The following may or may not be an actual conversation that happens more than once a month in my house. Change the characters to fit your particular home:
 |
| Lucy Van Pelt Character by Charles Schulz |
Husband (or otherwise significant other on the other side of the other): I don't know. What do you want to eat? (Charlie Brown).
Wife: I'm hungry but I don't know what I'm hungry for. You decide. (Lucy getting the football and asking Charlie Brown to kick it.)
Husband: I really don't care either. Just let me know what you want and I'll go get it. (Charlie Brown realizing what is going on and deciding to not become a victim of this "football kicking" scheme yet once again.)
20 minutes goes by...
Wife: I'm hungry. Have you decided where you are going to get something? I really don't care where we eat. (Oh, Brother... Lucy telling Charlie Brown that she knows she has swiped the football away EVERY OTHER time Charlie Brown has tried to kick it but assures him that this time it's going to be different.)
Husband: I don't care where we eat either. You pick. (You must think I'm stupid... Charlie Brown seeing this a mile away. He knows that as soon as he tries to go kick the football it is going to be pulled away like always. So he is standing his ground.)
10 more minutes go by...
 |
| Charlie Brown Character by Charles Schulz |
Husband: Fine! I will pick a place. We are going to eat at [insert closest restaurant to the house]. (Charlie Brown, knowing in his heart how this is going to end because it happens this way every single time but deciding to give it a chance because there is a "signed document".)
Husband goes and gets wallet. Husband goes and gets keys. Husband gets ready to walk out the door. (Charlie Brown takes a running start and decides if he runs fast enough he can beat Lucy hand from pulling the ball out of the way.)
Just before the husband gets to the door:
Wife: You know what? Let's eat at [insert restaurant MUCH farther out of the way]. I don't think I want anything from [the restaurant the husband picked]. (Lucy, ONCE AGAIN, snatching the ball right out from the swinging foot of Charlie Brown... Good Grief!)
If you are reading this and it applies to your home,
would you mind letting me know if you are the Lucy or the Charlie of the situation.
Heh. You live at my house?
ReplyDeleteyep - know that one VERY WELL :-)
ReplyDelete@Lisa - So I'm NOT alone in this one??? Just curious (and I will probably ask everyone)... Are you Lucy or Charlie Brown?
ReplyDelete@Glen - Which are you, Glen? Lucy or Charlie Brown?
You can call me Lucy Brown - since I married Charlie and all...
ReplyDelete@The Mommy - Ha! A Lucy (and not the slang for LSD)! My wife will be happy that she has company on this one.
ReplyDeleteWe have a similar conversation every Friday only after I decide on a place the husband goes out and comes back with something else "because it was less busy". So I guess I am Charlie but with less time to be disappointed...
ReplyDelete@Lizziehoop - Hey... you might have something there. I should probably just go to whatever place I want to. Then "Lucy" would have to eat wherever I go. Nice. (I'm sure that's not intent of your comment but it did give me some clarity on the issue!)
ReplyDeleteNext time, to get the process going quicker, just pick any random restaurant the first time Lucy asks, maybe that will make her shoot down Charlie's answer faster and accomplish the goal quicker. And always, ALWAYS, expect Lucy to snatch the ball. What do you think of my brilliant idea? :)
ReplyDeleteI've been both Lucy and Charlie but it's more fun being Lucy :). I ask my husband what he wants for a meal and it's the same answer each and every time "whatever you want" grrrrrrrrr. If I knew what to fix then I wouldn't be asking for help.lol.
ReplyDeleteI try not to be the Lucy, but as it happens, I am a woman afterall. Sometimes we don't know what we want until a terrible option is set before us. :)
ReplyDeleteOMG I swear I have the same exact conversation every night!!
ReplyDeleteIt's like I know I want to eat, but I want my husband to decide for me anyway! I don't get it!
ABSOLUTELY! Happens to me just about every weekend! :-) I'm always the Charlie Brown. Suck.
ReplyDeleteWe sort of have the same issue here, but slightly different. It's not really the Charlie/Lucy scenario. It's me wanting to please him because hey, he works hard and takes care of us all... and him wanting to give me whatever I want because, well, even after 20 years I still can't figure out why that is. Sounds perfect, right? Not when it takes forever to make a final decision! Throw in four children who are contractually forbidden to ever agree on anything and you start to get the picture. Honestly, I don't know how anything gets decided here.
ReplyDeleteI'm usually the Lucy. Yet the nights when I know exactly what I want to cook... he pulls a Lucy on me.
ReplyDeleteI spend 45 minutes playing this game with both hubby and Miss almost 9 every damn night because they both whine as badly as each other when I cook what I want.
*Note* I am a terrible cook, so what I want usually includes a jar of something or 'just add water' for the main cooking instruction.
Poor Charlie Brown.
@dark_chocolate - I like your idea. I'm going one step further, though. I'm going to pick a restaurant FAR away so that my expectations are set high. And ANY change will result in me going to a CLOSER restaurant.
ReplyDelete@Sharon - Your husband's response is fundamental man. We REALLY don't care what we eat a lot of the time. Also, it's bad for us to choose because we could eat the exact same thing for dinner every night for a week and it wouldn't bother us. So it's never good that we choose.
@aurora's cross - I think that we (Charlie Browns) should get a LIST of places that you WON'T eat from when you ask us to choose. That way you are NEVER presented with a terrible choice.
@JoJo - HA! I knew it! LOL. I don't mind the deciding. My problem is I always choose the WRONG place even with the option is left open that ANY place will do. How does that work?
@Keith Wilcox - Thanks for being there, my blogger friend. We Charlie Browns have to stick together.
@SandyAnnDee - Sounds like a good situation. I just don't think men's taste buds have evolved much. We like certain things and can eat them all of the time. AND there is never a place chosen that we can't find something that we like.
@belindasbaubles - Ok. Cooking is different. I never complain about cooking. If I'm not the one in the kitchen doing the work then I just eat whatever is chosen for me. Luckily my wife is a great cook and everything she fixes is good. Hey, at least when they are whining for 45 minutes you get to sit there and eat and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Que - Just to clarify, because I think you might be trying to fool me, when you say football do you mean football (i.e. as in the traditional game where a ball is kicked with the foot) or that American game where men dress in shoulder pads and chase oval shaped balls?
ReplyDelete@Spencer Park - To clarify your point of clarification... I have a few readers outside the US so I made sure that the first sentence showed that I was talking about the "real" football that's here in the US. LOL. I even left a video to show the football I was talking about. And before you take a shot at naming a sport "football" that has minimal kicking in it, don't you guys have a sport called "cricket"? As far as I know it doesn't have a single "cricket" in it.
ReplyDelete@Que. Thanks for the clarification. I know why you named it Football - you stole it from Football. We call it American Football or boring for short! You are right about cricket. But in fairness that used to be called "throwing balls at sticks" but it was changed so that Bob Marley could make it rhyme in his song "I don't like Reggae."
ReplyDelete@Spencer Park - LOL! That's pretty funny. We have names for your "football" too. We call it "Soccer" or "Zero to Zero: Tie". That last one is not any shorter but it's much more fun to say. :)
ReplyDeleteAuroras Cross hit it on the nose. I'm definitely a Lucy. And I can't give you a list of what I don't like because it may sound yucky on Monday, but yummy on Thursday. Had to totally laugh at your post though...my husband feels your pain :)
ReplyDelete@Tracy - Now that's just not fair. lol. Charlie Browns are doomed to fail. The game changes too much! Thanks for dropping by! But you say you like my blog on Wednesday but you might not like it Friday.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm Lucy in this scenario but I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. We already have a place in mind from the beginning. We are thinking of this place so hard and trying to convey our thoughts to you. You fail each and every time!! Now Shh...don't tell the others I told you. Some day you Charlie Browns will pass the test.
ReplyDelete@Carrie M - You have just made the topic of one of my next few posts. Thank you for telling me this secret!
ReplyDeleteHa Que - I am so Charlie Brown in this (as the wife, no less). It's not fair, but it happens all the time. I guess I'm not alone...
ReplyDelete@Lisa - Hmmm... a Charlie Brown wife. I would love to hear what the Lucy husband does. :)
ReplyDeleteomfreakingosh-this is me and my husband exactly! lmao i don't always want something that's further out than what he picks though. hubs gets mad at me cos he says he knows he can't win when i tell him to choose lol
ReplyDeletehaha @carrie-that's exactly how i think. i am trying to send it over via telepathy and HOPE he picks the right place lol
@ciara - Your Charlie Brown husband is RIGHT! There is no winning when Lucy doesn't tell him where she wants to eat. The madness must stop! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm Lucy. And I am also a sore loser, so if I go along to Chinese to try and be a good sport I just end up cranky and out of sorts.
ReplyDeleteAfter 10 years, we try not to play the game though. My lovely husband just tells me to pick or it's spaghetti night at home.
Neither of us complain if the other cooks. It's a steadfast rule. :)
@Anna - Another profound statement. I LOOOOVE spaghetti. I think I will start doing that. If she doesn't pick then it's spaghetti AGAIN! I love it. I'm putting that into stone today. But you are right out the cooking. Neither of us complains when the other cooks.
ReplyDeleteThat's my wife and I every night.
ReplyDeleteI am Charlie Brown in this (as a wife). My husband always does that to me!!!
ReplyDelete@DC Urban Dad - Sorry, man. Flipping in the air and landing on your back is fun for a while. But every night...
ReplyDelete@Jenny - Another fellow wife Charlie Brown. I would still like to see how that works. lol.
I am Lucy all the way! I pick my "Top 3 places I want to eat " that I tell hubby. That way he feels that he is involved and making the decision. Then I am happy either way!
ReplyDelete@Heather - That would be fine. I can deal with 3 choices. A lot of the time men can eat SOMETHING at ANY restaurant. SO if Lucy picks ANY, I'm fine. 3 would be awesome...
ReplyDelete...but now that I think about it, there could still be room for having the football yanked away if there are 3 choices.
Hmmm....
If neither of us makes a choice, either because it was one of those days and I did not get supper started on time or whatever, it is either something like spaghetti, or breakfast for supper or sometimes Pizza. My kids love to have french toast or waffles (real one, I have a waffle maker) or pancakes, with sausage, bacon or eggs, sometimes all of these, for supper. There is just something about having a traditional food from a different meal for dinner that amuses the kids.
ReplyDelete@mommeeof10 - I don't think that's just a kid thing. I LOVE breakfast for dinner. We don't have that often enough at my house. But you have inspired me to restart the campaign!
ReplyDeleteROFL!!! Hilarious and creative post, Que! I'm totally not admitting to being Lucy either.
ReplyDelete(Ha! Would you believe my word verification was "trust"?)
@Dawn - Thank you very much, Lucy... I mean, Dawn. You don't have to admit it... I know.
ReplyDeleteQue, I always say Krystals in this scenario. This usually leads to the "you know I don't want Krystals" and then comes "nevermind we will just find something here. Mission accomplished.
ReplyDelete@Andy - I MUST remember that. I should pick a place I KNOW she doesn't like and hope she doesn't tell me to pick again.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely the Charlie Brown.
ReplyDeleteHeeheehee! I confess, I'm Lucy. But you know, you could easily take the drama out of this situation by immediately choosing the restaurant nearby the very first time the question is asked and going to get your keys etc. Since you already know the football will be pulled, fake her out. Run at it, but don't kick; just keep running!
ReplyDeleteAnd then let us know how that goes. I'm sure it won't be fool-proof.