I often find it funny how stubborn my dad is. He doesn’t like to admit when something is too hard for him, and he definitely doesn’t like help. I know he loves my mum endlessly, but I think he also struggles with the fact that she’s so well put together and is essentially good at everything she does.

Take today, for example, I have no idea what happened to our toilet overnight but it’s all clogged and disgusting. Mum’s first idea was to hire drainage contractors in the Melbourne area to come and do the job, and if they couldn’t come today she could fix it after she finished work. Dad wholeheartedly rejected her idea and said that we don’t need to pay for something he can easily fix himself, and so he’s been trying to fix it for the last seven hours! Mum is about to get home from work and I know he’s going to be super disappointed and embarrassed if he can’t get the toilet unclogged. I’ve tried telling him multiple times today not to be proud and to just call the drainage contractors, but he would just shake his head and mumble that if my mum can do it, he surely can too.

I don’t really understand dad’s obsession with stuff like this. Like, just know what you’re good at and let other people do what they’re good at. That’s how the world works. I think he may still feel a bit emasculated after the time my mum single-handedly dealt with the blocked drains in Northcote. We used to live there when I was young, and that’s the first time I ever remember my dad getting upset with my mum. I guess he just really wants to be the man of the house. But he doesn’t have to be. He helps us in different ways. 

I know that deep down he knows this, but I guess it’s just something he struggles with.