Masculinity and household appliances

If household appliances break down, I ask DH if he can fix it.

Usually he can and does - not always as speedily as I would like, but it either gets done, or he tells me it cannot be fixed and we buy a new one.

My father was much the same, so I realise that my mother and I were lucky.

I would long since have remarked that filling and emptying a machine x times once you have realised that it won't start isn't going to do the slightest bit of good.

Nagging wife? Maybe, but DH has never called me that.

I hardly dare admit that the man who lives in my house actually asked which was the washing machine and which was the tumble dryer... on the few occasions he has been left to his own devices, he has washed up by hand because he doesn't know how to load the dishwasher.
I'm the one who can fix the household appliances, even to the point of repairing family appliances too!

My husband was a university lecturer in engineering but is hopeless at fixing appliances. I have been lighting my 13 year-old gas hob with matches for months because we can’t find the sticker with the identifying model number and I feel too weak to deal with Bosch on the phone or on line. My car is making screaming noises when idling but he just pretends it will go away. Is it because he’s ashamed he’s a chap but can’t fix it? After all, I darn socks.

Grumpa
Are we not being encouraged to make do and mend by the enviroment zealots.The days of a throwaway society are numbered.Landfill and all that.

When I left my husband he texted me asking how to turn on the lawn mower and gas fire.

My DH is known as Mr Fixit in the family. Can't recall any equipments he wasn't able to fix or identify the fault and declare as not worth fixing dud to cost or unavailability of spare parts. Must have saved us a fortune.

Years ago we kept goats. I used to keep them on deep litter which was cleared out several times a year. We had a field on a steep hill and I used to load up a wheelbarrow and drag it to the top of the field to spread the litter. It would take a few wheelbarrow loads and was hard work so DH's answer was to use the tractor! It was a very elderly and temperamental tractor and I would always be finished before he got it moving. But he never stopped trying.

When our parents were young, machines were made to last a lifetime.
Nowadays, they are made to last until the guarantee runs out!!

4allweknow
I have one of those. He can even go as far as helping me with a complicated knitting or dress making pattern.
Years ago a friend nick named him the man in the cupboard
He’s not only the man in the cupboard to the family but to friends and a lot of our neighbours.

House rules…..I don’t touch power tools etc in the garage, he doesn’t touch my appliances in the kitchen…☺️

Elvis58

Grumpa
Are we not being encouraged to make do and mend by the enviroment zealots.The days of a throwaway society are numbered.Landfill and all that.

I agree with you but why call environmentalists zealots?

Thank goodness I don't have to deal with things like that now. No masculine presence in this home. Even the dogs are girls.!!!

nipsmum ditto

My grill stopped working a couple of days ago while cooking bacon. I had to finish it off in the frying pan. I’m now sitting here trying to figure out what to eat that doesn’t require grilling. Sadly no one here to offer to fix it so will have to wait until I can afford a repair man or until my daughter moves back home with her ‘George Foreman’ whichever happens first!

I think it's in the male DNA that they all want to fix things.

Iam64

Don’t you share Tizliz?

No! I don’t touch his strimmer ?

Actually I have been trying to introduce him but we haven’t got much further than “this is for washing clothes and this one is for washing dishes”. I am not being mean, he has the sort of brain that is dominated by one subject - usually work - and anything else just slides off. It does mean that he really researches something we need to buy and that gets his full attention.

I’m not sure that replacing something as soon as it breaks down in any way is environmentally friendly when we’re all urged to save the planet. We always try to get things repaired first - my husband is great at repairing things - and they often go on for several good years of service. Cheaper and more environmentally friendly. We’re def part of a throw away generation it would seem.

You're lucky, my other half doesn't even know how to open ours, let alone how to put anything in it!

My husband is very possessive with the hoover. I know better than to argue. Unfortunately he isn’t into things without motors such as dusters, kitchen and bathroom cleaning cloths …

I have someone booked to look at it Tuesday. I'm at work so he'll have to deal with them

?? Some of these comments are so entertaining, thanks you've brightened my rather painful day. My OH will never read an instruction manual for anything and don't get me started in the drama I have to endure when we buy anything flat packed ???

BigBertha1

It's vacuum cleaners with us. DH does the cleaning and will not buy a decent machine so he's always fiddling with it.

We are the same. We have an old vac that must be 20 years old that has travelled with us it was never any use and always banged into furniture I replaced it at least 13 years ago with an upright one but was not allowed to get rid of it.
A few months ago out the old one came banging and clattering around I realised it had lost a wheel and started singing "Three Wheels on my waggon". No smiles just dirty looks.
Our DD came and said you need a Dyson wall hung rechargeable and low and behold one appeared and was fitted in the garage about a week later. She's promised to put the eye on him again for me.

Can your daughter be hired out for a modest fee Yammy? Or cloned?

Sodapop Mr Happy is just like your husband. He often does repair an appliance but not before he's spent a whole day rummaging in his sheds and brought most of it into the house! But he will admit when he can't fix something and then leaves it to me to find a suitable replacement, which, of course, I have already researched (while he was rummaging) and have lined up for immediate delivery!

Germanshepherdsmum

Can your daughter be hired out for a modest fee Yammy? Or cloned?

She really is canny she never makes him feel useless like I do ,she just seems to make a statement. I'll ask her if she want a new Job.{smile}