After becoming a father I have paid much more attention to what other parents are saying: either around their kids or not.
I wonder why they think that some of the comments that they make are okay and why they don’t think about it before opening their mouths.
Today I have come up with 4 things that you should never say to members of your family:
- I’m not here to babysit you – We were at a restaurant a while ago and heard a dad say this to his misbehaving son. You’re right, you’re not here to babysit your kids. You are here to be their parent and make sure they are safe, sound and well behaved. Being a parent doesn’t mean that you take time out of your busy schedule to watch someone else’s children and expect something out of it. You are their parent and you should be spending as much free time as you have with them.
- Did you even do anything today? – This is for you guys saying this to your wife when you get home from work. Yeah, she has done a lot. Fed your child/children, ran them all over the place, got them ready for the day, probably cleaned the house and the kids messed it up (she probably cleaned it multiple times), made dinner, do I need to go on? As guys we tend to think that we are working because we have a “full time job”, but at the end of the day so does your wife. And her schedule is not flexible. She works 24/7. So when you get home and think nothing has gotten done, maybe say, “What can I help you with?”
- You can use my card because I have money on it – No matter who is making money in the relationship it belongs to BOTH of you in the relationship. I also hate when I hear women saying, “his money is our money and my money is my money.” Pretty sure we are all at fault at both situations and it just needs to be understood that the money being made is for the benefit of the whole family. If someone is needing to make a purchase – whether it’s food, clothes, getting nails done, whatever – the money is there to be used. That being said though, don’t go crazy spending all the money so there isn’t any for the things that need to be paid, aka bills and mortgage.
- You look nice – I feel like both men and women would rather hear the truth from the person they love the most. If something doesn’t look good on me, tell me! I don’t want to be walking around all day looking like crap, but thinking I look great because you said you liked my outfit. And guys, I know that you were probably taught that you should always lie and tell your wife that everything looks amazing on her so you don’t have to deal with you being rude for being honest. The thing is, women, understand that we are trying to tell you that something doesn’t look good because we care about you. We, as your husband, truly care and want you to feel good about yourself. So don’t get pissed at us for being honest. That being said, MEN, we should complement enough that our wives know that we mean it when we say they look good. I’m totally guilty of this. If I over complement my wife, she starts to think “CRAP, what does he think I look like the rest of the week?”