Posted on 05/15/2005 4:55:32 PM PDT by CarrotAndStick
Leaving a wet towel on the bathroom floor may seem a minor issue but it could wreck a relationship. Scientists have identified a list of the most annoying habits that can cause rifts between couples.
The study of minor irritations in domestic life has found that people can almost become "allergic" to a partner's foibles. Failure to control that shrill laugh might end in marriage-destroying fury. Among the most annoying habits are failing to hang up towels, leaving a new loo roll on top of the empty one and using a fork as a back-scratcher.
Cringe-inducing endearments such as "babykins" can also cause an adverse reaction. When repeated, a couple can reach snapping point.
Many of the habits detailed in the study, published in the academic journal Personal Relationships, are the familiar fibre of male-female interaction. They include nose-picking, burping and tatty clothes in men and lateness, verbosity and demands for reassurance about clothing in women.
The study, funded by the US government's health research arm and conducted at Louisville University, charted the grim "deromanticisation" of more than 160 relationships. It also compared what was termed "social allergen frequency" (nasty habits) with relationship satisfaction and failure in a further 274 people. The report, Social Allergies in Romantic Relationships, aims to establish the nature of the link between nasty habits and nasty divorce. Some of the issues raised will provide bored couples with a new range of things to complain about.
Rats!!! My husband has passed away and I live alone except for the dogs and cats. So, my pet peeve is that I leave the dishes in the sink until they pile up high enough for me to load the dishwasher.
Ill do a survey and get back to you.
Just fixing an obvious typo.
Yes, how about a two-liter soft drink bottle thrown in the first convenient waste basket, such as the tiny one in the bathroom?
If guys fully understood how many brownie points they could gain by always sitting down to pee, they'd change."
American men are femininzed enough as it is, now you want us to sit down when we pee?
My pet peeve is toothpaste! If put the top back on!
If people would just listen to Dr. Laura and the Apostle Paul on honoring one another, we could dispense with this entire gummit program....
I hadn't considered that... sort of an unfair "advantage." OTOH, the possibility of going in deep and busting off a nail would be a liability.
"This just in: marriage requires work, compromise."
These damn researchers must all be single. I think the entire generation has been raised never seeing a marital dispute be amicably resolved.
They seem to think if you can sit through dinner with your S.O. and then smoke a reefer and get it on that's enough to sustain a marriage.
This year I am working in a building with three employees: the boss, my coworker, and me. My boss is the only female. She has a playful sense of humor, and rarely gets angry. I made the mistake of leaving the toilet seat up one time in the bathroom. She almost sat in the toilet. Did she fuss? Nope. She just came out and told on me to my coworker in a making fun manner. It never happened again.
I agree. My husband has annoying habits, but I just turn them into a joke. Like when he leaves a dirty shirt on the floor, a foot away from the hamper, one arm outstretched as if it tried to crawl to the hamper and died just short of the mark.
One of my very rare Heloise-like behaviors is to cut those big containers in half before putting them in the garbage. Although as I, and my garbage collector, get older, now and then I put one in there uncut, just for a little mercy. Nothing like an overweight bag of trash, first thing in the morning, to cripple you for a day or two.
Side note to all you who are annoyed by your spouse's little discourtesies: my spouse dropped dead less than a year after the ceremony. Cherish what you got, folks.
I cudda done without that visual! LOLOL!
Once upon a time, long long ago, I was the sole female on a US Naval Oceanographic Office research ship. I remember VERY clearly using the head for the first time in my stateroom (unshared, of course) and having the seat follow me UP afterwards!! Apparently this was a spring-loaded default position...
You must be joking. And please don't tell me that you've got your huband trained to sit.
A little later, after this had been going on for 30 minutes or so, somebody went to that bathroom and left the seat up.
That surprised little cat went into the water, and back out again in about 1/100 of a second.
A few years later, our very large male German Shepherd dog would love to stand at the kitchen door as all the kids came home from school. He was so happy to see this that he would wag his tail like crazy. As he wagged, EVERYTHING in the back half of his body would wave.
This proved to be an irresistable temptation for the cat, who, after watching this show from down below for several minutes, suddenly decided to reach up and take a swipe with his claws at the moving parts. I think he drew bood.
The dog was not amused. Very not amused.
Thankfully we have 2 bathrooms, one for each of us.
Apparently "hopping in the sack with someone at the office" didn't make the list.
I'm the husband and I've been doing that for many years. It works great.
http://www.magicjohn.com/mj.htm
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