Assembly required :-/

Hey Friends! My BFF Amanda is back. Round 2. Enjoy :-)

So today I put together this new 3 compartment clothes hamper I bought on Sunday.  It had been on my “things to buy” for a while so I was really excited to see it strolling thru the home section of Wal-Mart before I did my grocery shopping and even more excited to get home and put it together right away.  The excitement quickly dissipated when I got home and read the dreaded words “some assembly required” on the box.  Ugh, my plans screeched to a halt as I recalled my past attempts of putting together my somewhat wobbly TV stand and my pictures vicariously hanging on my apartment walls, not to mention the time it took me to do these seemingly simple tasks.  After a couple minutes of deliberation I decided to post-pone assembly for a later date.

While I felt quite accomplished after I put the hamper together in about FOURTY minutes, I started thinking about how much easier and quicker that task would have been if I had a man to put that together for me.  (In my defense: I can wear an extra small clinic glove so having some large strong hands would have probably cut the time of assembly in half.) As I thought those thoughts I immediately scolded myself for thinking that way.  (After reading I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris, I’ve recently been making a conscious effort to not think about what my future S.O. will be doing for me but how I WILL ENHANCE their life.  After much thought and reflection I believe that’s really what any relationship should be about: people unselfishly striving to enhance someone’s life without regard to what that person will do for them.  But I digress, those thoughts are worthy of a post on their own.)

Despite scolding myself for thinking that way I continued to make (& Tweet!) a mental list of “duties I'll b happy to relinquish as soon as I'm married…” which in twitter shorthand “include but r not ltd to: pumpin gas cuttin grass washin car & putting ish 2gthr...some things r just men jobs!” and “Oh...I  can't 4get...taking out the trash...” As I tweeted this list I asked myself “are these duties unreasonable to expect of my future hubby?”  I really don’t think so, it’s not like I CAN’T do them or REFUSE to do them because I definitely do them now in my HAPPILY single day to day life.  And I will definitely be down for the cause if my husband for whatever reason is physically unable or unavailable to do these things in a timely manner but these will be things that will touch my heart each time my hubby does them no questions asked.  My top 2 love languages are Quality time and Acts of service (in that order) so while I would love for him to do these on his own I’d be elated to wash the car(s) or take on a weekend home improvement project together.   But regardless, there are some things that are JUST MAN JOBS! Even my 3 year old little brother realizes this as he recently told me “girls don’t ride tractors, daddy’s do!” after seeing a tractor commercial on tv. (I quickly made sure he knew that girls can do anything “daddy’s” can do, while inside I was elated that he will be the type of man to WANT to take care of those “man jobs.”)

So while I do realize some of these requests (especially the gas and trash) are a bit anti-feminist there are some things that are just easier when men do them.  What do you all think? Am I crazy?  I’ll leave you with your thoughts and a video of Jill performing “The Fact Is I Need You” She pretty well sums up my views on this subject in a much more beautiful way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOKWLRdzu8w