Habits your SO does that irks you

[Ravenne]

Thankfully the list of irritations is a lot smaller than the things that make my heart flutter, but yeah, after 3 years, there's no illusion of perfection.

Snoring. And it hurts his feelings if I sleep on the couch. Small blessings that his snoring doesn't shake the walls, so I invest in some earplugs, and we're good to go unless he has a bad night and wakes me up. But I can usually get him to quiet down long enough for me to fall back asleep. I don't know what I'd do if I was the kind of person that had trouble getting to sleep. I can practically fall asleep on command.

He has this incredibly annoying need to always buy the brand name of whatever grocery item. It has to be Clorox, or Kraft, or Quilted Northern. It can't be Dr. Thunder instead of Dr. Pepper, or Kroger brand triple antibiotic instead of Neosporin that's $2 more. With very few exceptions, the off-brand is exactly the same as the brand name, you're just paying extra for marketing and a fancier label. It drives me up the wall!! Right now we officially have separate apartments (though we always stay at one place or the other unless situations dictate otherwise), but I always tell him when we move in together next year and combine finances, *I'm* doing the grocery shopping because he'll run us poor with his need to buy the more expensive everything. I do make some exceptions on this one. Quilted Northern, sure. I like nicer toilet paper. I'm just cheap and I buy the single ply for my own place, stuff like that. But buying the Morton's salt and pepper set instead of the Kroger brand or the fancier seasonings instead of the cheaper ones?! WHY?! It's the same herb!! LOL

He does the foot shaking too. And he's not a small guy, so it always shakes whatever it is we're sitting on. I just put my hand on his knee and it stops.

He always wants to be perfectly on time for everything. At the risk of actually being late. I like to be 10-5 minutes early for anything that has a "be here at this time" stipulation. It stresses me out so bad when we leave 10 minutes before the movie starts and it takes exactly 9.5 minutes to drive there. GAH!

He smokes socially. I absolutely hate it. But he makes the effort to not smoke when I'm around or right before we go to sleep (or if he does, he brushes his teeth, takes a shower and doesn't expect a makeout session before bed).

I can't think of anything else right now. I'll come back if something else pops into my head.

 

[packrat]

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/men.142852/

Oh boy. I've clearly not dealt with the issues I have with DH's behavior since that thread. Two years later, same annoying habits!

Same here, too!

 

[TooPatient]

He eats fast. He'll be done with dinner and I've still got half or more of mine still to go. (maybe I eat slow??)

The over-the-glasses look I remember from the cranky old librarians in movies. I hate that.

Under-estimating the expense (time or money) of the activities he really wants to do and over-estimating the exense of stuff he's trying to get out of.

Discussing with everyone in the stores we shop at that we're only buying X amount because it is only so many days until payday.

Leaving out tools and stuff because "I'm still working on it and don't want to carry them downstairs just to have to carry them back up again". I've had people ask if we're in the middle of a remodel! Um... no.... we just keep the alan wrenches on the back of the toilet (to be fair, he's gotten a bit better about this but we've still got random tools around the house because of projects he's "still working on")

I have at least finally broken him of the habit of walking out the door with nothing on but a bathrobe (and not even a tie to keep it closed ....


ETA: Almost forgot -- He changes the toilet paper roll when needed but drops the empty roll on the floor instead of in the garbage (like 2 feet away!!)

 

[imitcan]

OMG! I have been away from this forum because of holidaying and entertaining family from abroad but I am so glad I came back today and caught up with this post. My ribcage is sore from laughing so hard. If I had more time I would add to the list with a few very "endearing" habits of my own DH. Perhaps another day. Just wanted to thank you all for making me feel in excellent company! There are days when I think that I am the only wife on earth putting up with the nonsense.

 

[Gypsy]

I used to be irked a lot more with him than I am these days. In part because I've adopted a live and let live attitude about some of it due to realizing that he puts up with my quirks as well. The other part of it is having someone in to clean every 2 weeks makes the housework stuff much easier.

His most annoying habit right now is wearing his 'out of the house' shirts to bed at night. This is a new thing. Always before he only wore undershirts to bed. But now he feels that's a waste of a clean shirt and if the out of the house shirt is already dirty why not wear it to bed (collared shirts excepted).

Also he has a bad habit of making his boredom my problem in the evenings when I'm not in the mood to watch TV or stay in the living room and he pouts and grumpy if I want to go read in the bed after dinner. I'm of the opinion that he can join me in the bedroom, or watch TV or whatever by himself.

I have to say I'm probably the more annoying of the two. If I had to guess what his top three list of my irksome habit is:

1. Never cleans litter box.
2. Always multi-tasking so he sometimes has to repeat in conversations or rewind during TV watching.
3. Dominates food choices. I am usually the one who decides where we eat if we go out, and what we eat if we are in the house. I am not very good about accommodating him either, I'm afraid.

 

[TooPatient]

He uses stuff and then leaves the empty boxes/bottles in place rather than tossing them out. I tried leaving them rather than "picking up after him" but that just left the house filled with empty bottles rolling all over! You think he'd learn after a few times of "We're out of this??? I really really need it and now I have to make go to the store just to buy it!!" -- well.... if you leave the empty bottle on the countertop, how am I supposed to know to get it while I'm at the store?

Shoes. He seems to have some genetic illness that prevents him from ever keeping his shoes somewhere other than right in the middle of a doorway or at the top or the stairs. Which of course means I'm always tripping over his shoes. Almost ended up falling face first on top of a hot pizza I was carrying...

He can't part with anything. Every time we try to get rid of stuff we don't use, he keeps insisting that "It might be usable if....". The house is stuffed with "might be usable if..." things and we have no where to put away the stuff we actually use. He's got an entire drawer (large drawer!) of pants that are ripped clean down the butt (like leaves a whole cheek hanging out) and other such horrors. There's also the entire shelf in our linen closet of partially burned candles that have another inch or two left ("might be usable for camping or in case of power outage") so we don't have room to put away all of the towels.

 

[blacksand]

I simply DO NOT understand why anyone would open a kitchen cabinet or drawer, take something out of it, and then walk away leaving said cabinet or drawer wide open. Sometimes I walk into the kitchen and every single cabinet is open. I can't fathom what makes hm do that. He also always needs to load or unload the dishwasher while I am trying to cook dinner. I am so grateful that he takes care of the dishes, but really? While I am cooking? He couldn't wait until after dinner? It drives me crazy, because he is always trying to get around me, open a cabinet behind me to put away a dish (leaving the cabinet open, of course), then get underneath the stove to put away a baking sheet, then he takes cutting boards and measuring cups that I am still using and puts them in the dishwasher. I mean seriously? I have asked him to do it after dinner, but he always says he has no time then, or he tries to butter me up saying it's his way of spending a little more time with me while I'm cooking. But I shall be grateful he is doing the dishes...that's what really matters, I guess.

 

[zoebartlett]

My husband doesn't put things away. He leaves clutter everywhere, but it's the worst in the kitchen.

He snores. LOUDLY.

He's a backseat driver. Grates on my nerves every time I'm driving.

 

[radiantquest]

I just thought of some more

DH refuses to leave on time. DSD and I both know how much time is required for him to be in the car and ready to go. He instead waits and waits and then thinks it only takes him 5 minutes to get dressed and put his shoes on. In reality it takes him 20 minutes to get dressed, gather his gadgets, go to his vehicle to get cigars in case he *may* need them. We have never ever been to anything on time.

To be fair he hates it when I leg/foot shake. I picked up this habit somewhere in my early twenties. I didn't do it when I was younger and remember getting aggravated by people who did it and now I am one of them

 

[Haven]

DH didn't think this was that funny, but I was roaring in the doctor's office this morning during our 20-week ultrasound.

The baby had both of his/her hands right up to his/her face, and I couldn't help but blurt out, "Honey! The baby is chewing on his/her fingers just like you do!"

It really looked like that's exactly what was going on. Later, I told DH that I'm going to have nightmares about looking over and seeing DH and our future child sitting together, poised with their hands up to their mouths, chewing away.

Poor guy. He tries really hard to resist, and I know it's because of this condition he has that makes his fingers so rough. But still, it was funny!

 

[oranges]

My boyfriend never thinks that ANYTHING is a big deal. I guess it's probably a good thing that he's laid back but holy crap it can be annoying. We're currently in the midst of a flea issue with out kittens and he's away-- he said "Uhhhh... it's just fleas, their kinda annoying but not a big deal"

OH! And he laughs when I'm mad at him. For his whole life, whenever he is in trouble he laughs. He says that it's a nervous laugh-- but it doesn't come across that way. It's probably the most annoying thing ever. It used to make his mother CRAZY when he was growing up and now it's my problem!

 

[peasypeas]

I second the chewing the fingernails! Ugh, it drives me bonkers! DH also makes a lot of noise when he eats. He says he was raised that eating loud was a compliment to the cook......hmmm, not sure I buy that!

lol is he asian? I can say that, I'm asian

 

[Mayk]

His bad habits all revolve around peanut butter... We both love it and eat it often... Him almost every morning for breakfast.

He digs right into the midde of the jar...goes all the way to the bottom. There is a great big hole in a big jar of Jif... Then when it has about 15% left...most smeared around the edges..he opens a new jar and leaves the old one in the pantry like I'm going finsh the one he left with all the peanut butter around the edges.

My jar (because this is the remedy I have my own OCD Jif). I eat from the top down. Never scrape it off on the top edge. When he gets my jar... Then he's in real trouble. DD is just like him.. She gets the evil eye for eating from my jar too!

 

[Haven]

His bad habits all revolve around peanut butter... We both love it and eat it often... Him almost every morning for breakfast.

He digs right into the midde of the jar...goes all the way to the bottom. There is a great big hole in a big jar of Jif... Then when it has about 15% left...most smeared around the edges..he opens a new jar and leaves the old one in the pantry like I'm going finsh the one he left with all the peanut butter around the edges.

My jar (because this is the remedy I have my own OCD Jif). I eat from the top down. Never scrape it off on the top edge. When he gets my jar... Then he's in real trouble. DD is just like him.. She gets the evil eye for eating from my jar too!

This is too funny!

In our house, I'm your DH. We have our own tubes of toothpaste because my DH used to FREAK OUT when I squeezed the paste out from the middle. But the thing is, I LOVE squeezing it from the middle, it's such a fun sensation, I can't stop! If he wants to miss out on squeezing his toothpaste from the middle that is his problem, but I'm not going to let him bring me down!

 

[natascha]

This is too funny!

In our house, I'm your DH. We have our own tubes of toothpaste because my DH used to FREAK OUT when I squeezed the paste out from the middle. But the thing is, I LOVE squeezing it from the middle, it's such a fun sensation, I can't stop! If he wants to miss out on squeezing his toothpaste from the middle that is his problem, but I'm not going to let him bring me down!

Oh you are killing me!

My SO says that I do this with the butter but I believe that it is actually him creating the slippery slides.

He does have some seriously annoying habits that can be dangerous. If he is feeling blue he won't talk properly. If I nag him he will respond but only in mumbles that I can't understand. This created a dangerous situation yesterday. I was sitting in the living room (he was in his computer room) and I heard something coming from the kitchen. I asked if he had the stove on and thought he said no. I heard more noise and asked him again" are you sure you don't have the stove on" same response. I didn't think more about it since the window was open in the kitchen. 10 minutes later flames were coming out of the kitchen . He had apparently put on the wrong hotplate and there was a spatula on the one he put on that melted and then caught fire.

While I was standing coughing by the open window after the fire was put out, due to the smoke and the smell, and freaking out (thankfully I caught it really fast), he proceded to put on the right hot plate and cook some nuddles . He is really odd.

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

So, I'm at work and I am sooo bored. It got me thinking, what are some things your SO does that drives you bonkers?

Mine likes to sleep eat. I always always have to make sure there are snacks laying out on the counter before I go to sleep or the kitchen is a mess when I wake up in the morning. One time, we bought one of those huge pumpkin pies from Costco. The next morning, I wake up and there is a large bowl of raisin bran on the counter with a whole jug of milk, now warm, on the counter and the pumpkin pie is gone. Only thing left is the pan and box. Plus! To make it worse, this is back in the day when he refused to believe it was him doing it in the middle of the night. Now he knows but I still gotta clean the kitchen in the morning

This is too funny! OH my gosh, I don't know what I'd do if I woke up to see that my husband ate something in his sleep!
Does he take Ambien, by any chance? My sissy's FIL was taking Ambien for a while, but he stopped when he realized that it made him sleep eat something awful! He was adamant that it wasn't him for a while, but his wife eventually woke up and videotaped him one night. Funny, but scary!

My husband has such a terrible habit I'm embarrassed to share it--he chews his skin around his fingernails. He has a skin condition that makes his skin really rough, and eventually it peels, and I can't imagine how annoying it is for him. He never does it in public, but it makes me ill when I look over and see him chewing at his fingers. *shudder*

He does one more thing that drives me insane. He leaves clean boxers on our hutch in the kitchen. BOXERS! When we were first married I kept finding folded boxers in our kitchen, which was of course perplexing. I'd put them away, and then the next day another pair would be in their place! It turns out that he puts them there before he showers so he won't wake me when he's changing, but for some reason he usually goes into the bedroom and takes out a different pair, anyway. I don't know, the whole thing is BIZARRE. Who knows what he's thinking. All I know is that I have to check the hutch every morning, and I have this fear that we'll have company over one day and they'll walk in and see his boxers sitting there!

He also litters our house with coasters, but it doesn't annoy me anymore. I've shared this here before, but he is obsessed with protecting our furniture. (He grew up in a furniture family.) The first time we hosted a big event in our house I woke up and found coasters lining every single surface in our house. It was like being in the movie Poltergeist. He's so weird.

I shouldn't talk, though. I have so many annoying habits, I'm just lucky my DH isn't on PS to share them!

No ambien... No drugs! Just a chronic sleep eater at least he doesn't sleep walk anymore. I guess he used to sleep walk all the time when he was a kid and one time he went for a bike ride in the middle of the night. Luckily his big brother followed him around guided him back home.

The boxer thing is hilarious!!! But hey! Atleast they are clean ones! Hahaha

 

[Lady_Disdain]

In our house, I'm your DH. We have our own tubes of toothpaste because my DH used to FREAK OUT when I squeezed the paste out from the middle. But the thing is, I LOVE squeezing it from the middle, it's such a fun sensation, I can't stop! If he wants to miss out on squeezing his toothpaste from the middle that is his problem, but I'm not going to let him bring me down!

With the plastic tubes, squeezing from the middle is hardly a sin anymore. When the tubes were metal, then, yes, it was a pain if someone squeezed from the middle. There was no way to get the toothpaste from the back of the tube and, once wrinkled, a tube would never be neat again.

 

[Haven]

In our house, I'm your DH. We have our own tubes of toothpaste because my DH used to FREAK OUT when I squeezed the paste out from the middle. But the thing is, I LOVE squeezing it from the middle, it's such a fun sensation, I can't stop! If he wants to miss out on squeezing his toothpaste from the middle that is his problem, but I'm not going to let him bring me down!

With the plastic tubes, squeezing from the middle is hardly a sin anymore. When the tubes were metal, then, yes, it was a pain if someone squeezed from the middle. There was no way to get the toothpaste from the back of the tube and, once wrinkled, a tube would never be neat again.

Thank you! That's what I tried to tell my long-suffering husband. It's easier to just have our own tubes.

YayTacori--Oh, dear! That is some serious sleep eating and sleepwalking!

 

[february2003bride]

Such a funny thread!

Here are my DH''s habits that drive. me. crazy.

-Talks with a bubble in his throat. I literally start to tune him out when he has a bubble in his throat and he won't take the *1 second* it would take to clear his throat!

-He will load up the dishwasher but stacks items on top of items. There's no possible way for them to get completely clean! I have to go back and rearrange (and without him seeing because he says it offends him that I reorganize the d/w).

-Even if he did load up the d/w properly, he won't start it. It can be completely full and he won't add the detergent and start the darn thing!

-He doesn't wipe down the counters. He'll clear the table, load up the d/w (not start it, lol) and walk away. Maybe I'm a neat freak but after I load up the d/w (actually start it ) and then wipe down the counters, tidy up, clean the floor if needed. He says he just doesn't see that it needs to be cleaned, and other times he says he was going to get to it, after he reads/ watches tv/ etc.

-When he drives, and he knows he has to say, take a right turn, he'll be in the faaaaaar left lane and wait until the last second to get into the right lane. Then the drivers that don't immediately let him in are the rude drivers! I've tried telling him that he has this habit and he denies it.

Things I do that annoy him:

-I'm on PS way to often

-I reorganize the d/w, lol

-I hog our pillows. We have 4 of them, king size, on our bed. I need three, preferably cocooned around me to sleep comfy!

 

[star sparkle]

FI is plenty good at opening drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, but for the life of him, CLOSING them seems to be an impossible task! At least once a day I walk into the kitchen to find some cupboard or drawer all the open because he took something out and didn't close it again.

He also seems averse to the idea of rinsing things before he leaves them in the sink, which drives me absolutely bonkers. He must be saving that little bit of milk left in the bottom of the glass for later, because heaven forbid he rinse the glass out!

The funniest, to me, is that for some reason he can't wait until he gets to the bedroom before he starts disrobing to change clothes after getting home from work. I frequently walk in to find a pair of jeans just laying in a heap in the middle of the living room. Really, dude, you couldn't just take 10 more steps to the bedroom before taking them off??

 

[TooPatient]

FI is plenty good at opening drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, but for the life of him, CLOSING them seems to be an impossible task! At least once a day I walk into the kitchen to find some cupboard or drawer all the open because he took something out and didn't close it again.

He also seems averse to the idea of rinsing things before he leaves them in the sink, which drives me absolutely bonkers. He must be saving that little bit of milk left in the bottom of the glass for later, because heaven forbid he rinse the glass out!

The funniest, to me, is that for some reason he can't wait until he gets to the bedroom before he starts disrobing to change clothes after getting home from work. I frequently walk in to find a pair of jeans just laying in a heap in the middle of the living room. Really, dude, you couldn't just take 10 more steps to the bedroom before taking them off??

Isn't it awful?

SO does this too. (been working at breaking that habbit...)
It is even worse when he does it with the blinds OPEN I've taken to leaving all of the blinds shut so that there isn't some scandal with the neighbor kids who all play right in front of our house.

I got so frustrated with him last summer that I got desperate and.... well.... let him see how he felt from the other side of the issue. He'd gone into the bedroom to change clothes and had stripped completely naked before closing the blinds (that look right across to the neighbor's bedroom window!). He said that he didn't see what the issue was and I was making too big of a deal of it... so I stripped my clothes off, opened the blinds, and danced around. (took him about 3 seconds to rush to close the blinds and I've had almost no trouble with his stripping in front of open windows since then)
(oh.... I should point out that the bedroom window wasn't visible to any neighbors with kids!!)

 

[Guilty Pleasure]

My husband doesn't like that I leave lights on.

I don't like that in the last few minutes of getting ready to go somewhere, when I'm walking through every room in our house to grab this or that or brush my hair for the last time, he's already turned off every light in anticipation of our leaving. Come on, dude! Let me get ready first, and then you can turn off all the lights! I hate walking through darkness

Also, my husband has FOMS Disease. (Fear of Missing Something) This means that whenever we are out with his friends or at a party or a work function that has turned into a party, he doesn't want to leave until everyone else has left. I think it's cute most of the time, but sometimes I just want to go home already!

Lastly, my husband always wants to show me movies or programs or songs that he likes because he wants to share them with me. However, he won't give anything I like a try. He automatically assumes it's boring or not as good as his suggestions. Even with food, he wants me to try his plate at a restaurant but has no interest in trying mine. If he discovers it on his own, though, then it's great. For example, that song "Somebody that I Used to Know" by Goyte - I was playing it in the car a few months ago, and he said, "This song is boring." and wanted to change it. Last week, he wanted to show me an "awesome video" and spoof video. Guess what song! I reminded him that he thought the song was boring

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

Yes, my DH sleep eats but I have to make the bed everyday. Its not about making it look nice. It's about sleeping in it. It has to be tucked in just so and the blankets need to be hanging over the bed just enough. I used to even wake him up to make the bed. I've learned to try to control this behavior but it's something that bothers me! I can't sleep with tangled sheets! I just can't!

This is THe thing DH will say is his number one complaint about me

 

[princesss]

My BF cannot go more than 10 minutes without the TV on. He's always got to have some kind of show going in the background, even when we're talking. It's gotten to the point where I've had to ask if I'm boring him or just unimportant, and then he kind of gets this sheepish look and turns it off. Too bad it doesn't keep him from turning it on again the next time we talk! Grrrrr.

He also is terrible about estimating how long something is going to take, or he gets sidetracked so he'll stop to do one thing and an hour later he's all proud of himself for accomplishing x, y, and z. Well, that's nice, honey, but remember when you said you'd call me back in 10 minutes? And it's been an hour? And I had stuff I could have done in that time if I had just been given an accurate time frame?

I think both of these things would be less irritating if I got more time with him, but we're long distance and have a time difference to deal with, so I'm very protective of the time I get with him.

(Of course, he'd tell you it's completely obnoxious how long I wait to tell him something is bothering me, or the fact that it takes me 45 minutes to give him the whole story when something is bothering me. He told me the other day that "it's like trying to get a badger out of a set. It takes f***ing ages!" He also thinks I have terrible taste in dogs. Whatever. Pit bulls are ADORABLE.)

 

[madelise]

He leaves his socks on. I hate it when a man gets nudie, but leaves his socks on! It's so hideous. I take socks off FIRST THING when I come home, *IF* I wear them. He knows I hate this, and doesn't care! He'll go to sleep with his boxers and his socks on.. and guess what I find a few days later while cleaning up my room? Uh, his stupid damned socks, rolled up into balls, underneath my bed. He'll kick them off when he's sleeping! The only logical explanation for this is that he, too, doesn't like wearing socks, but wears them only to drive me batty!

 

[jaysonsmom]

-He has restless leg syndrome i think, his leg is always twitching.
-He makes so much noise, and does everything in a rough, manly-man way. All our plates and dishes have chips around the edges because he's the dishwasher.
-He always strips and leaves his clothes in a pile in the middle of the bedroom when he gges home, and walks around topless in all weather conditions. I think he likes to show off his body
-He always asks me to tickle him or massage him to sleep, but never returns the favor when I ask to be cuddled to sleep
-We have are completely different body temps. He is always hot and I'm always cold. He throws off all the covers and leaves me freezing or he'll turn on the AC/Fan subjecting me to the cold. he claims that it'll help me sleep better if i'm cold!

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

I have another. DH is the little girl from the movie Signs. He leaves water everywhere!!!! But it's kinda cute