I came across this wonderful post by Elen Seidman at LoveThatMax.com. In it, she recounts a loooong list of things that she notices/remembers on behalf of her family, starting with “I am the one who notices that we are running low on toilet paper”. As I said, the list is long. And as a mother, and a “wife”, boy can I identify with this!
I am the one who has to remember everything that has anything to do with the house, or any of its six members. That includes schedules, supplies, needs, wants, appointments. It goes well beyond remembering to buy groceries, for instance. I also need to remember who likes which brand of ketchup, who hates which vegetable, favourite drinks for each person, as well as the preferred brand of chips. I need to remember that although Zac loves chocolate porridge, he told me last week that he wants the strawberry one next. I need to remember the one brand of garbage bags that fits my strange bin, and that a shoelace broke on Zac’s sneaker and will need to be replaced before he has a meltdown.
To be fair, both Micole and Caleigh are very good at remembering things too. Note that they are both girls. And to be fair to them, it needs to be said that Craig and Cameron are terrible at remembering things. They are both boys. I’ve discussed this with my friends, and it is clear as daylight: this one falls under gender bias pure and simple. The girls cannot trust the boys to remember squat, and the boys are happy to trust the girls to remember everything. And we each feed the monster.
I’m not complaining, though. I know that I could never “let go” and trust Craig to remember anything. I would be a basket case if I left the grocery list, the pick up schedule, the holiday plans or our social calendar in Craig’s hands. I think he would be a basket case too. We have found our groove (I tell and remind him to do things, and he does them) and it works for both of us.
Which is why everyone always had deodorant available, and we haven’t run out of toilet paper yet.
(May 2020 update: Well. Wow. What do I say to this? My 6 person household is now a 3 person household, plus a dog. I am forever grateful for life as this post outlined it, and wouldn’t have changed it for the world. And yes, I am still the one buying deodrant and toilet paper, and hope that someone is looking out for Craig to make sure he doesn’t run out! Much love to all 🙂 )
The writing prompts come from Writerswrite.co.za and they are my attempt at daily writing for 2017. Unless stated otherwise, the images are taken by me, also as a 365 day challenge. Read my other Writing Prompt posts here.
