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Original poster

Housework Chicken....how long have you held out?

156 replies

JensonsAcolyte · 29/04/2021 14:46

We had a delivery of 90 loo rolls (so a massive package) on Friday.

After watching 3 out of the 4 adults in this house climb over it to get upstairs, I decided to play chicken.

I’m afraid I cracked first, yesterday morning. But only because I saw that someone had opened the large package, taken out an individual pack, taken out a single loo roll and walked off.

I lost my shit and then while I was stomping around the house shouting about ungrateful lazy bastards, I actually slung the package in the cupboard where it lives.

So a six day hold out.

Please come and tell me your best/pettiest/longest lasting games of chicken.

OP posts:
PlanDeRaccordement · 29/04/2021 23:28

Some of these stories are absolutely disgusting. Especially those happening in homes with children. Just foul. I agree there are no winners when using such a passive aggressive tactic.

LittleGreenWheels · 29/04/2021 23:49

I once said something along the lines of "it is not a battle of wills, I'll never change my mind". No passive aggressiveness or even irritation, I'm just never doing it.

DH only completes 98% of some tasks and it used to really bother me. I told him it felt like a big fuck you and I hated it. He didn't change his behaviour so I changed my reaction and feel so much better.

If dirty dishes get left on top of the dishwasher, that's where they stay. If clean glasses get left on the worksurface underneath their cupboard where they have lived for 10 years, so be it. If groceries get delivered and everything is put away except toothpaste and soap, they will still on the kitchen table forever.

GreyhoundG1rl · 30/04/2021 00:11

If groceries get delivered and everything is put away except toothpaste and soap, they will still on the kitchen table forever.
Why? Who should have done it, in your eyes?

Pugdogmom · 30/04/2021 00:11

I just couldn't live like this. I'd go nuts. My DH is disabled , and although he can be messy, he does clean the kitchen and move his shit. I do rest as he isn't fit.
We did have a battle of wills over his side of bed, because I detest clutter. So I bought new bedside tables and made him clean out his drawers. 😂.
My adult daughter who is also messy...I just dump her shit on her bed.Everydamnthing that she leaves at her arse.She cleans.

insomniaisaballbag · 30/04/2021 02:02

@GreyhoundG1rl

If groceries get delivered and everything is put away except toothpaste and soap, they will still on the kitchen table forever. Why? Who should have done it, in your eyes?
Oh god stop being deliberately obtuse.
SympathyFatigue · 30/04/2021 02:31

@BerniesMittens

DH shaved his beard off at Christmas in the family bathroom basin. It's still there.

I use the ensuite instead. I'm not clearing up his mess!

That's horrible. Take a photo and upload it to facebook/him/on here. That's utterly lazy
LittleGreenWheels · 30/04/2021 07:50

@GreyhoundG1rl

If groceries get delivered and everything is put away except toothpaste and soap, they will still on the kitchen table forever. Why? Who should have done it, in your eyes?
DH mostly or DC should put everything away. It happens a lot if the shopping is delivered when I am at work. A few random toiletries will be left on the kitchen table. Cleaning products generally make it upstairs. Both are stored in the same place. It makes no sense to me and I'm happy for it to remain a mystery.

If the shopping arrives when I am here I will put it away. All of it. If other people are here then we should put it away together.

To used to really bother me, mostly because I made it clear it upset me and nothing changed. It used to feel punitive, like I should be grateful I am being helped with wife work. Fuck that, we all use soap. I saw supply was running low, ordered, paid for and arranged delivery. The least I expect from the rest of the family is that they put it away.

There is no game of chicken though, they will stay there forever and that doesn't bother me any more. I think they should be kept in one place, DH another. Shrug

sueelleker · 30/04/2021 08:14

There’s currently a pair of his socks in the middle of the living room rug - they’ve been there since Sunday
They wouldn't be there in our house-I've got a sprocker that eats socks and hankies!

Bluesheep8 · 30/04/2021 08:47

I want a housework chicken Grin

Thatisnotwhatisaid · 30/04/2021 08:55

About a week. I refused to pick up DH’s dirty towels and underpants so everyone (including him) just stepped over them for a week straight and the pile kept getting bigger obviously... I couldn’t really bear it any longer so picked up the pile and threw it at him. He picks them up now.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 30/04/2021 09:08

When dds were still at home I often used to wonder whether they’d ever bother to turn the shampoo/conditioner bottles upside down, to use the last bit, and then put them in the bin, instead of just leaving them there and opening a new bottle.
I can’t remember the final nearly-empty-bottle count now, or whether I eventually cracked. But they had their own bathroom so it wasn’t getting to me on a daily basis.

Tlollj · 30/04/2021 09:09

What’s a sprocker? @sueelleker

sueelleker · 30/04/2021 10:28

Springer spaniel/cocker spaniel cross. We've got his Mum, who is an English Springer, and apparently his dad was a black cocker (she was pregnant when we adopted her) They can look like anything from a pure springer to a pure cocker, depending on the genes.sprockerlovers.com/blog/sprocker-breed-info

jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey · 30/04/2021 10:59

After the coffee table rage of 99 I don't have this problem.

I asked them very nicely to move all there bits that they had left on the coffee table ( ds consoles, brushes, nail varnish ect)
They didn't! So I picked up said table and launched it dow the back garden.
Problem solved!
No mess and no coffee table to leave stuff on.
The do not leave anything, anywhere now as they know I will just bin it !

motherloaded · 30/04/2021 11:04

I don't "play chicken". I ask or tell people to do things that need to be done.

My time is too precious to be wasted by getting annoyed again, and again and again with things waiting to be done.

If people are clearly not bothered, it has 0 effect on them anyway, and it's YOU who is suffering. What's the point?

I do have a rule: anything left on the floor or where it doesn't belong is for the bin. I give 1 or 2 warnings because I am nice Grin
You only need to bin things ONCE for the household to get the message you are deadly serious.

Sexnotgender · 30/04/2021 11:16

@ememem84

Three weeks.

I caved on laundry because dh never does any so neither did I. I only caved because I ran out of clean pants. I was doing some days at work in the office and some from home so on wfh days I didn’t wear a bra.

I hope you only did your own.
PatrickBatemann · 30/04/2021 11:20

In my house, we often come back from the supermarket and only put perishables away. Non perishables often sit in the shopping bag in the kitchen for a while until we get round to it (or we need the bag again). It's fine. Yabu

But why?!

steppemum · 30/04/2021 11:28

I don't really get this.

With dh, then I shouldn't have to tell him/remind him.

But with DC, even adult DC, they will get told. Put your washing upstairs or I will bag it up and put it out for charity.
Before you get to eat dinner, go and remove the things from the hall.

and because I have always done this, they do it. Ds used his tent, and left it and all his camping stuff in a pile in the hall. I told him on Sunday that it has to be tidied away before he left for school on Monday. When I went to bed he hadn't done it. But when I came down one Monday, it was done, because he knew I meant it.

I find it all a bit passive aggressive. I just yell!

banivani · 30/04/2021 11:29

My husband is useless at putting recycling in the bin. The thing needs to be rinsed out, stood upside down for a bit to dry, then thrown in the bin. Frankly, the drying bit IMO can be a bit optional, just rinse it out, give it a good shake, flatten if needed/possible and put it in the appropriate bin. He just puts it on the side of the sink.

He drinks oat milk, I don't. I counted 14 oat milk cartons there once until I caved and got rid of them. I get so angry.

He's started doing it now. Reason? He noticed that when I do it I stick my thumb in the opening and rip open the top so I can rinse it properly. This was quite fun, so now he does it.

purplebagladylovesgin · 30/04/2021 11:38

I grew up in a house of horders. I therefore am blind to mess and clutter. I genuinely can't see it.

My poor husband was used to normal women up until me, the ones that saw things and tidied up. He's had a huge shift in life! Bless him he says quietly that it's getting him down but he works hard to clear clutter and put things away all the time. He's OCD so I think he's amazing living with me.

I'm the one who will step over things until they are used up. He's the one gently trying to help me see the mess. The only thing I do on autopilot is clean the kitchen, it's always clean (and untidy).

It's not always men...

Ironytheoppositeofwrinkly · 30/04/2021 11:43

This is possibly outing, but my partner never EVER throws away the cardboard inner tubes of toilet rolls, just piles them down the side of the toilet. I refuse to move them either. I lasted until there was 37 before I caved last time, and we're currently up to 8, and I'm determined that I shan't do it this time, he can fucking drown in them for all I care.

steppemum · 30/04/2021 12:03

@purplebagladylovesgin

I grew up in a house of horders. I therefore am blind to mess and clutter. I genuinely can't see it.

My poor husband was used to normal women up until me, the ones that saw things and tidied up. He's had a huge shift in life! Bless him he says quietly that it's getting him down but he works hard to clear clutter and put things away all the time. He's OCD so I think he's amazing living with me.

I'm the one who will step over things until they are used up. He's the one gently trying to help me see the mess. The only thing I do on autopilot is clean the kitchen, it's always clean (and untidy).

It's not always men...

This is so interesting. can I ask you a couple of questions?

So once something is pointed out to you, does it shift your perspective? So to use the loo roll example, you step over it 100 x.
Once he says - the loo rolls are on the bottom of the stairs because they need to be taken upstairs, do you see them differently? Can you make yourself see it differently?

Can you choose to stop and look at the room differently? So if you say - right I'm going to tidy the lounge, can you make the choice to focus and say - eg - everything on the floor has to be picked up?

FreakinFrankNFurter · 30/04/2021 12:13

I got fed up of my DH leaving empty cans of beer out. I started putting them in his bag he used for when he was working away. It took some effort on my part - it would have been easier for me to put them in the bin - but I made sure they weren’t annoying me anymore but he still had to clear them away (when he eventually found them all)

thatonehasalittlecar · 30/04/2021 13:05

Coins.

When real money was a thing, my bf would constantly leave loose change anywhere he emptied his pockets. Despite me asking over and over for him to stop, or at least stick to one place, it continued.

So I started taking the coins and putting them into his things. Pillowcase, under the in-soles of his shoes, in the linings of his coat with the hole in the pocket...wherever inspiration struck me. It made me laugh and he (eventually) stopped leaving bloody coins everywhere.

NoraEphronsNeck · 30/04/2021 13:19

@BerniesMittens

DH shaved his beard off at Christmas in the family bathroom basin. It's still there.

I use the ensuite instead. I'm not clearing up his mess!

I'm impressed by your staying power 😁