08 May 2015

My cats are easier to train than my husband.

My cats are generally not allowed to be in the bedroom by themselves. So after I'm done with bathroom stuff in the morning, I usually shoo them out of the bedroom and close the door for the rest of the day until bedtime.

Lately, when I come out of the bathroom, all three of them are already outside the bedroom.

When that happened this morning, my thought was that I have trained the girls well, and this blog topic popped into my head.

Of course, I have to say that I don't really think people can train their husbands, and if they can, something is wrong. But I was thinking of how nice and easy animals are compared to humans, especially when it comes down to the animals that you love versus the humans that you love.

Back to the main topic, though. And with a bit of another disclaimer: I understand that these are all generalizations, and this is my experience with my own cats and my own husband, so I hope you all understand that as well.

Generally, when the cats do something I don't like, they usually learn to simply stop doing it, or they respond quickly to my voice or snap..... or they keep doing it when they think I'm not looking. Now, I don't really spend any time to actually train the cats to do anything. And I do know that cats are trainable (sort of). MIL has trained their cat to do a few tricks for treats, although the cat will *only* do them for treats. But she does them nonetheless. And my cats do very clearly respond to my voice.

When Yubo does something I don't like, he is more likely to lie about it, thinking it's better to lie, rather than stop doing it. So unlike the cats, who consider other options, he goes straight for the third one. (To be honest, I'm thinking back to specific previous situations.) Otherwise, it's straight up defiance. It's 2:58am, and I'm standing there because he's agreed to no longer stay up until 3am, and he looks at the clock, and looks at me, and hits the button to start a new quest. Just kidding. He's not that blatantly defiant.

Now, I don't mean for this to be serious at all. I thought of the topic, and I laughed. Because humans are humans. We are the wonderful and amazing and mysterious and unique things God created us to be. And for someone like me who loves control, I think it's good for me to laugh over this thought than get frustrated.

That's not to say it isn't frustrating though. People are frustrating. Life is frustrating. But I wonder what would have happened if I let all the frustrations get to me, and ended up not marrying this particularly frustrating guy. And I'm glad that my brilliance (or stupidity) allowed me to push through the frustrations to love him and fight with him and fight for him.

Wow. That was sappy. Sorry about that.

But it's true. I think I forget that too often sometimes. I don't want a trained husband. I don't even want trained cats. I love that my cats will come to snuggle with me without calling them. And I love that my cats will (sometimes) come snuggle with me when I do call them.

I love that Yubo will come snuggle with me when I don't want it (usually when it's way too warm for any sort of body contact). And I love that I can trust him to come snuggle with me if I ask, because I'm usually too scared and insecure to ask (yup... even after 5 years of marriage, and being together for a total of 10 years).

But that doesn't mean I don't still entertain ideas..... especially the thought of training him to go to bed before midnight..... and putting his trash in the trashcan...... and locking the front door....... and..... and......