When ds was 9/10, he had a friend in his class, and I became friends with the mom. He also had a younger brother, about 4yo. One day I was at their house, and the younger one was writing right on the soft-wood kitchen table, I mean really digging his pencil in. I was like, "Oh!" and the mom said, "It's okay, boys will be boys!" She said the same thing about the holes in the walls of their beautiful RENTED townhouse. She knew a friend of mine was selling his house and asked if he'd be interested in renting it. He was, but I told her he wasn't. No way was I going to refer her to him and then have his nice house destroyed! Both of the boys are terrible troublemakers in school now. Ds doesn't even want to hang out with them, but I wouldn't allow him to if he did!

When friends and family ask me how I keep my living room furniture and rug looking so nice and not stained with kids, I tell them there is no eating or drinking in the living room. All food and drinks remain the in the kitchen/dining area. They look at me like I am a crazy person with two heads. They can't understand this is an actual concept. I had someone ask me why I would have such a strict rule. Uhh...because i don't want dirty, stained and smelly furniture. My family doesn't feel it is strict and they aren't bothered by it because it has never been a thing to eat outside of the kitchen area. I hate going to someone's house and sitting on a couch that is full of who knows what and smells from on the food crumbs and spills.

I emailed a complaint to Progresso soup, because it tasted like burned metal. I let them know how disappointed I was about it. Afterwards, I looked at the can... it was signature kitchen. Whoopsie daisy. Progresso sent me 2 coupons for free soup, and 4 half off coupons. I feel too guilty to use them.

If you're looking for an impressive but simple supper recipe, Google baked chicken gnocchi with garlic asiago cream sauce, posted by eatwell101. It was phenomenal, and my dh thought I had spent all day in the kitchen. Win- win! I used boneless chicken bc i hate bone in and it worked fine.

I know it doesn't matter, but I still feel self-conscious about my house. DH hoards old electronics and other crap and insists on leaving all his clutter on the dining room table (so he can get to it, supposedly) and he really frowns on me spending money on our house. Everything is old and faded and just plain worn out. The carpet needs to be replaced. The mini blinds are old and need to be replaced. The kitchen is tiny and in dire need of a remodel. So yes, I am ashamed of my house and rarely invite people over. I should get over it, but it's frustrating. I'm tempted to just rent a dumpster and get rid of about 65% of DH's crap. He'd never miss it and my house would look instantly better.

All I want for Christmas is that Trump gets impeached. I want that more than I've ever wanted any other present before in my life, other than the KitchenAid Mixer I wanted right after I got married. I got my KitchenAid, now let's get the Cheeto out of office!

Sorry you are going thru this. My exboyfriend did very little around the house even when I was working 50 hours a week and he was unemployed. I came home after a 12 hour day to find the kitchen a disaster and him playing video games. He was shocked when I moved out a few weeks later.

Why should it be my responsibility to help him out financially? I didn't make the bad financial decisions and I'm in no position to help him just because they bought us nice toys for Christmas when we were kids. I did help him with the legal paperwork to get my mom's back settlement for disability, which gave him a check for about $30K. He blew it on buying all new appliances and a remodel for the kitchen. He should have used that money towards my mom's care.

Dh has been getting up a little bit after I do since I started working full time, around 6am, and he cleans up and makes coffee and lets the dogs out. He doesn't go to work until after 8 and he's been cleaning up the living room and kitchen and throwing in laundry before work. I guess he really did listen to me when I said I was worried he wouldn't be pulling his weight when I started working full time. I get off work earlier so I've been making dinner, so it's pretty good trade off.

Dh and I are going to build a house next year and he's already looked at a couple of the floor plans in person. He'll probably look at all of them, lol! It's a shit ton of money, more than we'll ever spend on anything else ever again, goddamn right we're going to make sure we're getting the right house for us and we're going to be picky. I told him what I wanted (a big kitchen, room in our living room for bookshelves, a master bathroom just for me) and other than that, he's going to do the house shopping.