RUBbette Wives & Housework, si man

[eekee 182]

My RUB man does a lot of housework, mainly because I am a grad student and I have a job too. In his parent's marriage, it's pretty 50/50. When I had no job, it would be about 60/40... him getting the 40, but he quit his job (lucky person has enough savings to live in Moscow for years without working), and apparently is so bored the flat looks amazing and he's done some remodeling here and there. He's a neat freak though.

I take care of our garden, and I cook. The only thing he'll cook sometimes is breakfast, if you consider making an ommelette cooking. But I like elaborate cooking so I do it all. I handle our investments, since that's my area, and he pays the bills and when needed helps me deal with Russian bureaucracy

You have a garden in Moscow and your husband doesn't have to work?

[Brad and Vika 129]

She looks like she could be a RUB chick. Only way to tell is if her incisors grow an inch when it gets dark.

OMG! Where do I start? Pots left out on the stove with food still in it. "I will just have to heat it up later". "Borscht is only good after three days." Now she has begun taking the pots off the stove, but they the go into the refrigerator.

Using tupperware or something similar. Sure she uses it, the lids become some type of serving tray and the canisters hold other things, but not with a lid on top. If she wants to keep it covered that is what aluminum foil is for. As for dishes in the sink, usually that will start with some large bowl before the dishes of all sizes are stacked on top. In under a minute I can re-stack them allowing access to the faucet. At least she has learned about the dishwasher.

Oh yeah, and drinking the water out of the faucet. I have done that all my life and didn't die. Heck, I used to drink it directly from the hose outside growing up and didn't die. When the wife arrived we were constantly buying various sizes of bottled water, until we went to the large bottle with the cooler. Finally I found a system that fits under the sink and "purifies" the water (sufficiently for her) and will give us almost unlimited "good" water for only $20 a month.

I love my wife, but housework is not her strong suit. I have talked about us getting a larger home so that more family can visit and our friends won't be on top of one another during parties. She complains about more to dust and wasted energy heating or cooling empty rooms. Once again the cultural differences show up. I'm not really complaining but it feels good to just get it off my chest once in a while.

Vika is also opposedto hiring someone to clean. She says she doesn't want any strangers in the house to clean it and touch her stuff.

My wife leaves food out all the time.. uncovered then she puts in fridge 3 hours later and doesnt use wrap or anything.. I bought tupperware and saran wrap lol I was having stomach troubles the first few weeks and she said it was because I don't eat proper diet lol.. I keep telling her to seal food always lol... She washed dishes all the time but they dry on the counter.. I usually end up drying them because I can't stand cluttered counter tops.. I think 2 months since she has been here the dishwasher has been used twice..

One appliance I know she loves besides the curling iron and hot rollers.. is the dryer for clothes... :dance:

How is she about chemicals from plastic getting into the food? That is another issue for us.

I took a whole freakin' pillow worth out of the lint filter the other day! I have to run down there and check it every so often, she NEVER will. Must be a man job.

I do this too sometimes. Vika forgets. She is pretty good with all the appliances though, and even likes air conditioning.

Edited December 2, 2011 by Brad and Vika

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

How is she about chemicals from plastic getting into the food? That is another issue for us.

Alla does not allow plastic food containers! NO WAY! Glass only.

[AmyWrites 593]

You have a garden in Moscow and your husband doesn't have to work?

I'm sorry, not a garden... what I call a "garden" is actually like 15 potted plants in our balcony. I'm still dreaming of having a garden...

My SO is the type that doesn't spend a penny on anything unless he really, really, REALLY has to... and he's had really good jobs since he graduated. He certainly is luckier than most Russians.

[Brad and Vika 129]

Alla does not allow plastic food containers! NO WAY! Glass only.

Right. Brad taking leftover pasta to work in gladware plastic reusable container = OK. Vika putting stinky garlic fish in same = Are you crazy? A dinner plate with another covering it in the fridge We do have glass bowls with rubber lids that she uses sometimes.

[slim 1,525]

He certainly is luckier than most Russians.

My wife tells me every day I'm luckier than most Americans.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Right. Brad taking leftover pasta to work in gladware plastic reusable container = OK. Vika putting stinky garlic fish in same = Are you crazy? A dinner plate with another covering it in the fridge We do have glass bowls with rubber lids that she uses sometimes.

Oh yeah, the dinner plates, one turned over on the other! Pots in the refrigerator! Yes, the glass containers she uses for taking food with us somewhere or to work have rubber lids, that is OK. No plastic allowed, she threw all that away or I put them on my workbench for small parts and stuff.

I think they fish would melt its way through anything plastic anyway.

My wife tells me every day I'm luckier than most Americans.

You too!?

[Inna & Brian 11]

A dinner plate with another covering it in the fridge

Yours does that too?

Mine is not here yet but I already know there is going to be a lot of issues about "chemicals" in food. I don't know what she's going to eat. Most food here is processed within an inch its life (or an inch of our life

Edited December 3, 2011 by Inna & Brian

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Yours does that too?

Mine is not here yet but I already know there is going to be a lot of issues about "chemicals" in food. I don't know what she's going to eat. Most food here is processed within an inch its life (or an inch of our life

Yeah right. Alla gets milk from a cow she knows personally and will not buy milk in plastic containers, she knows the chickens she gets eggs from, buys fresh vegetables and meat, nothing from a box or can. No cake mixes, pancake mixes etc. (I buy some of that stuff but she will not eat it) She WILL eat some types of sausage, but not the usual smoked sausage we are used to, it has to be "sausage like in Ukraine"

She will find a way to avoid chemical food, I promise you.

I do not complain about anything thatgets IN the refrigerator. The problem is getting it IN there rather than being left on the counter or stove

[Brad and Vika 129]

Yours does that too?

Mine is not here yet but I already know there is going to be a lot of issues about "chemicals" in food. I don't know what she's going to eat. Most food here is processed within an inch its life (or an inch of our life

We found that the glass bowls and her letting me use plastic was a working compromise. I guess having all the food in your fridge smell like old fish is considered a good thing by some. Vika really doesn't leave much out on the counter at this point, but it was an issue. She also will thaw and re-freeze meat. I throw it out when I find it.

There really are so many fewer preservatives in all the food in Ukraine - a paradox, because the food does seem to last longer with less care (bread for example).

[TBoneTX 45,301]

There is still a local struggle about dirty-dish rules: Please don't stack dinner plates atop each other, because it craps up the formerly clean undersides of the plates, too. Please run water in or on everything right after it's been used, so that the residual ####### doesn't congeal permanently. Please, PLEASE drop every piece of used silverware into water so that it doesn't take an industrial sanding-machine to remove the hardened-on ####### later. PLEASE don't put stuff into the dishwasher until it's been inspected for the possible need of pre-scrubbing.

We have some cooking-pots that will NEVER come clean (short of a resurrection of carbon tetrachloride), and I had to throw out a couple of forks onto which ####### became vulcanized after inadequate treatment before they went into the dishwasher.

Oh, and: If you must load the dishwasher yourself, please ensure that nothing tall will interfere with the rotation of the arms. In fact, YOU concentrate on soaking or rinsing just-used stuff in the sink, and your husband will ever-so-gladly handle it from there.

In regard to the dryer, the lint-trap is a lost cause, sigh man.

Also, every time Mrs. T-B. cooks spaghetti, everything in the entire kitchen (not just in or around the sink) ends up with sauce or meat-grease on it, gross man. Actually, I shouldn't complain, because every other U.S. husband who's married to an Ecuatoriana has rice constantly coming out of his nether crack and every other orifice, gag man. The ants in the kitchen wholeheartedly agree, man.

Edited December 3, 2011 by TBoneTX

[eekee 182]

I'm sorry, not a garden... what I call a "garden" is actually like 15 potted plants in our balcony. I'm still dreaming of having a garden...

My SO is the type that doesn't spend a penny on anything unless he really, really, REALLY has to... and he's had really good jobs since he graduated. He certainly is luckier than most Russians.

oh, ok! I was picturing you guys living in one of those Novyi Russkii cottage things and was like, "Damn, girl. Where'd you find him?"

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

There is still a local struggle about dirty-dish rules: Please don't stack dinner plates atop each other, because it craps up the formerly clean undersides of the plates, too. Please run water in or on everything right after it's been used, so that the residual ####### doesn't congeal permanently. Please, PLEASE drop every piece of used silverware into water so that it doesn't take an industrial sanding-machine to remove the hardened-on ####### later. PLEASE don't put stuff into the dishwasher until it's been inspected for the possible need of pre-scrubbing.

We have some cooking-pots that will NEVER come clean (short of a resurrection of carbon tetrachloride), and I had to throw out a couple of forks onto which ####### became vulcanized after inadequate treatment before they went into the dishwasher.

Oh, and: If you must load the dishwasher yourself, please ensure that nothing tall will interfere with the rotation of the arms. In fact, YOU concentrate on soaking or rinsing just-used stuff in the sink, and your husband will ever-so-gladly handle it from there.

In regard to the dryer, the lint-trap is a lost cause, sigh man.

Also, every time Mrs. T-B. cooks spaghetti, everything in the entire kitchen (not just in or around the sink) ends up with sauce or meat-grease on it, gross man. Actually, I shouldn't complain, because every other U.S. husband who's married to an Ecuatoriana has rice constantly coming out of his nether crack and every other orifice, gag man. The ants in the kitchen wholeheartedly agree, man.

Dude...NEVER marry an FSU woman! Alla loads everything on top of the pop up sprayer in the dishwasher and then says "this machine does not clean dishes, it must be broken" I think this is why I have to "add chemical and start" the dishwaswer...I also reorganize the dishes first. Another "lost cause" You completely lost me on your "8 rules for dirty dishes" No way in this house. They go in the dishwasher as is.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

We found that the glass bowls and her letting me use plastic was a working compromise. I guess having all the food in your fridge smell like old fish is considered a good thing by some. Vika really doesn't leave much out on the counter at this point, but it was an issue. She also will thaw and re-freeze meat. I throw it out when I find it.

There really are so many fewer preservatives in all the food in Ukraine - a paradox, because the food does seem to last longer with less care (bread for example).

How did you train Vika not to leave things on the counter? Was there corporal punishment involved?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

We found that the glass bowls and her letting me use plastic was a working compromise. I guess having all the food in your fridge smell like old fish is considered a good thing by some. Vika really doesn't leave much out on the counter at this point, but it was an issue. She also will thaw and re-freeze meat. I throw it out when I find it.

There really are so many fewer preservatives in all the food in Ukraine - a paradox, because the food does seem to last longer with less care (bread for example).

The thaw re-freeze thing is actually OK in terms of food safety, but it does nothing for flavor and texture, to say the least. Especially for ice cream. (mmmm, Alla you made vanilla soup again!) One of Alla's problems is she buys huge packages of ground beef to make Ukrainian meatballs (she makes a LOT of them) and then it sits on a plate in the frig until it begins to turn brown (no problem for a Ukrainian) She is still working on coordinating the defrost process with the cooking process I guess.

This is my fault because we have a car and we do not have 5 flights of stairs coming into the house so she buys lots of food in advance and "has to" freeze it instead of going to the market and buying it fresh when she is ready to cook.

We already know how the "your fault" thing works.

In my defense (no such thing) we live about 500 yards from the front door out a 24/7 supermarket. No.......NEVER point that out! Just be "guilty ,like a man should"

Edited December 3, 2011 by Gary and Alla