Ok, question: (I'm about to air my dirty laundry which I don't like doing but I'm at my wits end on this one). Is it normal czech behavior for a man to wait 5 to 10 minutes to come to the table after the his wife has told him dinner is ready? I can understand once a while, but almost every meal for the last 3 years my husband will continue doing whatever he is doing (usually working on the computer) for 5 to 10 minutes allowing our food to get cold. We will sit at the table and wait for him to join us before we begin eating and our food gets cold. Or we will simply begin to eat without him (not often because I really hate that option). Anyway, I get really upset and tell him that it's rude. :x However, he says that I'm crazy. So I'd like to take a poll. Is that normal behavior for Czech males? My step-daughter tells me that his mother would beat him if he did that to her. Unfortunately, I don't know enough Czech and my mother-in-law doesn't know enough English for us to discuss it. Is it normal for the wife to get upset by it or am I really crazy? I must admit, he didn't call me crazy until I got so upset that I "unfixed" his plate. I took the beautifully prepared plate of food and dumped each item back into the pan from which it came. Then my children and I began to eat without him. He said I lost my mind. :twisted: I'm at a lost here and it's driving me so insane that I'm afraid next time I may dump the food on him instead of back into the pans. :? Ouch, then I really might be sleeping on the couch Sova, :wink: (see the post in language entitled "slob") Any suggestions guys? :?
Maybe it's stupid idea from me, but did you try to tell him ten minutes before dinner: Honey, dinner is in ten minutes, please finish your work"?
Maybe I know why he everytime goes to the table too late. If my mother makes a dinner or lunch and says "dinner is ready," it means :"finish what you are doing now, clean your hands and I will take the food on the plates in the meantime."
IMHO, it is always better to give the family members some time before serving meals - to finish whatever they are doing, wash their hands, help set the table... Nobody likes being ordered to do something right now. On the other hand, my family usually keeps asking - are we going to eat yet? - since I enter the door, so I do not have to call them at all.
Through the help of those posting on this board, I've come to realize it's simply a cultural difference. I think Americans like food so much that when a woman says dinner is ready, the husband comes running. If it were not actually ready, but needed another 10 minutes, I believe most American husbands would be very disappointed and some might even be frustrated. I spoke to my husband about this cultural difference and we were both wondering how such an obvious solution could have evaded us. I guess we are both so wrapped up in our own cultural understandings we couldn't see the forrest for the trees! :lol:
Well at least you're airing your own dirty laundry and not your husband's. :lol: I've noticed the same thing with my Ukrainian wife, that when I cook she often doesn't want to drop what she's doing immediately either. Of course, then again, when the shoe's on the other foot, I'm the same way. :wink:
Dzurisova, at least in my family it is absolutely normal that men cook. My father is surgeon, my grand-father technical interpreter, my uncle company manager, for getting right.
Yes, it happens. There are families where the man is in charge of cooking or at least participates. alenastef's family is an example and I can think of at least two Czech families I know where that's the case.
Well thanks guys for clearing that up. Then my husband must really be milking this "European men don't do domestic chores". :twisted:
Well, cooking is very popular among men in my family - my brother, my first husband and both my sons were or are wonderful cooks (including grocery shopping, washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen floor)!
I not Čech (not even by ancestry). Sorry if my screen name is misleading in that--it's a nickname a Czech girl gave me (reference to Winnie the Pooh). I'm 4th+ generation American of English, Danish, German, etc. descent (i.e., I'm a real mutt!). So don't get your hopes up on my account.
I'm sorry for assuming you are Czech. You are moderator on this site and you speak Czech so I just assumed. I don't know if you read an earlier post of mine, but I stated earlier what happens when one assumes. :wink:
