Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Moving In vs. Living Together

So, moving in with someone is relatively easy...sure the lifting heavy boxes up some stairs is tough, but it's usually all finished in a day. Then there is just the figuring out of whos stuff goes where and how it all fits together in one little apartment. But living with someone is a whole other story. Let's just say that I'm a little too crazy about cleaning and organizing and John is...well, not crazy about either. At least he still seems to be crazy about me though!

What are your thoughts about sharing responsibility in a household? Who should handle the chores, the grocery shopping, the dinner planning? Or, how should these tasks and chores be shared? How do you handle different laundry habits? How do you adjust to one schedule of Monday-Friday, leaving at 7am-coming home @ 6pm vs. another schedule of "Day you're on the schedule"-"Day you have off" (often nine or ten days in a row, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays off, but rarely weekends together) leaving at 9am-coming home @8pm?

Sometimes it just feels like these schedules are so stressful. Dinners at 8:30pm are definitely not helping the diet/exercise routine, nor the cranky attitudes of coming home from a long day hungry and tired, only to eat dinner, unwind for an hour or two and then head to bed to do it all again the next day. And all this in our young 20s? Seems like sometimes life becomes more of a backseat to schedules and jobs and you only witness your actual life in fleeting moments. How do you escape that vicious cycle?

Don't mean to be a downer today, but sometimes it just helps to say it all outloud...or at least type it all outloud! It's late, I'm off to bed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can so totally relate... I wish I had words of wisdom... Right now I am just trying to find the energy to go do my dishes after chasing after the kiddos all day today... I'm pooped.

Aleesh said...

The secret is communicate...communicate...communicate!
If you have the desire/ability to do something yourself, then do it. I, for example, enjoy doing the cleaning inside the house and all the cooking and shopping for the family. It gives me the control over the household that I enjoy and I don't get upset that something isn't done the way that I want it to be. When I need help with those things, I ask. I leave the other things to my other...the outdoor stuff, the cleaning and maintenance of the cars, the paying of the bills. If I'm tired, I ask for help...if I'm energetic, I do it myself. Just stay in constant communication and don't let your frustrations get bottled up until you reach a breaking point. Once you get that far, it's hard to turn back.