A Rant in a Different Direction

Man, it's been an eventful day, apparently.

So, my partner and I are living with his mother, and have been for two years --see previous rant blog post for more details-- and the one thing we specifically asked her to do in lieu of rent was the dishes. We don't ask her to sweep, we don't ask her to vacuum, we don't ask her to clean the bathroom (this is relevant). Like, if she drops something we expect her to clean it up, but that's what we do, too, but beyond that and the dishes, we don't ask her to do anything else.

She's not our Cinderella that we have wait on us hand and foot. She doesn't even have to cook, and she didn't even contribute to groceries for the longest time, even after her SSI came through.

But I guess after two years of knowing that the only thing we truly expect of her is dishes, I guess she's gotten resentful of having to do it on Saturdays (which *is* a day we have a lot of people over, but mostly results in dirty cups, not plates or pots). Maybe I'm being too inflexible, but nah man, you do the chores on your chore chart. She does have chronic pain, but so does my partner, and he did the dishes before she took over. I don't expect her to do them if she's having a bad flare or is sick, and she doesn't have to do them every day, it just has to get done.

But I guess that one day of extra dishes is a bridge too far between her occasional self-assigned chores --we're disgusting slobs apparently-- and her hours of t.v. watching.

I keep vacillating between wondering if I was insensitive to her needs, or if all I did was firmly establish a boundary that she was trying to stomp on and now I'm feeling bad about it because I'm a people pleaser and hate confrontation. Like, I care, but I just Don't Care anymore. I want to keep things civil while we're all living together, but I want her out of my fucking house and my tolerance for dealing with her bullshit is lowering.

Maybe I am a bad person. But maybe that's just something I'll have to live with.