One of the many disagreements that happen in my house are sadly connected to cleaning. I know it a very boring topic but it is one that that comes up frequently. My weekends tend to have a large element of cleaning in it (which I would rather do without) as it is really the only time I get to do it properly. My husband doesn’t get the cleaning thing, yet he would be pretty quick to moan if the house was untidy or covered in cat hair.

Having decided ages ago that we would split the chores to make it fairer on me, I still find myself having to give ‘prompts’ to get him to help. I expect he is the same as most men with an inbuilt fear of cleaning products and committing to do something now. Everything with him is “yeah I will do it later.” So I ask him when and he says “I don’t know, by the end of the weekend.” When the end of the weekend comes and I ask him to do what he promised, he minces with words and says that he didn’t give a timescale on which weekend he was going to do it, that pees me off, we have another disagreement then I just end up doing it myself…!

Whilst he isn’t great at being proactive around cleaning, he isn’t as bad as many other men I know. Typically though when he is having his helpful moments (normally because he thinks this will give him points to trade in), he will do his task so badly, I’m sure on purpose, so as I never ask him to do it again. I know his ploy and he’s not getting away with it, but I do have a very annoying trait where I just can’t help but comment if he has done something really badly. Not how bad it is necessarily, just some loving grateful advice on what he will need to consider next time! I know this doesn’t go down too well, but I can’t help myself, it just comes out. Got to be honest about these things. With my OCD on cleaning, something not done properly will just keep me awake at night which I will blame him for and that wouldn’t make for a healthy relationship!

When they say Men are from Mars, they also say ‘To offer a man unsolicited advice is to presume that he doesn’t know what to do or that he can’t do it on his own.’ Go figure!