I need help understanding what is going on. Due to circumstances, he always comes to my place for now. That will change within a couple months. My kitchen is very small and two people cannot work in it.

Three weeks ago he asked if I would like him to cook breakfast. I said yes I’d love that. I was overjoyed. I’d been doing all the work and I get it, it isn’t his kitchen, not used to it, can be awkward, etc. So I was excited that he felt comfortable enough.

Next weekend, I made dinner Saturday and cleaned up. Had sex. Looking forward to breakfast. In the morning, I gave him a bj and then he says he’s hungry and asks for breakfast. I feel sad, but ok. So I made breakfast again. I also make dinner. I clean everything up. I talk with him about it, he says he messed up, he doesn’t know my kitchen, etc. I say ok. I figure he will make up for it next week.

The next weekend (this past), I had bought a mini coffee maker so he can have coffee at my house. I don’t drink it unless at work. I give him a bj, he falls back to sleep, and I get up, get him his orange juice and coffee, clean up the kitchen, and make breakfast since hes still sleeping. I clean the kitchen again. We go out for a hike, come back, he says he is hungry. We throw together a cheese and crackers and salami board while I cook dinner. He doesn’t touch the dishes in the sink.

We take a nap. I tickled him once he got up. He says I am mean and that I’m a jerk. I get really sad. I did all of this for him, and one instance of me tickling less than two seconds and that was the response I got. I started to cry, I didn’t want to part ways this way. He said I could come over. I said OK. Sex that night.

I give him a bj that morning (it’s now Monday, we work nights), and he gets up and makes me pancakes and bacon while I do the dishes.

I talked with him about what had upset me, why I was crying. Apparently to him he thought everything was fine and now it wasn’t and things are awkward, as if the problem is that things are awkward, not that hes not holding up his part of chores. I said, when I come over, I do the dishes while you cook so you don’t end up with a giant mess. He said but I didn’t ask for that. I asked should I be asking for you to do the dishes every time I cook? He said yes. I said OK, it’s hard for me to ask for help because of my past. It just works better if you step in without me asking because it makes me feel like a nag. And I felt awful for being called a jerk when I’m not asking to have an orgasm each time we have sex, I’m letting you just enjoy it and I’m enjoying you enjoy it, but I’m cooking and cleaning every single time you’re over, but I clean up over there, somehow I’m the jerk? He said he felt bad after he called me that. I don’t know why he wouldn’t just apologize if he felt bad immediately after having done it.

He says it will be easier if/once we move in, but the point of living separately is to make sure there is mutual respect and things are working relatively well. So far I’m just bending over backwards. I want more. I want to be treated well, not like a bangmaid and a sugarmomma that pays for everything.

So that’s where we are. I don’t know what to call this behavior on either of our parts? I just need him to step up. I don’t know why this is so hard. But it always happens this way, I want help and I’m eventually called a nag by some guy who wont step up. I just want a good, loving relationship. And breakfast. And not having a billion dirty dishes constantly in my tiny kitchen.

We have been friends for one year, in a relationship since mid february.

Tl;dr how to manage a relationship where we are always at my place and literally everything is on me, even him telling me that i need to tell him what i need when to me its painfully obvious. Why am I having to do everything???

3 comments
  1. Unfortunately this behavior could continue if you two move in together. My suggestion is to stop doing everything. Instead start saying, “No, it’s your turn.” And then do not get up and do not do it. Wait him out. If you’re hungry, go get yourself a granola bar just for you.

    Be direct. Tell him up front this is the new system. Explain it isn’t fair for you to have to do everything. If he doesn’t step up, stop inviting him over. Tell him that’s the next thing that will happen.

    My advice is DO NOT move in with him or live together until you have a more fair system and he willingly sticks with it for a while.

    There are some great articles and blogs about being more assertive, particularly when it comes to household chores.

    People will respect you more when you stick up for yourself. They will value you more. And they will treat you better in relationships, and your relationships are more likely to thrive. So everybody wins.

  2. Since you’ve only been dating a month, I’m willing to keep an open mind and say there are two options here:

    Option 1: He’s selfish. He’s bad in bed (doesn’t care about your enjoyment). He’ll watch you cook and clean for him without feeling like he should lift a finger. He has a huge reaction to tiny things that *he* doesn’t like, but doesn’t care about how you’re feeling. This all boils down to an ingrained feeling he has that *you are inferior to him*. That it’s appropriate for you to give and give and be unhappy, as long as he gets to take and is happy.

    Option 2: It’s only been a month and you’re still finding your groove together. That soon into a relationship, it can be awkward to dive in and just start cooking and cleaning at someone else’s apartment, especially if that person is taking the lead and just doing it. It can be intimidating to know what the other person wants in bed. It sounds like you have some anxious attachment issues and tend to go way overboard to try to please your new partner. *Maybe* there’s a chance for him to turn things around, now that you’ve talked about it and he knows what you want. It will be important to see what he does when you start asking for what you want and start doing less for him. But the way he handled this first conversation about it doesn’t give me a lot of hope.

  3. First of all, you should start being more direct. Instead of just waiting and being upset he didn’t do the dishes, just ask him to do the dishes. Like right after dinner. Most couples have a rule for one person cooks and the other one cleans.

    Stop trying to sexual favors to get him to help out. And tbh I would stop having sex with a man who doesn’t care about my pleasure. Yuck.

    Do not move in a man who has already proven to you that he’s inconsiderate, selfish, and lazy only one month into the relationship.

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