Wednesday 4 July 2007

Further Adventures in Couplehood

(Ooo yeah, he's blogging up a storm tonight!)

Mistress2Bar's entry on slow cookers prompted me to remember that I had suggested getting one a little while ago.

Having been had a long fascination with personal finance blogs, I came across this site and noticed an entry on slow cookers. The idea of cooking a reasonably healthy meal over the course of a day without too much work seemed to be a winner to me. Get everything done early and voila, dinner is ready when you want it.

My recollection is that my idea was greeted with very little enthusiasm. The arguments of leaving an electrical appliance running all day long, of having another electrical appliance, of the cost etc were just too much and the idea never got off the ground. So I filed it under the mental header of 'good intentions' and left it at that. Looking back, I think it may also have been a challenge to her as Queen of the Kitchen and my infidel suggestions were infringing on her turf.

To be honest, this isn't the first time in our lives together that I've suggested something and the reaction has been less than what I had hoped for only for a period of time to pass and then *zing*, someone else suggested it and now it's a good idea.

Naturally, it leads one to be a bit self pitying "It's never a good idea when I suggest it, but if someone else does ...". But really, is this the best way to go about it? I could have played the "I told you so" (actually, I probably did) but that would achieve absolutely nothing!

If I am honest, I guess it would be more of my failure to 'sell' the idea to Mistress2Bar. Just as if I was trying to get her to agree to buying a car, I should have researched the product, assembled the pros (noting the 'button pushing' points), pre-argued the counterarguments and allowed for a period of time to sell it to her.

So the moral to this story is that if I think something is a good idea it probably is, so I need to:
a. Sell it well;
b. Not capitulate immediately in the face of opposition; and/or
c. Just go out and do it/get it and start using it myself.

2 comments:

Madame2Bar said...

Yes 2Bar if you thought it was such a good idea you should have sold it better. At the time we had no extra space to put the cooker as the kitchen was small and I've never used or seen a slow cooker in action. If I don't think I'm going to use it I'm not going to waste the money in buying it. As it was my brother got it at staff price which was cheaper and sister-in-law gave a run down of how easy it was to use for her family of 7. Sometimes the time has to be right for it to click. And am I really that hard or scary to talk to if you feel you capitulate immediately if I oppose your idea?

By the way c. on your list is not a great way of communicating with me. Imagine if I just went out and got the swimming pool and started using it myself! ;)

2BarRiff said...

I accept what you are saying however, the points you raise as reasons not to get a slow cooker were never given to me at the time. All I got was a "No", there was no effort to look into it and yet, when someone else said it was a good idea all of a sudden it makes sense.

My aim in this post was not to start a fight, but instead to highlight a dynamic in our relationship that was causing confusion and how I would work to make sure that next time, it didn't happen.

And good job working a reference to the pool in :-)