A Story About When I Get Sulky

When someone doesn't act the way you want them to and you get annoyed, what kind of attitude do you take?

For example... after dinner.

You want to clean up immediately, so you say to your husband,

"Can you help me wash the dishes?"

He replies,

"Ugh, I'm full right now, can I do it later?"

(Annoyed)

Then, he starts playing Super Smash Bros. with the kids.

The two of them look like they're having fun.

You wash the dishes in silence. In the end, you do the dishes alone and finish the other chores.

You slam the door to show you're angry, but they don't even notice.

To make matters worse, your husband starts talking to you nonchalantly.

"Come to think of it, something like this happened at work today..."

"...Hmm."

"And then, this and that happened..."

"...Oh, really?"

"...? Are you angry about something?"

"Not at all."

Erika Sawajiri has been born!!!

That's no good, Erika-sama!

The reason for your anger is 100% not getting through to them!

Men are...

They can't pick up on it!!!!! (๑¯◡¯๑)

In our case, it's like this.

"I! Am! Sulking!"

"Oh no, Tsukune is sulking!"

"Mom, want to play Smash Bros. with us?"

"Should we go buy some sweets?"

"Smash Bros. and sweets are lovely, but I really want to get these dishes cleaned up. If only a kind person, a cool person, would help me out!!"

"Yes, with pleasure!!"

I leave the dishwashing to my husband, Kacchan, and my fourth-grade son, I finish the other chores, and I have Kacchan go buy the sweets.

Kacchan says this:

"When you say 'I'm sulking!', I think, 'Oh, she's sulking. I have to do something about it,' and it's very easy to understand what I should do, which is helpful."

It's common for women to suddenly get in a bad mood, and I don't know why, so I just apologize for now..."

By the way.

I'm the type who wants to finish cleaning up and then relax with a clear mind.

Kacchan is the type who wants to relax for a while after eating and then clean up.

He doesn't mind at all if the dishes are still there until morning.

When we first got married,

"I'll wash the dishes, so just leave them there."

He told me, so I left them.

Then, Kacchan, being the type who relaxes for a while, would stay relaxed and fall into a deep sleep,

(So I end up washing them after all! Annoyed!)

This happened many times.

So, what did I do?

First, a polite discussion.

"It stresses me out when the dishes pile up. It's too hard to start from a negative when I wake up in the morning to make lunch. So, I want to wash them right after eating."

"I see. When I'm really tired after work, I want to rest a bit before washing them. But I understand how you feel, Tsukune, so when I have the energy, I'll wash them right away."


Next is my special move!

Leave them alone!!


Then, what happens?

When I wake up in the morning, the dishes are of course still there. However...

Leave them alone!!

Kacchan wakes up.

"Morning. Oh! I forgot to wash the dishes and fell asleep! Sorry, I'll wash them now."

W-what?

I thought.

Ah, is that it?

The hard worker makes the people around them lazy, is that it?

If I become the lazy one, the people around me start to step up.

And, as an added bonus, when Kacchan started taking the initiative to wash the dishes, my son also started helping out willingly, which was a happy miscalculation.

You can dominate the ring by radiating an aura of anger and applying silent pressure.

If you are a martial artist, that might be fine.

If your opponent is a martial artist, it would be super effective.

However, if that's not the case.

Why not try saying your honest feelings? You'll find they actually do it quite often.

"I'm sulking!" is funny even to say yourself, so I recommend it.