The other day, I came home from a rough day at work. It was just one of those days where nothing went right. A few guests yelled at me because of things I had no control over. A couple of people did not show up for work and nothing went the way it was supposed to. It was just a really crappy day at work.
I got home at 2 a.m., which is a couple hours later than usual. When I got home, I saw the sink was full of dirty dishes. They were not piled up neatly, just crammed in there. There was still a little food on some of the plates. There were some dirty plates that were right next to the sink as well.
The last thing I wanted to do was dishes. I washed enough dishes at work because my dishwasher was behind all night. It was one of the main reason I was home late.
I looked over at my wife's work computer. She was on Facebook. It was some post by Zulily. I do not like Zulily. I cringe every time I hear the word. I am sure that blue and white packages were in route to our house.
I was irritated for a second. I already had a rough day. I was already in a bad mood. Now I am looking at dirty dishes and my wife's computer, which is on Facebook.
I wondered how hard it would have been to do the dishes. I wondered how hard it would have been to at least clean the food of the plates.
At 2 a.m., I stopped wondering.
I knew her day was just as hard.
My wife works about 60 hours a week. She is a controller for a car auction. She has an office in our house and goes in to work on my days off. I could not tell you exactly what she does. All I know is that she is on the phone with banks and does a lot of reports. She always has a report that is due.
She also takes care of the kids. My son is old enough that he goes to school for most of the day. My daughter is still a baby. She is in her "let's eat everything on the floor" stage, so I cannot imagine how hard it is to do these work reports and try to keep everything out of our baby's mouth. I have no idea how she does conference calls while keeping the baby quiet.
My wife does a lot. She does a lot for the kids. She works hard at her job. She makes sure that the kids have the clothes that they need and they are fed. She looks for bargains for clothing for the kids. She does not sleep all day or watch television.
She works or does things with the kids.
I refuse to play the "who works harder" game. I think that a lot of marital fights are because of that. My day at work was rough. How do I know that my wife did not have the exact same day? Why, because dishes were not done?
I was tired and irritated. How do I know that my wife did not have the exact same feelings? Why, because of dirty dishes and a computer on Facebook?
My wife never gives me an issue when I spend an hour or so to workout. She never gives me a hard time when I stay up late writing. She is the one that encouraged me to be better. She is the person who told me I had writing talent before everyone else noticed, including myself.
The truth is that my wife works hard. I could tell the day she had when I walked in the house. Yet the kids' clothes were washed. My son's lunch was made for the next day. His swim clothes were packed for school the next day.
I do not work harder than my wife. My irritation went away and started to feel more thankful. She does a lot for our family.
So after a long, rough day at work I did the dirty dishes.
It was the least I could do.