Arguing After Kids

Before I had kids, I was a skilled and logical debate opponent. There wasn’t a position that I couldn’t successfully support – my husband didn’t stand a chance. Now, my marital arguments go something like this…

  1. Disagree with spouse about X.
  2. Immediately become distracted from X by child that needs to poop.
  3. Return to feeling irritated with spouse while trying to remember what X was.
  4. Find something else to argue about that has nothing to do with X – preferably something that begins with “You always…”
  5. Figure out midway through that new argument is completely unreasonable.
  6. Continue to argue on principle. After all, spouse is wrong about something.
  7. Interrupt self to tell spouse something adorable that child did earlier – like when asked what month it is declaring that it is “Maypril.”
  8. Laugh together and then remember that one is supposed to be mad at spouse.
  9. Agree to move on as long as spouse acknowledges that he was completely wrong about everything.
  10. Be grateful that one has quite a reasonable spouse. 

How do the arguments go down in your house? Have you maintained your fine sense of logic and diplomacy?

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