The things Granddads do ....

Mishap, My Dad was like your OH, he was happy to do most things but would never hang the washing out, so funny, we used to laugh and ask him why but he wouldn't say.

My OH has done all the housework and garden since we did a bit of a role swap mid careers. He struggles now as he has PD, but generally takes responsibility for all this still - he just does it slower.

But......not cooking or shopping - these are closed books to him.

I remember one very rare occasion so0me years ago I could not get to the shops and he went to buy the ingredients for Christmas pudding - I just gave him the recipe and off he went. The breadcrumbs were interesting - a small packet of tiny dyed-yellow crumbs that are for coating fish!!

Hi Banjo I thought this was a Grandad area, did not realise that grandmas could come and have their say..nothing is sacred ha ha... I agree with you... I have a good kind husband that helps around the house, I value him very much and life would be scarey without him, when I was ill it was he that brought me food and took care of things. Its about valuing each other and it sounds like you have it sussed. Best wishes

I had a Grandad but I never knew him much. He was the sort who washed in a bowl put his suit on Brylcreemed his hair and went to the pub came back and slept with my gran who had ingrained dirt in her skin

The things Granddads do....My granddad used to let me sip his warm Scotch, puff a Woodbine, take me to the pub and turn a blind eye if I rode on the back of the tractor. If I'm remembered as fondly as him in 60 years time, I won't have done so bad.

My first husband wasn't much good at anything – and actually isn't much good at anything now. But he could do the supermarket run. I wrote the list, he took absentdaughter and they did the bit without stopping for extras en route. What was really annoying was that the women I worked with, when discussing
their way of sharing chores in their relationships, would always tell me how lucky I was. No one told me how lucky he was that I cooked the meals, did the laundry, did the ironing, paid the bills, vacuumed the floors, took the child to the dentist, saw to her vaccinations, sowed buttons on his shirts, cooked quiches for his office Christmas party, bought cards and presents for his parents' birthdays and anniversaries, etc. etc. etc. [unfair emoticon]

jeni,

My dh was brilliant, apart from the fact he never found ou what a Hoover was for.
He was a much better cook than me and also unlike me he enjoyed cooking.
I miss him.

............Incidentally, he is also a member of Team GD. A team running alongside Team GB which was formed by DGD.
Mummy told a joke one evening, everyone 'got it' except DGD and DH so she and her Grandad formed Team GD - Team Grandad! [grin}

Must admit DH is brilliant - cooks, loads the washing machine, does the ironing, hoovering and shopping! OK it's not always the way I would like - or how I would have done it, but I ain't complaining - he may stop and then who will do it all!!!
Can't see the point of housework - it only needs doing again next week so why not leave it until then anyway?

Me too, jeni. My ex was useless when I was ill!

I have to either struggle on my own or pay someone.

Why do women think they are indispensible -- men can't cook - can't shop ---can't iron --don't know how to use a dishwasher / washing machine, the answer is simple, they are clever, why do it when a willing slave is there to do it and he can turn round and say - "0hhh dearheart, you are so clever" ---.

My wife is recovering from a cancer operation, I cook, shop, clean her wounds, house clean, do the gardening,look after the animals. I can use a washng machine / dishwasher -- and no -I am NOT a saint, let me ask you this-- if you were indisposed for whatever reason---who would do the things you normally do ????????????

i must be one of the few fellas that enjoy shopping,even more now DW is recovering a hip op.Nice and early before the rush starts.People leave thier trollies in the most strange places,i like playing dogems & pretend not to see them it make for some intresting comments.

Yesterday in a supermarket a man shouted at me because Mr Z., totally oblivious to his surroundings, was blocking the aisle with his trolley!

Exactly Gally!

But Granny23 - they do like to be helpful. When something like that happens to me, and I complain, Mr G goes all huffy and says he won't bother again....!

I was making raspberry jam last night and had just taken it off the heat, added a chunk of butter to clear the froth when Granpal23 came into the kitchen looking for supper. I left him to it, retreating to the 'office' to find lables for the jars. A few minutes later he breezed in, well pleased with himself to announce 'I gave your jam a good stir as there was froth collecting at the sides of the pan'. Cue reboiling of the jam and reskimming. Jam now VERY well set.

Today I was working in the garden - weedkiller on the paths, soapy water on the barassicas, weeded a section to plant out two courgettes - while Granpal watched the motor racing on TV. I went to weed in the front garden and returned with the bucket to collect the weeds I had hoed in the vegetable plot. There was GP at his best, watering the vegetables + the weeds, in full baking hot sun. Not a trace of soap left on the barassicas and he had already turned the hose on the paths...........

I so know what you mean and your description made me lol. I hate it when my OH tags along because he always makes suggestions of the 'what do you think . . . .?' variety and that so winds me up. If you want it get it but don't try to make out I was the one to choose it!

DH is actually quite good at grocery shopping so long as the list is specific, e.g. I have to specify this kind of marmalade or that kind but no other kind. He also tends to buy other things which he thinks we will like (latest was chocolate/hazelnut crepes) and gets a wee bit upset if we don't eat them. BUT, when he had to get the shopping done during DD's trumpet lesson and be back in time to collect her (the nearest supermarket is far enough away that it makes sense to combine trips whenever possible), he found it too stressful — just as I always have. Even if you're super efficient, it only takes a slow check-out, for whatever reason, and you're stymied.

Since retiring (early some 9 years ago) Mr Gally has taken a liking to shopping; he follows me around the shop about 2 feet behind and it becomes a game for me - I dart hither and thither depending on what kind of shop it is and, sure enough I turn round and he's there. I get so enraged that I can be seen mouthing obscenities. If it's the supermarket, I always end up with things we don't need at the checkout and invariably find Mr G giving me 'that look'

I prefer to shop on my own. mrs. P makes a comprehensive list, then wanders around aimlessly looking a things that are not on the list !!!. I start at the top of the list, get exactly what is on it, pay and leave. Takes half the time Mrs. P takes.

As regards cream & crackers, I would have bought Elmleigh single and biscuits for cheese (Tesco), but as it was Christmas you might have meant Christmas crackers.

You have to be unambiguous on a list. eg potatoes ??? new/old, baking, roasting,mash,chips - given that I could choose the best variety.

So, ladies help us chaps by being specific, or do as Mrs. P does "something for tea" she then gets what ever I fancy.

Janice I think the getting shopping wrong thing is deliberate. My husband hated shopping, would never take me or go himself. Once, when I was heavily pregnant and could barely move, he reluctantly agreed to go to the supermarket. Being familiar with the layout of the place, I wrote the list in the order that he would come across things as he walked up one aisle and down the other.
Most of the essentials on the list were not bought. Things bought but not on the list included:
6 sponge flans, 6 tins of fruit, 6 packets of Quick Jel, 6 tins of cream.
2 x 1 gallon containers of very cheap and watery bleach.
and the best of all...
1 dozen large tins of cat food. We didn't have a cat. Never had a cat.
He wasn't even a grandad then, only in his twenties, so no excuse!

Guess how many times I asked him to go shopping again?

Granpal had been chatting with DGS in the garden and after the wee one
went home, was waxing lyrical about how his speech and vocabulary had come on by leaps and bounds. DGS had been telling his DGP about all the toys he had, even how many of each kind. GP was very impressed that he could also tell left from right ..........he told Granpal that he had a buzz in his right ear.