Pet Peeves

I wrote this list for no other reason than it was satisfying to write all these things down. 

1. My Husband is very energy conscious and almost never leaves a room without turning off the lights. The problem is that he’s too good at turning lights off and will turn off the garage light. As he installed the lights himself, he knows that California codes require these lights to be motion activated and will also automatically turn off. It’s not so much an issue now during Day Light Savings time, but it really pisses me off in the winter when I’m driving into a dark garage. 

2. Kate clings to my leg. I know this is just a thing that kids do, but I really hate it. I’m not sure why it pisses me off so much, but it does. Last time she tried, I made a fake kicking motion to her and sent her away crying to her daddy

3. “I want Daddy!” I should be much more understanding here, but sometimes I feel that she doesn’t appreciate how much I do for her and it feels like he gets so much credit for doing less work than me. She also tends to throw the “I want Daddy!” If I’m trying to discipline her, which really works the mom guilt

4. Husband sometimes chooses the worst times to do the “Good Cop, Bad Cop”. We were running late on one of my early days as Kate was stalling having her breakfast. I needed to get her dressed ASAP so we could head out the door. She started crying and fighting as soon as I put a shirt on her. Husband decided to be the smooth talking sensitive caring one at this moment. “Okay, honey. Why don’t you pick what you want to wear?” I went ballistic. “No! She lost her right to choose by taking so long during her breakfast! Furthermore, do you think she really gives a shit what she’s wearing? She’s just trying to stall some more!” (Of note, I do recognize that there is value in giving kids choices. Myrtle actually came up with a good idea to have Kate pick her clothes out the night before. That way she chooses as we save time. It was just killing me that Husband was so oblivious to the fact that I was running late)

5. I know I shouldn’t complain about a Husband who is good at cleaning up, but sometimes mine is just too efficient. Like when he unpacks the unused items out of her snack bag. Gee, thanks now I get to pack her bag all over again, when you could have just placed the bag in the pantry…

6. We’ve flown at least 7 or 8 times with Kate and every time, Husband asks which stroller I want to take. I get so annoyed that he doesn’t know after flying 7 or 8 times, but more so, that he can’t figure out, would I want to take the smaller, lighter, Britax stroller, or the larger, heavier, clunkier jogging stroller? Really, someone with a PhD should be able to figure this shit out on his own. I also find it annoying that he asks if I’m checking a bag when we have a connecting flight. This tells me he has not done enough solo flights to understand how the $25 bag fee is money well spent when it’s one less thing to schlep across the airport with your kid in tow.

7. Speaking of strollers, my mom keeps asking when we are going to get an umbrella style stroller. I recall from my Baby Gizmo book, the authors describe that you probably will use many different strollers over your kids lifetimes, but I haven’t seen the need to change from the two that we have. My mom borrowed an umbrella stroller from her neighbors during our visit and I know have an answer as to why we don’t use an umbrella stroller. I hate it. It’s flimsy. Kate got her feet stuck under the flexible foot rest and nearly had a bad fall. The handles are too low, there is no place for storage, especially no holder for your coffee cup. No thank you. 

8. Our washer and dryer are about 10 years old and the dryer is starting to slow down, which is odd, because we hang dry almost all of our clothes and only tumble dry bed linens, towels and Kate’s clothes. You have to use the ‘High’ temperature setting to get it to dry anything, which takes twice as long. So it really kills me when Husband overloads the dryer and nothing gets dry…

9. I cut Kate off from breastfeeding before it could ever get socially awkward with her lifting up my shirt in public. It didn’t matter. When she drinks her milk, she likes to stick her hand down my shirt and touch my chest. I get felt up every night during her bed time routine. 

10. The Blue Light. Yes, we have a Kuri.g as we’re horrible people and hate the environment. Actually, I am environmentally conscientious, but I happen to enjoy the ease and convenience of having the Kur.ig make a perfect cup every time with no messy coffee grounds. No stained pouring cup. No horrid smell of burnt coffee that dripped on the heater… Anyway… One morning, after a rough night of Kate not sleeping, Husband snapped at me for ignoring the blue -needs more water-light. I was in just as bad a mood and pointed out (probably mentioning that I was up more times than he was) that we was capable of filling the Kur.ig. I added that if the worst part of your day is that you have to fill the water reservoir of the Kur.ig when you didn’t empty it; well guess what? You’re still having a pretty good day. However… now I’m finding that I’m always the one getting stuck with the blue light. He probably has two or three cups of coffee to my one, and yet I seem to be the one filling up the water. It’s really irritating me. “If that’s the worst part of your day… then you’re still having a good day…” he recently reminded me. I could add having my own words used against me on this list of pet peeves, but as I look back… if this is what I have to complain about, then I’m enjoying a pretty good life.