This weekend, my new neighbor came by looking for my husband.
“He’s sleeping,” I explained.
“Oh. Um, would you mind sending him by when he wakes up? I just have a quick question,” he said as he walked away.
“Do you need to know how to spell something? Because then it’d be worth your while to wait for him,” I replied.” Otherwise, I may be able to help you.”
“Well, I don’t know what to use to anchor the hurricane shutter panels, and I’m going North for the season, so if you could send him over …” he answered dismissively, barely turning around.
“You need metal clips. Here I’ll show you what they look like,” I said as I walked over to the garage and grabbed one from the bucket we keep by the shutters. Then I told him where he could get them and approximately how many he’d need.
“Okay,” he said, looking bewildered. “Thanks. I’ll return your clip tomorrow.”
“Tut tut, keep it as a souvenir of the time a woman answered a ‘manly’ question,” I joked.
Okay, fine, I didn’t say the last part, but it was strongly implied. And I wish I had.
Listen, I’m a girly girl, through and through. I have a fresh gel mani, I’ve been known to wear stilettos to the playground, and I can rock a fedora on a field trip.
But I’m also the one who set up our surround sound, fixes drawers, WD40s anything that squeaks, and put together a 10-foot buffet from IKEA with nothing more than encouragement and positive reinforcement from my family. Oh, and a hand-delivered latte.
Do not come to my house and assume I don’t know how to do something simply because I’m a woman. It’s not the freakin’ ’50s (not that women couldn’t fix things back then — I’m sure they could they just pretended they couldn’t to keep up appearences). Men, give us the benefit of the doubt. We may surprise you.
Frankly, in my house, if you want something fixed, need a drill bit or a “bit” of advice on where to buy a pressure cleaner … I’m your “man.” If you have a grammatical question, or have a bunch of numbers that need to be added together, really fast (and can’t find a calculator), wait until my husband wakes up.
So when you knock on my door, leave the stereotypes on our doorstep!
Do you feel me ladies?
This just made my day. 🙂 In the midst of a wall paper stripping project and realized that I am the ONLY one who strips, sands, paints, and repairs leaky toilets, caulks & grouts, changes light bulbs & batteries, hangs ceiling fans, etc, AND weed eats, trims, edges and rips vines out of thorny blackberries outside. Spelling and math and champion sleeping – yeah, hubs is all over that. Everything else is a woman’s job in this house! Was feeling sorry for myself… until I read this! Thanks!
There is not one piece of Ikea furniture in my house that wasn’t assembled by me. He did the swing set. Didnt follow the directions and what stands just a few years later is a death trap of a fort with no swings. Yeah, this ain’t the 50’s
It’s funny, in my family, my mother is the one who puts together everything, and I’ve since followed in her footsteps. It’s ridiculous how much our society clings to gender stereotypes.
Soooo true, I was shocked when he was so insistent about my husband. My hubby would be like, “we have hurricane shutters?”
You go lady! Same way at our house. Heck I even put most of the swing set up myself ! Stereo types….Pffffffffffffffffft!!!
I couldn’t agree more. I’m so happy I helped my dad do all this stuff growing up… it’s like he knew I would marry an un-handy man. Either way, I know I’m fully capable.
I was raised to be my own handyman which can be a bit of curse. It has bitten me on the butt many times when I’ve played damsel in distress and k-ster was like “you have your own drill, get it out and do it yourself”. GRRR
Yes SParkling I’ve done the same, or worse I see someone else’s job and can’t leave it be and feel the need to fix it and prove I could do it (and better) let me tell you how much men love that old trick!
My Hubby hates DIY and is pretty useless at it. He actually sulks at having to do anything DIY related. He tried putting a TV unit together with his friend, they made the centre part incorrectly and when I pointed out the drawers would be upside down he said “that explains why the screws wouldn’t fit properly – we were using the wrong ones.” – I have built everything else since.
Sometimes it’s better to do it yourself. At least I will only have me to blame. OMG that is the perfect phrase to land me in therapy. At least I’m not controlling. You?
I was a single mom for 6 years before I re-married. I could fix a running toilet, the said squeaky door, etc. Speaking of squeaky door, does any one else LIKE the fact their kids door squeaks? Then I know when they are coming out after bed time or if I hear it open in the middle of the night.
May just be the over protective, sleeps so light a mouse fart would wake me, single mom that will never leave me. No matter how many years I am married.
Yes, I like the door squeak!
Not only are you a better fixer upper then your hubby. You could also teach him a lot about washing, compounding or repairing a car!! The bar is set pretty low on home maintenance and auto knowledge.