‘Why I’m done one-upping my husband’

Mum of four Chaunie Brusie says she’s over having a competition with her husband about who is the most exhausted parent.

“Nearly every single day, without fail, I find myself in the kitchen scrubbing something or wrestling a baby into a diaper on the floor when my husband comes home from work,” she reveals on babble.com

When her husband asks ‘how was your day?’ she admits she responds with a huge sigh and a vent.

Chaunie reveals she’ll say something like: “Oh my gosh, I’m exhausted. Your children were all CRAZY today. It was like one thing after another … and the baby pooped on the rug the second I was trying to get us out of the door and your son refused to nap!

“I have to admit that even I am a little tired of our exhausted wife/overwhelmed husband spiel we’ve got going on here,” she reveals.

“Why is it always my default setting to complain about my day the second my husband walks through the door? Why is it that I never — ever — relay the good parts of the day to him? Why do I want him to know just how exhausting it is to be me?”

Chaunie admits that while she doesn’t know the answer, she realizes that complaining isn’t helping anyone.

“Our marriage is not one long competition to see who can have the most miserable day. So why am I making it one?” she asks.

So her solution, she says, when her husband asks her how her day went, is to try and focus on the positive.

“Instead of immediately launching into a tirade about the latest poop-on-the-rug incident, or the fact that my toddler killed my brand new flowers by 'helping' me water them, or that we don’t have a babysitter for his sister’s graduation tomorrow night, I think I’ll take a deep breath and simply say, “It was pretty good. I’ll tell you about it later.”

Amen to that!