"You need a man to..."

I know - what do they think we're gong to do when we put them together?
it would be very awkward indeed if we couldn't hold the biggest piece on its own.

there's a nack to moving furniture, though.
even a weedy lady can move big furniture (on her own)

it's all to do with twisting the item, rather than dragging or pushing.

I know Trillian. There were no other women around for me to ask.
The wardrobe was moved in a flash after I'd be huffing and puffing for ages and trying to prove a point.

i am moving house this weekend and my mum told me to speak to my dad to see when he was free to do all the lifting for me. i told her "oh it's ok i already have my neighbour and 3 cousins booked for the day" (all female) and she said, "i know but you'll need a man for the big stuff" so what, one man will be able to lift more than 5 women then?

I feel like with a drill.

that's one thing I hate about being pregnant - not being allowed to lift heavy stuff.

especially when we went to get the chicken food on Sunday, and DH had to carry it, but kept moaning about how heavy it was (he's only allowed to carry maximum 16kg at work, and the food was 25kg)
and I had to retort that I used to carry it all by myself and didn't think it was that heavy.
(but he does weight less than me, and can pull himself into the loft from a short stepladder, which i could never do! )

Nah, for pure physical strength you just need a greater number of women. Or bigger women. Or for women to take up strength training.

You only neeed a man for sperm.

Just sometimes it is nice to have one around :)

Shifting furniture. Nobody said this to me. I asked dh for help.
Yes Thistledew, for pure physical strength i need a man.

Think it depends who's better at doing stuff. Dh does most DIY, but with my assistance/opinion/general looking over shoulder stuff.
I'm better at wallpapering,plastering and painting.

i've thought about it, and the only thing "you need a man" for is to make sperm.

Everything else you've mentioned, I can do myself.
(apart from things I can't be arsed to do)

Is it dirty, dangerous or difficult? Then it's a man's job. Unless (fill in as required)

It's generally acknowledged in our household that I'm the stronger, more practical one. The only thing I need DH for is impregnation.

I keep him around because the child likes sitting on him and he makes me laugh.

Glitter!

Don't buy a pink drill! From what I have seen they are a bit rubbish and gimmicky.

Buy a black drill and accessorise it

I find it hugely annoying when I do actually need a man to do something, for pure physical strength alone.

I used to have a very old, basic car. It had a manual cap on the air intake to the carburettor that you had to switch to cool air or warm air from the engine dependant on the season. If you had it fixed to cool air intake in the winter it would suffer from carburettor icing.

After a service the cap had been put back the wrong way. I knew that I needed to change it, I knew how to change it, but for the life of me could I shift the nuts holding it? No. I had to get a man. Oh the indignity!

oh that is sad, Bertie.

My mum is both (1) delighted that my DH does his fair share in the house and (2) horrified at the amount of housework my sister-in-law expects my brother to do.

And doesn't see the contradiction or problem there. Because of course, DH helping me is a sign of how lovely he is to aid me in MY duties. Whereas my lovely SIL and my equally lovely Brother sharing housework in the same way is a sign that DB is put upon ("he works all day" - yes, and SIL has 3 kids under 5 at home!) and SIL is not pulling her weight.

I despair sometimes.

Was just speaking to my mum on the phone about lovely week I'd had with DP - just normal stuff, and she said "It's lovely, isn't it, how he talks to you and he thinks about things and you do things together that you both enjoy."

And yes, it is lovely, but it was this tone in her voice which made it sound like she thought this was really rare, for a man to treat you like a real human being :(

(Sorry I know that wasn't quite related, it just made me feel quite sad.)

She's pretty good with the tool kit stuff though, she brought me and my sister up alone for years and the only time she involved a man was to chase the postman down the street one morning to ask him to open the marmalade She has a tool to open jars now.

DH is better than me at sewing on a button.
We were at my parents' house and I was trying to get them dinner before they went out to a swanky do. My Dad realized the button on his black tie trousers needed sewing on. He dumped it on my knee and said "do me a favour, would you?" before running off to shave (not so much rudely as late!) - and after watching me laboriously thread the needle, my H took it off my hands with "you finish watering the greenhouse. You need a man to get this button right."
we sniggered. Even more so when my Dad came downstairs in his shirt and boxers to find me in the garden and H calmly snipping the last thread off the trousers, and handing it over with a grin!

I often say "ooh, this nappy smells like it needs a big manly man to change it." - it's not worked so far. We have a 'who touched him last' rule about bad nappies!

Went to the doctor a few years ago with stress shortly after breaking up with XP. The next time I went back she said, "Are you looking for a new husband? You need one, you know, you can't cope on your own."

Never found the new husband but I did find a new doctor.

When we were looking into buying house dh was very busy and i was doing some viewings myself. I phoned my mum to tell her about the houses i've seen and while i was talking about room sizes etc she just said 'Oh i don't know, is this the normal nowdays?'

Perhaps a man with a remote control helps keep it in the air. Or they fly themselves because clever men designed them that way. Or they need a pilot to stop the poor hysterical women from shrieking about who's flying the plane....

My mum seems shocked when I tell her I've done some painting. Wielding a paintbrush at a wall is Man's Work.

That one about the boyfriend of the well-known feminist links up with "Silly question maybe - can a man be a feminist?" Obviously not, his role is to do the stuff that is beneath a feminist's dignity (never a thing she wouldn't be competent to do, we deny that absolutely).

I know someone who dated a very well known feminist GGfor a number of years. She used to regularly call him to get his ass over to her place as she needed help doing stuff....oh, like changing a plug.

Seriously.