There’s an excruciating ritual that takes place around the Hacks house pretty often. PapaHacks will say something like “So, what do you want for dinner?” About seven years ago I got tired of the “I don’t know, what do you want?” conversation, so I started making suggestions. Look at me solving problems.
Or not.
For some reason, no matter what I suggest, he’ll say, “Nah, I’m not in the mood for that.” No. Matter. What. It is positively infuriating, especially when the conversation immediately returns to “So, what do you want for dinner?” It’s sort of like dancing with someone who insists on leading but doesn’t know the steps.
I can only imagine that this problem will grow once BabyHacks has a say.
Thanks to The Mama Too, I many now have a tool to combat this ridiculousness. In her house, “I don’t want that” is not considered to be an entire response. They have a rule that if you veto one suggestion, you have to follow it up with another.
So, now PapaHacks will have to say something like, “I’m not in the mood for pizza, how about tacos?” To which I’ll mostly likely agree instead of saying, “Nah, I’m not in the mood for that.” Not that I’ll be able to anymore, I’ll have to counter with my own suggestion if I’m just not intersted in Mexican cuisine that night.
I love this. It’s simple. It has the potential to be effective. And it could possibly reduce the divorce rate in North America.
