Couple on bench

By Roshni Mahtani

1) Stop nagging
When you nag at me, I automatically tune you out. Instead, you are better of making a list of the things you want me to do, give me a deadline, and I promise you it’ll be done! If I don’t do it, then nag at me. But not before listing it.

2) Recognise our efforts
Why is it you only see the stuff that I didn’t do? What about all the things I did do? Like accompany you for all your sappy chick flicks, visit with your family on Sundays, when we all know it should be soccer day!

3) Don’t be a Nazi
Stop micromanaging my relationship with the kids. They are MY kids too! If I want to take them for a movie or for ice cream, I should be “allowed” to. I really hate asking you for “permission”.

4) Stop Guilting Us
I just want to have a little free time without feeling guilty that I am not spending enough time with the kids. Being Super dad and Super provider is not a walk in the park!

5) Just Chill
What’s wrong with short cuts? If we aren’t going out, why can’t the kids be in their PJ all day? And do we really have to comb her hair? Can’t it be messy for just one day?

6) Give us room for mistakes
Give us the opportunity to hone our parenting skills. If you keep breathing down our back every time we try to change the diaper, we’re never going to learn.

7) Your Standards…Sigh
Lower your standards for heaven’s sake. If we’ve cleaned the bathroom, and it looks clean to us, then guess what, it’s clean. Don’t get mad at us and redo it. We’re never going to offer to do it again!

8) Amore
Nothing makes us as happy as sex. Not the amazing dinner you cooked. Not the surprise holiday you planned. Not even the fact that you are willing to sit through the World Cup with us. We can live without all of that. We cannot live without sex.

9) Hello, I exist!
You are married to me. Not your mother. Discuss major decisions with me first, before you discuss it with her!

10) Where’s my wife?
I know the kids are important, but so am I. I didn’t sign up for a ten-minutes a night wife. Would it really kill you to come to bed early once a week? And no we don’t have to have sex. We can just talk (when I say we, I mean you keep quiet for once, and let me talk for a change)