Toilet Seat Up Or Down?

Reader:  An update and a question…

The wife has continued to attend Mass and 12-step meetings. We have been seeing a lay couples counselor associated with the diocese. Much less conflict and drama, and she apologizes for her previous behavior. She is now willing for us to move 60 miles to the city where I work, which will give me an additional 2 hours/day that I now spend on the highway.

The past 6 months have been just about the best 6 months of the marriage. It still upsets her when she thinks about how I “walked out” on her 6 months ago; though I am convinced that we’d be stuck in the same rut if I hadn’t done this, I don’t rub her nose in it. Now my focus has to be on maintaining a proper alpha-beta balance in the future, rather than lapsing into beta behavior and needing an alpha “explosion” to get things back on track.

Now the question – might be one for your blog. What is it with women and leaving the toilet seat down? Her justifications are:

1) “If you leave the seat up and I sit on the toilet in the dark if I get out of bed at nite, I could fall in,” but she gets annoyed even if she finds it up during the day; and

2) leaving the seat up communicates “disrespect.”  It feels like a shit test, but it generates a lot more heartfelt feeling than I would expect a shit test to generate. Do you have any insight into this?

Athol:  In nursing school we were taught about the aerosol effect of toilets flushing fecal matter into the air and getting poop all over your toothbrush. So high five everyone for doing some ass-to-mouth twice a day. No more complaints about life not being kinky enough okay?

So seat down and lid down to flush. Ya’ll are nasty.

Also leaving the toilet seat up angered my mother during my childhood and I have been the target of extremely well executed behavioral program to leave the seat down. So even though my mother lives nearly on the opposite side of the planet from me, I remain careful not to offend her. One never knows when she may arrive unannounced for a quick inspection and complaints about the quality of American tea. (Which she rates between “Questionable” and “Nun’s piss.”)

Honestly though, this one is trivial and isn’t worth fighting the battle. Put the toilet seat down without prompting and tell her that it’s the way you signal you’re interested in having sex that day.

Oh and big up on reigning in your wife. Knowing the extended history I would have sworn she would have gone the full Batshit Crazy on you. Getting her into a 12-step program is truly tremendous news.