50 Times Men Exposed Gross And Annoying Habits Of Their Wives And GFs
Interview With ExpertWhen we think about stereotypes, girls are supposed to be the clean ones. In our collective minds, women are cleaning and tidying up in the house and urging their significant others to do the same. In reality, we can be as messy and gross as the guys. It's exhausting to keep a pristine home, so we dabble in the occasional weaponized incompetence, too.
We've compiled a selection of the most hilarious, irritating, and vexing pics of boyfriends and husbands coming across the messes that their girlfriends or wives made. Some of them include nasty habits – others are just fun quirks. But the bottom line is this: we can all be messy and weird, and the best way to approach it is probably with a healthy dose of humor.
Bored Panda asked Clinical Psychologist Forrest Talley, Ph.D., to weigh in. Do men and women get annoyed by different things? Does a messy environment infuriate only one gender? And how can two people who live together differentiate between what's a minor inconvenience and what's a deeper issue? Talley kindly agreed to tell us more about these problems.
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My Girlfriend Throws Her Daily Contact Lenses Behind The Headboard Of Our Bed
Whether a person is tidy or messy doesn't depend solely on their gender. But it does play a role, Clinical Psychologist Forrest Talley tells Bored Panda.
"Although there is a great deal of variability between individuals (both men and women) regarding what infuriates them about a romantic partner's behavior and how intensely they become annoyed, there appears to be some trends associated with each sex."
He points out a study by ter Laak, Olthof, & Aleva (2003). "[It] suggests that men become more frustrated by behaviors that threaten their autonomy (e.g., jealousy, moodiness in a partner), and women become more annoyed by [their] partner's behaviors that threaten the relationship (e.g., condescension, aggression, and emotional distance/neglect)."
I've Watched My Partner Pick Her Nose While She Drives But Never Made The Connection Of Where She Wipes Her Snot Until I Drove Her Car
This Is How My Wife Leaves A Dish After Taking It Out Of The Oven And Walking Away. We Have Children And A Dog
Living together can cause friction between two romantic partners. It's natural. But the key to a successful relationship can sometimes be knowing what really matters and what doesn't. If partners can differentiate between minor irritations and real issues, they might enjoy a more successful relationship in the long run. But how can they do that?
Talley says there are three important things to consider:
- Does the annoying behavior occur because your love interest does not care about the impact [it] has on you, or is it due to a personal quirk, an unintentional habit?
- Is your reaction to the behavior reasonable? In other words, is it really a 'you' problem? Let's be honest; all of us are capable of overreacting.
- No matter your answers to Questions One and Two, ask yourself whether the annoying behavior [is] something you can imagine living with long term. For example, if every time he eats something, the love of your life smacks his lips loudly and slurps, can you imagine sitting across the table listening to that for years upon years?
My Wife Putting This Peanut Butter In The Trash Because "It's Empty"
This Was My Wife's "Trash Pile" From Destemming The Strawberries
The Way My Wife Cuts Tomatoes
It's all about choosing your battles, he explains. "If the behavior appears innocent and harms nothing other than your sense of annoyance, try to let it go. No relationship is perfect, and every good relationship is packed to the brim with compromise and forgiveness."
"At the same time," Talley goes on, "know your limits and realize that those things that annoy you today will very likely annoy you five years from now. On balance, consider all the qualities of the person you are with and weigh this against how disruptive the annoying behavior is to your relationship. The results of this comparison will tell you whether to put energy into making changes or simply let it go."
My Wife Doesn't Throw Her Trash Away Before Putting Her Dish In The Sink, So I Often End Up With This
I seriously wonder how some of these people made it to adulthood. :x This is just nasty.
How My Girlfriend Has Her Car Every Time She Visits
My Wife Leaves Her Used Floss There For The Next Day
In addition to being inaccurate, stereotypes about which gender is tidier don't benefit either of them. Then one group are slobs, and the other has to face constant pressure to be 'the clean ones.' Is there any evidence to support the claims that either men or women are cleaner?
A 2012 study found that men's office desks tend to be "consistently more contaminated." Other research in the past has also suggested that men wash their hands and brush their teeth less than women do. And that's especially true when it comes to using the bathroom. A 2013 study revealed that only 77% of men whom the researchers observed at the Michigan State University campus washed their hands after using the bathroom.
My Wife Never Fully Screws The Lids Back Onto Anything
ugh. that would drive me bananas. is it so hard to just screw the lid back on???
My Wife Puts Her Hairballs Anywhere But The Trash Can
The Way My Wife Opens Things
What were the numbers for women? Considerably better. 93% of women washed their hands after a visit to the bathroom. Out of those who washed their hands, 50% of men used soap, compared to 78% of women. And here's the bad news for all: only 5% of all people the researchers observed washed their hands long enough to kill all germs.
Another interesting phenomenon comes to light when we look at what cleanliness factors people say are important to them. Interestingly, both men and women (98%) agree that washing their hands after using the toilet is important. But only 84% of men believe this habit is very important, while the percentage for women is much higher – 91%.
How My Wife Puts Away The Cutlery
She only knows what she knows. My ex would put cups in the sink with milk and an ice cube . Why, because her lazy, worthless father taught to do this so the milk wouldn't dry before the cup was loaded in the DW. I told her, :Why don't you just rinse out the cup and load it into the dishwasher, or put it back into the sink instead? This instead of having it sit in the sink with a little amount of water
I just took the divider out and have a massively integrated silverware drawer
Remove all the cutlery from her access. You wouldn't let a child get away with that.
OMG! This is madness! I get on my kids about this all the time. My six year old gets it tho.
I Think I Married A Sociopath. The Way My Wife Uses Her Magnesium Supplements
I've tried to think of a rational (or irrational) reason why she'd do this. I can't come up with one :x My sumatriptan (migraine meds) come in a blister pack like this, and yes, sometimes I'll pop open the bottom one, or the top one, but I still use up the ENTIRE blister pack before I go to work on a NEW blister pack! XD
Every Time My Girlfriend Gets Drunk
The same trend follows throughout the rest of the poll. More women than men believe that changing undergarments and clothes and washing hands after using public transportation are crucial behaviors. The same goes for habits like sanitizing mobile devices, living spaces, and work spaces: only about a third of men find these practices to be important.
However, just because women say that cleaner spaces and personal hygiene matter to them greatly doesn't mean that they are, in fact, tidier or that they have better personal hygiene.
Susan Michie, health psychology professor and director of the Centre for Behavior Change at the Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology at University College London, believes that such behaviors are socially programmed, not genetic. "Women are more focused on care than men – childcare, household care, personal care," she explained.
My Wife Insists This Is Normal
My Lunatic Wife Cuts Bananas In Half And Just Leaves The Top
My Girlfriend's Kitchen, Everyone
The researcher who conducted the Michigan State University campus study, Carl Borchgrevink, suggested that men washed their hands less because they believe fearing germs is emasculating. "We did talk to some of [the men] and ask, 'Why didn't [you] wash your hands?' And they would look at us indignantly and say, 'I'm clean, I don't need to wash my hands.' They had a sense of invincibility."
Check Before Buying Groceries
My wife never checks if we have something or not before going to the grocery store or, even worse, ordering online. Case in point: about 7 cream cheeses. Varieties are nice, but we'll never use them up without bagels 3 meals a day. It's not really a money thing, but I just hate wasting food.
My Wife Doesn't Get All The Ice Out Of One Tray Before Using Another
This Represents A Single Week Of Mugs And Glasses That My Wife Leaves In Our Bathroom. I Clean All Of These Every Week, And They Are Back The Next. Anyone Else Feel My Pain?
Stop cleaning them, let them build up. Would be an interesting experiment to see how far she is willing to go before she thinks it's too much.
Men and women also perceive their messy surroundings differently. In a 2012 UCLA study, mothers and fathers did video tours of their homes with researchers who observed their levels of the stress hormone cortisol. They found that the mothers felt more stressed in cluttered environments, and the fathers remained psychologically unaffected.
My Wife Only Takes A Few Bites Of An Apple And "Saves The Rest For Later"
ugh. the one on the right seems like it's been there for a while. and why can't she just eat the whole thing? or if she, for some reason, doesn't really like eating the apple off the core, she could just cut it into slices
My Girlfriend Only Eats The First Bite Of Cookies Because "It's The Best Bite"
there's absolutely something wrong with her. the cookie all tastes the same anyway, first bite or not
My Wife Spits Her Seed Shells Into The Door Handle Of Our Car
The mothers used words like "mess," "not fun," and "very chaotic" when describing their homes. The fathers, on the other hand, didn't mention the messy environments at all. "Fathers in their home tours would walk in the same rooms their wives had come through and often made no mention whatsoever of the messiness and were unaffected psychologically," UCLA professor of anthropology, Jeanne Arnold, said.
But that doesn't mean that men don't notice the mess. In 2019, researchers showed participants photographs of messy rooms. They found that "men and women respondents do not differ in their perceptions of how messy a room is or how urgent it is to clean it up."
Wife Didn't Want Anything From The Burger King, So I Got Home, Went To The Bathroom, And Came Back To This
There is a burger restaurant at my city with a "my girlfriend is not hungry" extra package. They give you an extra patty in the burger plus a larger order of fries or 5 more onion rings. Genius.
How My Partner Leaves The Sugar After Making Coffee
My Partner Put My Laptop In The Freezer Cause It Was Overheating
However, the respondents did care about to whom the messy room belonged. Upon hearing that a woman lives in the clean room, the participants judged it as less clean than when a man lived there.
They also thought that guests would judge the woman more and that she would feel uncomfortable having people over. And it was here that the main difference presented itself: we hold women to a higher standard of cleanliness than men.
How My Wife Loads The Dishwasher
she either genuinely doesn't know how, or it's weaponized incompetence. and they should have wildly different effects on how he should react.
My Wife Never Finishes A Bottle Of Shampoo Or Body Wash Before Buying A New Kind And Leaving The Old Ones
The Way That My Girlfriend Eats A Pizza
It's also worth mentioning that the conclusions of the study played into the stereotype that men are lazy slobs. Respondents said that if the messy room belonged to a man, he was less responsible and hardworking. Yet participants didn't think that visitors would judge the man. "There's no expected social consequence to that," one of the researchers, Sarah Thébaud, said. "It's that 'Boys will be boys' thing."
How My Girlfriend Doesn't Zip The Resealable Bag Closed And Puts The Bag Upside Down
It’s called a zip lock bag for a reason, you’re meant to zip it so it’s locked
My Wife Leaves The Empty Candy Wrappers In The Bowl Of Candy As She Eats Them
Things My Wife Leaves In The Fridge
This Is What My Wife Does To Muffins
This Is How My Wife Deals With Avocados
Wife Asked Me To Put Some Gas In Her Car Before She Drives To Work Tomorrow
"It's Always So Cold In Our House. Our Furnace Sucks." -Wife In January 2020 When It's -32°C
He's likely to burn your house down some day. Always leave heat vents uncovered and uncrowdeded!
My Girlfriend Leaves The Bath Tub Running Slightly 24/7, 365 Because Her Cat Likes To Stick His Paws In It
Our cats also like doing this, but we just bought a cat fountain - the water still needs to be replaced when cleaning, but I think it's less waste than leaving a tap running
My Wife Never Replaces The Roll. This Is The Closest She Will Get
Again, take it with you the next time you use the loo. See if that changes her tune XD
I Went To The Bathroom And Came Back To Find That My Girlfriend Had Taken A Bite Out Of My Burrito
My Wife: "I Always Check The Lint Trap." Every Time I Check The Lint Trap, I Find It Like This
As a kid my neighbors house caught fire. They suspect it was from not cleaning the dryer vent. This isn't just lazy but dangerous.
My Wife Kept Threatening To Throw Away My Favorite Pair Of Yard Work Shorts. Today I Found Them Like This
The only way to win is to still wear them whilst doing yard work
My Wife Just Throws Her Kitchen Scraps In The Sink Instead Of The Trash Can Because "The Disposal Can Handle It." The Sink Disposal Is Not A Trash Can, Right?
My Wife Dropped Peanut Butter Toast On The Floor. That Was 24 Hours Ago
My Wife Keeps Using My iPad As Her Coaster
My Wife Leaves The Lights On For No Reason
My Wife And Kids Find This Perfectly Normal And Acceptable
The Way My Wife Changes The Toilet Paper Roll
The New Jar Of Nutella My Girlfriend Tried To Heat In The Microwave
I don't know if this is so bad, we've all done something like this. It does look pretty bad though.
My Partner Insists That The Scrub Mommy Is A Washcloth, And This Is How She Stores It
The amount of borderline sociopathic, neglectful or abusive behaviors in this post is disturbing...
The one with the chicken on the stove was horrifying. They have children!
Load More Replies...I bet I saw at least half of them in another post, either here or on another site, with the genders reversed...
This one serves as a nice glimpse into how the same topic is addressed by gender. The most telling is that the phrase "weaponized incompetence" is only seen twice (on the surface, it may have been used in one of the deeper comment threads). Once in the lead paragraph and once in a visible comment. If this one had been about men, weaponized incompetence would have been a lead comment in every other post, at least.
I have some major mental health issues, and in my pre-treatment days, I certainly used weaponized incompetence. I'll admit to it. Yes, I'm a woman. I think I mostly learned it from years with an abusive ex who was a master at it. I had to do everything for him (even apply for jobs), and it was like after I was done... I was just so tired I stopped doing everything. Then in therapy I realized what I was doing and have worked really hard to get myself functional and responsible again. It looks like a few women on there might need some professional help. Not everything is mental illness, but I'd rather think it's that than believe that folks can be that stupid.
Load More Replies...I'm going to assume half these women have undiagnosed ADHD. I did, and after my diagnosis and some treatment, a lot of things my husband could have complained about, but was too kind to, cleared up. Stuff that looked selfish or lazy but was just completely off my radar. Maybe find out if your SO needs help or treatment before deciding their behavior should be Internet entertainment
Damn, you got downvoted. I was going to say the same, some of these look like executive dysfunction. Not cool to shame them online.
Load More Replies...The lesson from this: raccoons may be cute, but they're not gf material.
You complain YET you marry people like that 🤷🏻♀️ and remain married. So...
I absolutely agree but the opposite posts are typically 2 to 1.
Load More Replies...Most of these are signs of insanely lazy and selfish people. I would have kicked my partner to the kerb for a lot of these, because I don't see the culprits being much better in other areas of their lives.
All I can say is these people are living with / married to/ dating pigs and idiots. Gross!
This made me feel a little better about myself, not gonna lie. Some of these are just straight nasty x_x
I thought this was going to be misogynistic AF. But some of these habits are just gross. We all have our 'filth threshold', and people with executive functioning issues often don't keep house well, but most of those complaints are fully justified. I mean, there's untidy, then there's gross, and there's downright stupid/dangerous. Untidy is acceptable... that's something to work with. Gross and stupid doesn't have a cure, so I wonder why they married these women at all.
This just proves when you find a partner who doesn't do these things are keepers
These women definitely have mental issues. I'm surprised their significant others are still with them. Unconditional love must play a HUGE part on all their relationships.
I suppose this equalises the beat up of guys that women do every now and again.
So having bad manners is not about being a man or a woman, it is about being a human with bad manners? Who would have thought?
Wife never puts the trash can liner in the kitchen over the entire trash can and I buy extra large liners. I always had to do it. Then I got tired of it, started throwing stuff in the can, if it made it in the liner, great. If it didn't, oh well. She finally complained and I said "And who won't put the liners on correctly?". She said "Me, because I'm lazy". I just stated it wasn't my problem then. She's getting better at it.
regardless of the gender these posts are attributed to....if you married that person, it is your own fault. There is no way you guys didn't live together and those things were not noticed. I would have kicked out my partner out of the house after the first time I made a comment and it wasn't taken seriously. so, all of you are guilty parties here, no doubts
I can't believe the appalling pictures on this post. Irrespective of which gender does these things, it's either gross negligence, stupidity, laziness or deliberate provocation. I would get as far away from these people as possible and PDQ ( pretty damn quick ) too !
These are all good examples of behaviors that people need to have conversations about. Don't wait for resentment to build up to a big fight later. Just sit down calmly, explain why the issue is an issue, and work on a way for the bad habits to be subverted or replaced with better ones. Easier said than done but still necessary for happy cohabitation.
I couldn't even get through this article! My anxiety is through the roof! How does anyone live like that!?!?!?
The amount of borderline sociopathic, neglectful or abusive behaviors in this post is disturbing...
The one with the chicken on the stove was horrifying. They have children!
Load More Replies...I bet I saw at least half of them in another post, either here or on another site, with the genders reversed...
This one serves as a nice glimpse into how the same topic is addressed by gender. The most telling is that the phrase "weaponized incompetence" is only seen twice (on the surface, it may have been used in one of the deeper comment threads). Once in the lead paragraph and once in a visible comment. If this one had been about men, weaponized incompetence would have been a lead comment in every other post, at least.
I have some major mental health issues, and in my pre-treatment days, I certainly used weaponized incompetence. I'll admit to it. Yes, I'm a woman. I think I mostly learned it from years with an abusive ex who was a master at it. I had to do everything for him (even apply for jobs), and it was like after I was done... I was just so tired I stopped doing everything. Then in therapy I realized what I was doing and have worked really hard to get myself functional and responsible again. It looks like a few women on there might need some professional help. Not everything is mental illness, but I'd rather think it's that than believe that folks can be that stupid.
Load More Replies...I'm going to assume half these women have undiagnosed ADHD. I did, and after my diagnosis and some treatment, a lot of things my husband could have complained about, but was too kind to, cleared up. Stuff that looked selfish or lazy but was just completely off my radar. Maybe find out if your SO needs help or treatment before deciding their behavior should be Internet entertainment
Damn, you got downvoted. I was going to say the same, some of these look like executive dysfunction. Not cool to shame them online.
Load More Replies...The lesson from this: raccoons may be cute, but they're not gf material.
You complain YET you marry people like that 🤷🏻♀️ and remain married. So...
I absolutely agree but the opposite posts are typically 2 to 1.
Load More Replies...Most of these are signs of insanely lazy and selfish people. I would have kicked my partner to the kerb for a lot of these, because I don't see the culprits being much better in other areas of their lives.
All I can say is these people are living with / married to/ dating pigs and idiots. Gross!
This made me feel a little better about myself, not gonna lie. Some of these are just straight nasty x_x
I thought this was going to be misogynistic AF. But some of these habits are just gross. We all have our 'filth threshold', and people with executive functioning issues often don't keep house well, but most of those complaints are fully justified. I mean, there's untidy, then there's gross, and there's downright stupid/dangerous. Untidy is acceptable... that's something to work with. Gross and stupid doesn't have a cure, so I wonder why they married these women at all.
This just proves when you find a partner who doesn't do these things are keepers
These women definitely have mental issues. I'm surprised their significant others are still with them. Unconditional love must play a HUGE part on all their relationships.
I suppose this equalises the beat up of guys that women do every now and again.
So having bad manners is not about being a man or a woman, it is about being a human with bad manners? Who would have thought?
Wife never puts the trash can liner in the kitchen over the entire trash can and I buy extra large liners. I always had to do it. Then I got tired of it, started throwing stuff in the can, if it made it in the liner, great. If it didn't, oh well. She finally complained and I said "And who won't put the liners on correctly?". She said "Me, because I'm lazy". I just stated it wasn't my problem then. She's getting better at it.
regardless of the gender these posts are attributed to....if you married that person, it is your own fault. There is no way you guys didn't live together and those things were not noticed. I would have kicked out my partner out of the house after the first time I made a comment and it wasn't taken seriously. so, all of you are guilty parties here, no doubts
I can't believe the appalling pictures on this post. Irrespective of which gender does these things, it's either gross negligence, stupidity, laziness or deliberate provocation. I would get as far away from these people as possible and PDQ ( pretty damn quick ) too !
These are all good examples of behaviors that people need to have conversations about. Don't wait for resentment to build up to a big fight later. Just sit down calmly, explain why the issue is an issue, and work on a way for the bad habits to be subverted or replaced with better ones. Easier said than done but still necessary for happy cohabitation.
I couldn't even get through this article! My anxiety is through the roof! How does anyone live like that!?!?!?