Standing up for myself

Worked late (till 5), came home and cooked dinner. Called everyone, and we ate together. It was a pleasant meal. Then everyone got up and walked away. I announced that since I cooked the meal, who was going to clean up the dishes? Of course, Bob and Aidan replied "Not I!" Morgan didn't reply, but my focus was on Bob. I continued pressing on, stating that I had cooked the whole dinner by myself, and it wasn't fair. He said he would do the cooking and dishes on Wednesday night (our pizza-on-paper-plates night), so I answered that just like sick days around holidays at some businesses, if you take Wednesday, you also have to take the two days on each side - Tuesday and Thursday. Of course, he refused, and warned that if I continued, he would leave the living room and go to the bedroom to watch tv. Well, my feeble little legs really wanted to stand, so I followed him in and told him I would leave the dishes for him to do while I was at Quartet practice. He answered that they would still be there when I returned, so I asked why. His answer? That he wasn't going to do anything, and especially not something that I was "forcing" him to do!

Not wanting the kitchen to get horrible after I just did a major cleaning for the holiday, I went ahead and did the dishes. But I decided that I won't be fixing dinner anytime soon. Morgan mentioned something about that "not going well," and I told her it wasn't over (trying to set the example of using my voice). I warned her that she would probably have to get her own dinner for a while, and told her about how I was going to try to get better at standing up for myself - she reminded me of just a couple of weeks ago when she got in trouble for standing up for me (he refused to take her to school for a couple of weeks because of it). Yep, I need to stand up for myself for her sake, as well.

Now I know that I haven't really used my voice yet. I still haven't gotten mad. And not making dinner is a passive retort, but I'm working on it. I'll get better with practice!