“We” Need To Mow The Lawn!

There is another entity that resides in my home that is neither my wife nor my children…it is also not me. Before you go off the deep end conjuring up images of ghosts, goblins, or ghouls; I should mention that the entity is the collective “we”. Let me explain how it works. I might say to my wife, “we need to do some laundry this weekend.”

In reply, she might say something like “we need to mow the lawn, trim the edges, and spray for bugs this weekend.”

At first glance, you might think this is a family sharing in the mundane aspects of cohabitation. Well, you would be dead wrong. When you actively engage in taking your loved ones for granted, it is common to refer to the collective “we”. This is a magical force that accomplishes all the necessary activities around me without my direct involvement.

It’s not that I am unwilling to participate in certain tasks, we have just developed our own areas of effectiveness. We do certain jobs and don’t really think too much about how everything else gets done.

It may seem like a higher power is responsible for keeping things like bread and cereal readily available, but a real being is likely doing it. I to my wife while my head is poked into the fridge: “Honey, we need to get some more coffee creamer and little tiny dill pickles.” (Everyone knows that the little tiny ones have better flavor, plus…they’re just cuter.)

My wife to me with derisive tone and body language: “We?” She knows that “we” will not be going to the grocery store together to get tiny, cute dill pickles and coffee creamer, because I am not allowed in the grocery store. Just let me say that my shopping tends to lean more heavily on the gummy bear and potato chip food groups than the fruit and vegetable. I also tend to stray from the list.

Say it with an Idaho Doesn’t Suck puzzle shirt

It happens with my children also. “We” are constantly having to do homework, sell things for various fundraisers, and do difficult chores. These difficult chores are often inherited by the children from the parent “we” collective. However, I still end up putting the gas in the lawnmower, starting the weed trimmer and making the half-assed job acceptable.

Listen to the tone and inflection when communicating with your loved ones. Also, look for specific phrasing. Are you hearing “WE?” a lot? It might be an indication that someone is feeling slighted or abused. It wouldn’t kill you to run a load of laundry once in a while or pick up the kids from their activities. Hell, you could even do the grocery shopping. Just don’t stray from the list…EVER!