![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mucho Macho Michael
May. 5th, 2008 04:26 pmToday was my day to man up. Today, I was handy.
Normally around here, Lynne and I have inverse traditional gender roles. She’s the breadwinner, and I’m Caitlin’s primary caregiver. I also do most of the housework. There are some things, however, that we’ve kept traditional. Lynne will not mow the lawn. It’s practically a phobia. She also doesn’t do repairs. Since we’re enjoying one of our four days of spring here in Illinois, I used my time while Caitlin was at school to catch up on some chores.
As of this moment our grass/weed mix is at an acceptable height, the fertilizer/weed killer is spread, and I think I fixed my wonky garage door. I am now a good homeowner.
I have an odd relationship with the handy. I know what I’m doing, but I take little pleasure from it. A lot of this has to do with my late adoptive father being a That Guy who pretended to know how to do everything and tried to convince me that I was useless. There was a lot of driving home to me that I was “book smart” and useless at “man” tasks. In retrospect, he was a complete moron who used chemically-induced bluster to cover for the fact that he had no idea what he was doing. The amazing thing is that he managed not to kill us in the apartments and cars that he “fixed.”
Luckily, I had some better role models in my early 20s who helped my confidence. I also learned that you could, in fact, use books to understand the principles of home and auto repairs. As it turns out, it’s not encoded in the “real man” gene.
Normally around here, Lynne and I have inverse traditional gender roles. She’s the breadwinner, and I’m Caitlin’s primary caregiver. I also do most of the housework. There are some things, however, that we’ve kept traditional. Lynne will not mow the lawn. It’s practically a phobia. She also doesn’t do repairs. Since we’re enjoying one of our four days of spring here in Illinois, I used my time while Caitlin was at school to catch up on some chores.
As of this moment our grass/weed mix is at an acceptable height, the fertilizer/weed killer is spread, and I think I fixed my wonky garage door. I am now a good homeowner.
I have an odd relationship with the handy. I know what I’m doing, but I take little pleasure from it. A lot of this has to do with my late adoptive father being a That Guy who pretended to know how to do everything and tried to convince me that I was useless. There was a lot of driving home to me that I was “book smart” and useless at “man” tasks. In retrospect, he was a complete moron who used chemically-induced bluster to cover for the fact that he had no idea what he was doing. The amazing thing is that he managed not to kill us in the apartments and cars that he “fixed.”
Luckily, I had some better role models in my early 20s who helped my confidence. I also learned that you could, in fact, use books to understand the principles of home and auto repairs. As it turns out, it’s not encoded in the “real man” gene.
