Dinner's Served

Our move to China has brought some changes to our relationship. The most drastic change in my mind is that I am now responsible for the majority of the domestic duties, e.g. cleaning, cooking, shopping, picking up, etc. (mind you, we have six day maid service so the "cleaning" part is really easy). Andrew has some domestic responsibilities, i.e. clear the table and clean up the kitchen (minus doing the dishes) after dinner and helping out anytime I ask him too. This is very different than how things worked in the U.S. when we were living "normal" lives. Then we shared the responsibilities of domestic duties. Granted even then I had a larger share of these responsibilities because according to Andrew my expectations of a clean home are just a little higher than his.    

Those that know me well would probably say I'm not the "domestic" type and wouldn't think I'd agree to an old school role where the wife cares for everything domestic and I'd agree. However, while I never thought I'd become Martha Stewart, similar to how I never thought I'd live in China or be a stay-at-home fiance/wife, for us in this situation it makes sense. Andrew works hard and he works a lot, sometimes 12 or 14 hours a day to support our little family of two. So as a stay-at-home wife, I do the grocery shopping, I cook, I pick up, and do the laundry with a smile on my face, usually. 

And while I'm happy to do this now, I'm also looking forward to one day having a "normal" life again where I work outside of the home too and we split the responsibilities 50/50, or more realistically 60/40. Until then I'll embrace my inner Martha Stewart and be the best stay-at-home wife I can be and I will cherish every morsel of food Andrew cooks on the rare occasion he cooks, i.e. when I beat him bowling and he loses our ongoing bet.