What odd-but-lovely habits / rituals do you and your DP have?

[whatsinmypockets]

Inspired by a chat I had with a friend last night – she mentioned that she and her DP turn on 80s power ballads whenever they have to do house chores they don't enjoy, so they can play air guitar / sing into the antibac spray / throw armfuls of laundry in the air dramatically / hold the bathroom bin above their heads triumphantly while they get things done. Makes the job more fun and they get to feel connected.

It made me smile so much – and made me think of how DP and I, whenever we do something very mundane but do it well (like unpack the online shop delivery quickly or get eyedrops into the dog successfully) will put on overenthusiastic American accents and compliment one another like sports commentators: "Did you see the SPEED of that?" "This man is a true CHAMPION" "Ladies and gentlemen, I think we just witnessed history being made" "I've never seen talent like it"...

I love how couples often develop these weird little rituals that are totally unique to that specific relationship...

Given there's (understandably) so much "something's wrong with my relationship" on MN, I'd love to read some more examples of things like this - what do you and your DP do that's a quirk of your relationship?

Doesn't have to be as 'significant' as my friend and her power ballads – might just be a sweet how-we-make-coffee-in-the-morning routine or a specific way you hold hands...

«Loads of other silly stuff no one else really gets. We don't either now it's been so long!»

😂😂😂
Lovely thread ❤️

I'm glad some couples are as weird as us!
Whenever my DH asks if I'd like a drink, and I want a wine. He'll always say ''what would you like on your cornflakes dear? OH I'd like some wiiiiiiiine please''
In a really whiny voice like Lister from Red Dwarf!
And if I'm in the bath and I want my back scrubbing I sing 'the back scrub song'
It's to the tune of 8 days a week by the Beatles and goes
'' oh I need my back scrubbed yes you know it's true,
hope you'll scrub my back please, like I need you to,
hold me, love me, lovely scrubbly,
ain't got nothing but back scrubs, by somebodyyyy!!
now my DD is bigger they rock paper scissors to see who has to go and scrub mummy's back.

Oh and if you get in bed naked you have to announce 'nudity in the bed'
@PuddleglumtheMarshWiggle I'm glad it's not just us that do that to!

Oh and if I ever do something annoying where DH ends up saying 'why did you leave the recycling on the side?', I narrow my eyes at him and say 'because I knew it would really, really annoy you' and it never fails to make him laugh. And then I'm forgiven

(I'm not that annoying I promise, and he is a bit of a clean freak but he knows it!)

That's so lovely!

We like dodgy old sci-fi and horror films and our daily life is peppered with quotes from The Wicker Man and The Devil Rides Out etc.

When talking about cats we have to use Shakespearean English „hath he supped?“ etc?

If DP is apologising he has to put on a sad puppy face and whimper a bit. 🐶

Yay, another lunging couple!!

Is there also an odd undercurrent of seduction in your lunges?

"That's right, I got the refund from BT... now check me out"

I can’t remember how this started, but if something is remotely smooth/tasty/cream like etc we’ll say ‘oooh it’s……. Cream-eh’

Also, both do a thing where we have to be the last to get a ‘nose’ from the dog - we put our face close and he licks our nose. He’s tiny, so it’s very cute!
I say ‘nose’ and then so does DH, so I have to again and he pretends he doesn’t care whether the dog does nose on him or not, but then will ask for one and I have to push him away and beg him to stop so I get the last ‘nose’.
He’s my dog really. I sort of see it’s a game, but also can’t bear not to have the last ‘nose’.

Probably not unique but there are a lot of Fast show references. Like if I'm saying I like a song that's on Dh says 'nice' like the jazz club guy. Or if its a dumb story after a night out we will end with 'but i was verrah verrah drunk'. If I am talking about the recycling or reducing waste (I do this a lot!) It's David Angel walking. Also pretend Booing our kids 'you're rubbish!'. None of this makes sense unless you know the Fast show.

Also some Gavin and Stacey references too. Dh does Blackadder stuff that annoys me as I don't get it.

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong we do quite a bit of the Fast Show and Blackadder stuff too! Including, "I was verrah verrah drunk at the time". Do even arranged for us to meet Paul Whitehouse, who was lovely. Dp does lots of Fawlty Towers quotes too.

We also do lots of song lyrics and have whole conversations in just song lyrics.

*dp even

Oh gosh I'm remembering even more now!

DP had a pretty controlling father, and growing up his dad used to announce rules, in a booming voice, always involving the phrase "In THIS house..." (think "We do not raise our voices in THIS house" / "In THIS house we will not watch that kind of film...")

It doesn't sound like much but it was such a memorable feature of a pretty miserable childhood, and we've now claimed it as a funny thing for ourselves.

So if we're cooking and a recipe asks for 4 cloves of garlic (we LOVE garlic), we say: "We don't count cloves in THIS house!" or if one of us is walking around in our pants, the other one will say: "No trousers in THIS house!"

Got to be careful not to let it slip out when visiting the in-laws, though! 😂

We live a bit outside London and take the train from Waterloo home if we go there for an evening out. If one of us is out without the other, we send a photo of the river/South Bank when we're crossing, to indicate we're heading home.
I have literally hundreds of photos of the South Bank on my phone!

We replace any word or part of a word with "baby".

We had babynaise for dinner today.

When we trip or have a blunder we say "oopsababy"

When playing golf, the scores are a baby in one, a baby (birdie), a baby (par), a baby (bogey), a double baby (double bogey), and triple baby (I'll let you figure that one out!)

We watch Baby Trek some nights.

We literally do it with babything 🤣

We play Yellow Car from Cabin Pressure. DH once completed the Lichtenstein version by calling out a yellow car, a green truck and then a black dog, to which I obviously replied “That’s not even a vehicle!”

Lots of other Cabin Pressure quotes and references, and Green Wing.

DH and I have 3 dogs and 3 cats. We seem to spend an inordinate amount of time working out what their drinks are.

Alpha Dog is a very cool James Bond type who drinks whiskey and soda.
Second Dog is more a margarita with the girls type.
DDog 3 (she is very doolally thanks to a brain injury) is all about the Baby Cham.

Dcat 1 (aged 24) is thoroughly fed up with the lot of us and wishes only for a cup of tea and a shortbread biscuit.
Dcat 2 aged 20 and a very raddled rescue is a booze-soaked barmaid with laryngitis
Dcat 3 aged 15 secretly sneaks the Smirnof Ice from the fridge and blames DDog 3.

We do their voices too.

If we're having a chat and listening to music one of us will secretly line up Simple Minds "don't you forget about me" next. Doesn't matter if either of us are mid sentence, we both stop immediately, do exaggerated whooping arm actions for the "hey hey hey" bit, then loudly and dramatically moan the "ooooh oh woah" bit into air mics, before returning to our conversation over the rest of the song. Also works to Baker Street but not as often with the old air sax.

DH and I always take off our rings the moment we get home. We don’t wear them around the house. Sometimes when someone has forgotten to put their ring on heading out, the other one will remind them and if holding the ring will say ‘single’ and pretend to toss it out the window.

DH will say innocently “Is that…bamboo?”. If I say “Yes” he breaks into the full Dick Van Dyke “How old is it, do you think? Is it…..OLD BAMBOO, THE OLD BAMBOO…”.

We also have to say “Trac-TOR” when we see a tractor, like it’s a Transformer. Started when DS was little. He’s in his 20s now.

Whenever my dh goes to get a snack I shout “egg in a bun alan!”
we often quote Alan partridge to each other through the day.

my dd and I always sing “my lovely horse “ from father ted, quite loudly when she returns from uni. We also do the actions which gets dh to join in 😂

Brilliant, love the gasman episode!

When DH accidentally kicked the ball to hard for DS or something else that made him look like the competitive dad on the Fast Show, one of us would always say 'Come on Toby, don't give in to gravity'.

I think these partner rituals are fantastic and so bonding. It is surely a recipe for long term success!❤️

We have loads, but my favourite bedtime one is to snuggle up to him when he gets under the covers and then to roll away, wrapping myself up in the whole of the duvet like a burrito, giggling maniacally and leaving him without any covers. He loves it. He LOVES it.

If one of us is waffling on a bit, the other will say "skip to the end" and the waffler will say "I moved out." This is a Spaced reference!

Another Spaced reference: the sound of a cork being pulled out of a bottle of wine will ALWAYS be met with "yaaay!"

On bin night I'll say "ooo rubbish night tonight!" and DH will reply "yep, there's nothing on the telly tonight!"

If one of us is leaving the house we'll say "I'm off!" The other will say "I wondered what the smell was."

The long winter evenings fair fly by!

Ours is from the episode of Mr Bean “Merry Christmas Mr Bean”. Irma arrives and he asks her is she wants a cup of tea, she says “Are you having one?” to which he answers “Well I might”

So any time I make tea, I’m Irma and he’s Mr Bean 🤣