I sometimes wonder what on earth some people are thinking and how some of the things I read about on blogs and twitter, would be received in my personal life. I’ve been married 20 years (I was 21 and 3 weeks after meeting we’d moved in together and 6 months later we were married!) and I like to think that we have quite an equal relationship. We’ve both worked hard to get where we are, and respect each other in every way, however what follows is how I imagine events would unfold …

*cue soft music and fade into a picture of the two of us sat in our kitchen**

ME: Right so I’ve been thinking that your mum might visit any day soon, we’re due a visit you know.

OH: Yeah … and?

ME: Well you know what she’s like, we’ve got to make sure that everything is ship shape … and ….

OH: and what?

ME: Well I’ve been thinking … you know when we visit our mates, the washing up is never stacked up on the side drying or there is never stuff stacked in the sink, so we need to come up with a solution and I’ve done some research about what we should be doing and “best practice” suggests that we should be washing up as soon as we use anything in the kitchen … but

OH: Aaaaaahhhh now I see, that’s my job …  

ME: Exactly .. its one of the things you do, one of the “blue jobs” … so rather than say you “MUST DO” this,  or “MUST DO” that, can you have a think and come up with a way to make sure that its not left for days on end.

OH: Of course I will, I can see where you’re coming from but I’d like to be able to come up with my own ideas if that’s ok and find something that works for me.

(Fade into my OH looking at his schedule, and setting his alarm 20 mins earlier and then multiple shots of my hubbie clicking the kettle on, and washing up before work every day).

Now here’s the KICKER … 

(Fade into a repeat scene of us both sat in the kitchen)

ME: Right, so your mum still hasn’t visited so we’re still on “red alert”, so with that in mind the issue of the washing up is still not resolved.

OH: Not resolved? What do you mean?

ME: Well its not getting done as soon as we use anything. I know you came up with your own ideas and spent some time getting into the routine, but I want it done immediately.

OH: splutters and coughs! But what I’m doing works for me, and more importantly what a waste of my time coming up with a solution. I’m sorry Mel it just ain’t happening .. what I do now works. You really have no idea about what I do, and how I’ve worked around this. Don’t you trust my judgement?

ME: Of course I do.

OH: hhmmmm well it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like you had your ideas way back when we originally discussed this and no matter what happened, you were going to railroad this through. 

Nah that would never happen … would it? Obviously none of this is real, and I’ve used something menial to make a serious(ish) point. As teachers, we are deemed (in the main) to be professionals, so trust us to make the right decisions. Believe it or not, some of us take our continuing education quite seriously – we are not just a culmination of our teacher training “X” years ago – our knowledge is up to date and constantly being challenged and refreshed and in some cases we’re probably more “cutting edge” than you would ever imagine.

Oops … that wasn’t meant to happen. I had every intention of posting about something to do with maths… oh well! Its done … now just to click “publish”.

In case you’re wondering – the name of the post comes from having “pink jobs” and “blue jobs” – I know! Stereotyping is alive and well in my house – all I can say is its worked for 20 years 🙂