# How do you handle your spouses most annoying habits? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 23, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045 "2017-04-23T03:40:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/41 "2017-04-26T03:06:30Z")
The way I “deal” with it is my wife and kids go to her parents for the weekend about once a month. It’s really nice to have a weekend where I can straighten up the apartment, not be subject to her binge watching Fox News and Bravo reality TV and maybe stay out late drinking with one of my buddies (if he can get away from his wife for the evening). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/42 "2017-04-26T03:22:26Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I have adopted a bit of a if-you-can’t-beat-'em-join-'em philosophy on some things. > > For example, she doesn’t close things. Kitchen cupboards, the garage door, lights to any room she has been in, the refrigerator door, etc. > > So now, rather than closing them and fuming, I leave them open. So what if the basement lights stay on all night (and they have)? Big deal if the junk drawer remains fully extended all day and into the evening before she gets around to closing it (and it has). > > It is not the end of the world as I know it. Being resigned to leaving things as is has actually, legitimately, made me less seethe-prone and therefore less aggravated. > > (except the garage door, I do close that at night. Except the couple times I didn’t). > mmm A person over the age of 6, who is not mentally disabled, who forgets to close the refrigerator door? That would be a big deal to me. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/43 "2017-04-27T01:05:39Z")
Agreed. A sizeable fraction of the populace are useless children. Don’t marry those folks. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/44 "2017-04-27T01:56:13Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > A person over the age of 6, who is not mentally disabled, who forgets to close the refrigerator door? That would be a big deal to me. I never stated her age. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/45 "2017-04-27T02:17:58Z")
That’s some funny shit! Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/46 "2017-04-27T11:18:04Z")
Ha! “She’s only three years old, but it’s a mighty fine way to start!”’-- Led Zeppelin, “The Ocean.” Seriously, though…I’d like to thank everyone for this fantastic thread. It’s a keeper. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/47 "2017-04-27T13:08:57Z")
Mrs. J. has NO annoying habits. Aside from occasionally reading SDMB threads… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/48 "2017-04-27T14:29:55Z")
My Beloved, poster Rahne McCloud, has no annoying habits. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/49 "2017-04-27T14:57:34Z")
Derail for joke: My girlfriend asked me if I was a pedophile. I said that’s a pretty big word for a 12-year-old. mmm ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/50 "2017-04-27T15:37:04Z")
There is some great advice in here so I won’t muddy that up with my interpretation. But what I do is go around and turn-off all the lights that she leaves on. I’m a lucky guy. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/51 "2017-04-27T18:00:50Z")
My wife’s most annoying habit is me. Mostly, I deal with it by ignoring myself. ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/52 "2017-04-27T18:57:51Z")
I was thinking the other day that a few of my wife’s habits were bugging me a bit more than usual, and why was that? My wife works much faster, but with less thought than I do. I often find dirty dishes put away. She didn’t do it on purpose, just grabbed them and put them away w/o checking. She thinks that opaque white grocery bags are good food containers, so we have 15 bags in the fridge, neither of us know what they contain, until they start to drip. When we have a mess, like a messy floor of business stuff, she likes to cover it with a blanket, lol. Anyways these are minor annoyances and I love being with her. I think they were bugging me just because I had other things that were bugging me. So this is an excellent thread to do a head check with. I could list many annoying things about me, including remembering to close the toilet lid only half the time. Of course I don’t get praise when i remember, just shit when I forget. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/53 "2017-04-28T17:47:08Z")
This is a fun thread! I tend to attack life with a certain ruthless efficiency and attention to detail. My wife doesn’t operate this way at all. She doesn’t go from A to B. She kind of starts A, then wanders over to F, P, and Q to check things out, after that she’ll mosey over to Y and E to see what’s up there, then maybe she’ll wrap things up with A and proceed to M, L, and W before finishing up with B. Ninety percent of the time I have no problem with this at all. It barely registers. Ten percent of the time it drives me insane because Jesus Christ what is taking you so long. This is a me problem. Totally a me problem and I get that, but it still drives me insane. THE WORST. The absolute worst(!), is when she’s planning on leaving the house with our two boys and getting everyone ready to go. Holy fuck. It is amazing in its absurdity. Sometimes I wish I could secretly film the spectacle of it to show it to her later. Anyway, for a regular, non-rushing person off the street, I’d guesstimate this job would take ten to fifteen minutes. When I do it (I’m practiced) it takes about five. When my wife does it (and this is not an embellishment at all), it will reliably take one to two hours. I…I don’t even know. What I do to retain the weak tether to my sanity in this situation: I get both boys ready to go, gather any supplies and/or equipment anyone will need for the outing and array it by the door in an organized manner. Then I go to my wife, ensure I have her attention, and explain that everyone and everything is ready for departure. Then I go find something to do somewhere else in the house. I wait the next forty-five minutes for her to come kiss me goodbye, then I wait the extra five to ten minutes where she pulls back into the driveway and comes into the house to get whatever she forgot that was sitting right by the door. Then the dog and I carry on with our day. This is the only system I’ve found so far that works. If anyone could explain to me how to handle/not-get-annoyed-af at a grown ass woman who takes her little bootie socks off at random spots in the house and then leaves them right there on the floor, I’d be eternally grateful. I haven’t figured this one out yet, and it’s been years. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/54 "2017-04-28T17:52:35Z")
> [@Lowdown](#): > > I get both boys ready to go, gather any supplies and/or equipment anyone will need for the outing and array it by the door in an organized manner. Then I go to my wife, ensure I have her attention, and explain that everyone and everything is ready for departure. Then I go find something to do somewhere else in the house. I wait the next forty-five minutes for her to come kiss me goodbye, then I wait the extra five to ten minutes where she pulls back into the driveway and comes into the house to get whatever she forgot that was sitting right by the door. Then the dog and I carry on with our day. This is the only system I’ve found so far that works. She won’t start to get ready until everyone else is ready? > [@](#): > > If anyone could explain to me how to handle/not-get-annoyed-af at a grown ass woman who takes her little bootie socks off at random spots in the house and then leaves them right there on the floor, I’d be eternally grateful. I haven’t figured this one out yet, and it’s been years. Why do you care if there are bootie socks on the floor? ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/55 "2017-04-28T18:05:42Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > She won’t start to get ready until everyone else is ready? No, she’ll either be getting ready or doing some completely random task not related to getting ready or leaving the house. > [@Slash1972](#): > > Why do you care if there are bootie socks on the floor? Do you typically have discarded clothes strewn about your lair? Perhaps we have different standards of cleanliness. Dirty socks laying in the middle of the floor doesn’t work for me, yo, for a variety of reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/56 "2017-04-28T18:14:52Z")
> [@Lowdown](#): > > No, she’ll either be getting ready or doing some completely random task not related to getting ready or leaving the house Yeah, that’s different. Just lie and say everyone is ready? 🙂 > [@](#): > > Do you typically have discarded clothes strewn about your lair? Perhaps we have different standards of cleanliness. Dirty socks laying in the middle of the floor doesn’t work for me, yo, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, but I’m divorced, so I think it is expected 🙂 My point being, if it bothers you, but not her, shouldn’t you be the one to pick them up? ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/57 "2017-04-28T18:33:47Z")
I do pick them up! I just feel like I shouldn’t have to, you know? Like, why are you making messes for me to clean up gaaaaaahd! I mean, I am perfect in every way and incapable of any sort of annoying behavior. I don’t know what her problem is. ---
**Author:** ![JHBoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@JHBoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHBoom)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/58 "2017-04-28T18:34:26Z")
When my wife’s quirks & annoying habits \*really \*start getting on my nerves, I simply remind myself of the list of _my_ quirks & habits that get on \*her \*nerves, and be thankful that we love each other enough to (mostly) ignore them. It wasn’t always this way, though. We had an awful lot of arguments in our first decade together over each other’s annoying habits. Spending significant chunks of time apart has actually helped with this, as we appreciate each other much more now than we once did. ---
**Author:** ![Emergency911](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/43a26b/32.png) [@Emergency911](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emergency911)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/59 "2017-04-28T18:40:51Z")
When I proposed to my wife, I managed to find a beautiful diamond that only has a single flaw in it. After she said yes, I told her about the flaw and explained that it represented her only flaw. After a confused look, she asked what that flaw was and I calmly explained that her only flaw was me! After 20 years, I don’t think I am getting any brownie points over that compliment any more, but I still feel the same about her. I know she’s not perfect, as no one is, but I just don’t worry about the small things. Life is too short to worry about those kinds of things. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045/60 "2017-04-28T18:58:43Z")
> [@Lowdown](#): > > I do pick them up! I just feel like I shouldn’t have to, you know? Like, why are you making messes for me to clean up gaaaaaahd! I mean, I am perfect in every way and incapable of any sort of annoying behavior. I don’t know what her problem is. This is pretty funny! 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-handle-your-spouses-most-annoying-habits/785045.md?page=4)