I was thinking the other day—I notice that when mama cooks a nice lunch or dinner or things for parties, papa cleans up all the dishes and puts them in the dishwasher (I tried to get in there once just after it finished and I almost burned my little furry tail off!), and when they moved to Italy and France, they would have these dinner parties with friends and all the men just stared when papa got up from the table and started helping mama and then they all looked at their wives (significantly!) as in, “What on earth is that guy doing?” And then they all looked a bit uncomfortable and maybe even a little sheepish (where on earth did THAT come from—I’ve known some pretty aggressive sheep!) and probably thought, “Oh, boy, when we get home, am I going to get it” because when a woman who does a lot of what women do around the house (and I help so I KNOW how much we females do) and then has to clean up after a party, it’s just too much.
Mama didn’t even have any help in the house when she met papa, and didn’t he just say right away, “Honey, you need help and I’m going to pay for it” and so they got help but they shared the cost because they shared everything then, but I think it’s just great that papa is a real man who can help in the kitchen and let mama rest her poor doggies (why on earth do they call tired feet THAT?) after a long dinner party.
And papa’s son also helps his wife in the kitchen and he’s Italian so I know that it’s not just a cultural thing.
And I have also observed that some of mama’s friends talk about how their partners are starting to help them after parties and at other times—one of them even IRONS, can you believe it?
So maybe papa is really a nice mole rodel for other men (that was in a previous blog—role model to the uninitiated) for some of these guys and now I even help HIM in the kitchen when he’s working so hard—I get all smootchie around his legs and wind in and out while he’s washing the Baccarat champagne glass and I just know he loves that because he cries over and over, “LOULOU, LOULOU!!” (After that it’s blah, blah, blah, then another ‘LOULOU!”)
And I know that means he is thanking me for my participation…
