much.
And not that this is his fault, but I've always been so out of shape that a lot of shoveling was just beyond my abilities. I hope to be stronger and have more endurance this winter, and maybe with his working out, he won't consider it such a chore either.
Or it could just not snow. I'd be totally cool with that.
Screw all of the above, I'm moving in with you.
My DH is the same way (minus the part about the common areas). I'm pretty sure he doesn't enjoy it but he never complains and I never ask him to do it. In fact when I offer to help (halfheartedly) he refuses. Granted, last winter I was pregnant so I had a reasonable excuse.
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
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Nick does not deal with dead animals either. Mr. Magoo greeted me with a bunny rabbit when I let them all in the other day, he dropped it at Nick's feet and and Nick threw up lol (in fairness it was very graphic by the time he brought it in).
Things Nick does not do- Cat feeding or litter, dog poop clean up (in fairness he kinda never signed up for this zoo), laundry (he folds but otherwise would be washing towels and cashmere sweaters together, again..), aaand I think that's it.
I don't do the trash really but I think that's it.
I refuse to deal with dead animals, we had a mouse problem for a while, seems to be under control now although i am probably jinxing us.
I try to convince him that taking trash out is the man's job but he does not fall for it.
Do you have a local painter your recommend? We are painting our dining room/living room and guest bathroom and want to hire a professional so that it is complete sometime before New Years if we choose to DIY.
This is my DH. He is obsessed with having our driveway clear before anyone else. During the blizzards, he was out every hour to keep up with the snow and then when it finally stopped he was out until the wee hours of the morning to beat all the neighbors. LOL.
Yes, he did the entire exterior of our house, and did basically the entire interior of our next door neighbor's house. I will send you his number via FB.
We split things 50/50. I do the laundry, meal planning, and pay bills and DH takes care of outside stuff. We split inside cleaning and cooking.
I refuse to pick up dog poo.
miscarriage on 11/26/09 at 5w6d