A Mommy in Daddy's Clothing

The topic of money is always an impetus for a big-time argument between me and my husband. Either we don’t have enough, we spent it all, we’re not saving enough, we’re not investing it, we lost it, etc. And both of us are excellent at the “blame game” and love to call each other out on the lack of funds in our bank balance. No matter how much money we make, it seems like there is never enough. And neither Dave nor I have any intelligence on managing it well. We clearly have two different agendas on where the funds need to be spent. Neither one of us is a saver-type. So yet again, the other morning before I left for work, an argument about money came up since we somehow managed to blow our whole wad and still have 12 more days to go until another payday. During the argument, I stopped ourselves and we both started laughing hysterically when we realized what exactly we were saying to each other in this discussion:

Me: “OK, I promise I will start packing my breakfast as of tomorrow. But this morning I really want the bagel from the café.”

Him: “OK, but just keep in mind, the only reason I bring it up is because the money that we have left over now after the rent gets sent is what we have until November 15th.”

Me:” I know, I know! Quit harping about that. Are you going to the store today?”

Him: “Yes. But I’m not doing a big shop.”

Me: “Why not?? We need a ton of stuff.”

Him: “Because I need to go to like, three different stores to get the best deals. And I can’t do all that in one day!”

Me: “So I guess I’ll just pack another peanut butter sandwich today, huh?”

Him: “Look, I’m in charge of spending the money on the groceries for this house and this is the best I can do on the little money we have left.”

Me: “Well, I’m in charge of the making the money to get the groceries and this is the best I can do!”

At which point in this conversation, we both stopped ourselves and laughed. We couldn’t believe what both of us were saying. In a way I thought Gloria Steinham would be proud to see the evolution of our household roles, but it was almost a little ridiculous, too. Our parents would think we were insane if they could hear that conversation.

I thought it was quite humorous, and amazing at the same time. If someone had told either of us ten years ago that we would be having a conversation like that we would have thought they were crazy. My how things have changed.