My eyes are open living with my bro
Getting a divorce, my brother moved in, and life is so much better. I used to do a majority of the house work, all the house admin, all the grocery shopping and cooking, and most of the childcare. Now my brother does chores before I can get to them. Dishes? Done. Trash taken out? Done. Lawn mowed? Done. Trash bins taken down/up? Done. I am truly stupefied. You mean it’s possible for other people living in the same house as you to see things that need to be done and contribute to them getting done? And not in 5-10 business days, but when they actually need to be done?
There’s some house stuff that needs to get fixed that my wife never wanted to work on figuring out how to take care. My brother proactively starts conversations about it. Has come to the table with solutions and options. Has offered to call repair people. You mean, I don’t have to do all that alone? I don’t have to find solutions, propose them, and then watch as nothing ever happens because the other person doesn’t want to worry about it right now?
And he cooks for us every night! I put the baby down and when I’m done there’s food waiting for me like magic. Not just freezer food either, but real effort meals. We grocery shop together and then he prepares everything.
And it’s not his responsibility at all, but he’s always there if I need an extra hand with my baby. One night my boy woke up middle of the night due to a gas attack and was non-stop screaming for 30min. I was doing everything I could think of and 5-10min in my bro pops up offering to help bounce or grab gas drops. He even did bicycle kicks with the boy. My ex would’ve slept through the whole thing.
It’s absolutely wild to me to be so seen and cared about. Really my whole family has shown mountains of support for me. The consistent day to day actions though show me how alone I really was in my marriage to my wife. Looking forward to my new and better life!
Mother’s Day breakfast prepared by my brother for our mom and me, eggs also but not pictured.