i don’t want to hear your opinion unless you agree with me

February 21, 2010

i don’t want to hear your opinion unless you agree with me

When we did our pre-marital counseling, the pastor that did it told us a theory he had on spending – men like to spend big money a few times a year on big purchases (at my house this looks like computers, fancy phones, other random geek and/or electronic stuff) and women like to spend smaller amounts of money more frequently on smaller purchases (at my house: clothes, accessories, etc.).

I don’t disagree with that theory.

I also have a theory of my own that works in tandem with that one.

My theory is that everyone has something that they like to spend their money on.  Some people like to spend huge amounts of money on beanie babies on ebay, others like to invest in expensive fishing rods.  Both are lost on me.  Some people choose to spend a lot of money buying organic food, cleaning products, etc., others like to travel a lot.

Generally speaking, everyone’s spending splurges are well and good – provided they have the money to spend.

So, my husband is into electronics.  I really don’t care about HD or surround sound, etc.   Likewise, I don’t think he has bought a single item of clothing for himself in four years, nor has he stepped foot in a mall.  Clearly our spending habits are different.

The fact that our spending habits are different is why we went an entire year with no dvd player.  Ours was stolen when our house was broken into – Christmas 2008.

We spent 2009 in negotiations.

Me: We NEVER watch movies, let’s just get a cheap dvd player, save our money and call it a day.  I want to buy the 30 Day Shred.

Him: HD. Blu-ray better. More power. *Tim the Tool Man Grunts.*

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.  All. Year. Long.

My parents finally got him a blu-ray player for Christmas.  Their money, not ours.  A gift idea for Mr. Mouse that was not clothes.  Everyone was happy.

Now, we are onto a new set of negotiations.

I will call it The Case of the Play Kitchen.

Baby Swiss loves to pretend to cook.  She stirs her pretend food in her bowl, adds pretend ingredients, gives pretend tastes to her babies and her stuff chick/duck (Chuck).  She even makes the pretend eating noises for them.  At church, they tell me how much she loves to play in the play kitchen and the other day when she played at a friend’s house while I went to the doctor, I heard about how much fun she had playing in the kitchen.

The girl is clearly the next Julia Child.  Well, except Julia started cooking as an adult.  Baby Swiss is tall too.

Anyway, my argument is that we might as well get a kitchen now – we know she would like it and we would maximize the amount of time that it would get use by not waiting until November for her birthday.  She doesn’t know the difference between now and her birthday anyway, other than she’ll have a million other new toys at her birthday, then again a month later at Christmas – as opposed to no new toys now.

I want to get a nice wooden play kitchen because it will be in either my kitchen or my living room and I prefer the look and the construction of the wood kitchens to the plastic ones.

Mr. Mouse wants to spend less money on a plastic one.

It better not be another year before this is settled. I mean, he got what he wanted last time, it’s my turn to win, right?  Right?

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