Latest / The Dr. Psych Mom Show with clinical psychologist Dr. Samantha Rodman Whiten / When Your Husband Says "Nothing Is Ever Good Enough For You"
Transcript
- 0:05Hi everybody, and welcome to the doctor.
- 0:07Psych mom ship today. We are going to be talking about
- 0:10the common issue where guy says to a woman, nothing is ever good
- 0:15enough for you. And why there may be different
- 0:18ways to understand this some related to your husband and some
- 0:21related to you, it's easy to say that he's just saying that cause
- 0:25he doesn't want to do more stuff or something, but that's not
- 0:28always accurate. And on the other hand it's easy
- 0:30for the man just to say that there's nothing good enough for
- 0:34the woman without exploring. Why he may think that?
- 0:37So before we get to that, of course you should be
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- 0:58subscribe. And there's also my Facebook
- 1:00group, remember, where people are talking about.
- 1:02A lot of interesting stuff is not a Port group per se because
- 1:07that would be, you know, have to be like this whole thing, you
- 1:10know, this whole therapy hipaa-compliant thing.
- 1:13But it does have a little bit of a flavor of people at least
- 1:15supporting one another. And it's also like saying,
- 1:18funny, things and jokes, and whatever else, you know, it's
- 1:21like a normal group. But anyway, so that would be a
- 1:24secret place, a private Facebook group, where people don't see
- 1:27what you comment on my stuff. Anyhow, who diving into this
- 1:30topic. So what are some situations
- 1:34where this comes up? So for A woman will tell the man
- 1:36to clean the kitchen. Let's say or the bathroom or
- 1:39whatever and he will and this is earlier in the marriage and she
- 1:44comes in and she's like oh or something like that and then she
- 1:48cleans it herself and he's aware that she's cleaning, it smells
- 1:51like bleach the next day or something, you know?
- 1:53And so like if this stuff happens enough over time then
- 1:57the man will be like what am I wasting my time for you notice
- 2:01would be like if my boss told me to do something, I did it and
- 2:03then like the guy who works, He's across down the hall.
- 2:07Did it again? What's the point of me doing it?
- 2:10You know, in that point in that regard, that it would be that
- 2:13the boss is some sort of a lunatic and you just have to do
- 2:16this for the boss. But at home, you know, in order
- 2:19to not lose your job. Even though your work isn't
- 2:21actually ever going to be the one that it's criteria for good
- 2:26enough and there's other dude is going to be doing it.
- 2:29But at home that seems unreasonable like white like and
- 2:32it is unreasonable, you are Both going to do the task.
- 2:37So why would you do it first? And it's not framed.
- 2:40Like, can you pre clean the bathroom?
- 2:41No, it's frayed. Like, can you clean the
- 2:43bathroom? So that when she does it again,
- 2:45it seems like, well, I really fucked that one up somehow and
- 2:49or she's never satisfied. So, neither of those is going to
- 2:54create a atmosphere. Hospitable to the man, really
- 2:57put in some effort because he did put in some effort.
- 3:01Like, see that's what people forget early in the
- 3:03relationship. There could be two things that
- 3:05goes on that. Go on either the woman really
- 3:08never let the guy do anything. And then later in the
- 3:11relationship, all of a sudden she says clean the bathroom.
- 3:13He's like, how the fuck do I do that?
- 3:15And then she's like oh my God, you don't even know how to clean
- 3:17the bathroom. Forget it.
- 3:17I'll do it. I see that a lot or she says,
- 3:22clean the bathroom. He does a bad job.
- 3:24She reacts like she would with no one else in her life.
- 3:27So with anyone else in her life she be like, oh, that's a good
- 3:29first try for something. You never clean.
- 3:31The bathroom here. Could you next time?
- 3:32Do this? This and this like she does with
- 3:34her. Instead saying, oh my God,
- 3:37that's how you think about them. Should be clean, forget it.
- 3:39I'm not going to do anything or by the time that she asks him to
- 3:42start cleaning the bathroom. He's already mad at her for like
- 3:46a million reasons. She's also mad at him and he's
- 3:48like, fuck it. Like I'm not going to do that.
- 3:51You never told me do that. I'll hire somebody to do it but
- 3:53I'm not going to do it because I don't want to clean a bathroom.
- 3:56You know, at this was never part of anything that we ought to do
- 3:58before and I'm going to hire a housekeeper now.
- 4:01There used to be in previous generations, something where the
- 4:04man would say no, you In the bathroom.
- 4:06I don't know. Any men that breathe.
- 4:09This is a different generation. I do not see any men who say
- 4:13that, no, it's your job to clean the bathroom never II mean if
- 4:17they exist that man's being a douchebag but if he doesn't say
- 4:22to you so then if you say well that I'm not going to clean it
- 4:24either he's like well fuck it. Nobody will I mean you really
- 4:27ought to get into couples counseling so you know if you
- 4:29won't pay for the housekeeper, do it if he's not going to do it
- 4:32and he's saying the only options that you're going to do it.
- 4:34That's not a marriage. It's also nothing that I see so
- 4:37it's we don't have to talk about it anymore.
- 4:39If you are married to the guy who does do that then couples
- 4:42counseling must start forth with because like you know you can't
- 4:46just say to somebody I don't ever want to participate in this
- 4:50activity and I have no other option in case you don't either.
- 4:54Unless of course, then this is a point, unless there was a
- 4:58marital contract where it was made very explicit that the
- 5:01woman wanted to and would stay home and take care of the quote.
- 5:05Boat house and children, and he would go out and make all the
- 5:09money in that case, sometimes women then say, no.
- 5:12Actually, I want to take care of the house and kids but I don't
- 5:16want to ever clean the bathroom again in those cases.
- 5:19The man may be like, well, I thought that was part of the
- 5:21deal but quickly he changes his tune and is love because he
- 5:25doesn't want to be painted as like the biggest asshole in the
- 5:27planet or huge chauvinist. So he says, so then we could get
- 5:30somebody in every other week now, even this in and of itself
- 5:33is interesting because this Is exactly why the guy will say
- 5:37nothing's ever good enough for you.
- 5:38Because frequently, but we'll be like every other week.
- 5:41Bathroom has to be cleaned twice a week and then he'll be like,
- 5:45no it doesn't, it could be cleaned every other week and she
- 5:48went well then that's basically like you opting out of it and
- 5:50then we have like, a whole huge discussion.
- 5:53So the entirety of this is based upon different expectations, for
- 5:58how things are executed. And that's why when people
- 6:01divide certain tasks, it only like in in this hole, I forget
- 6:07what it's called fair play, or some kind of book or whatever
- 6:09were you like divide up the chores like with cards this can
- 6:13work for some people but it would work for people who could
- 6:15have figured this shit out. Anyway, the people that I see
- 6:19are the ones where if they divided the chores on the card,
- 6:22one would have trouble with how the other one did their half of
- 6:25the cards. So that's the issue to work on.
- 6:29So, if you are truly somebody with extremely high standards,
- 6:33you probably suffer from anxiety.
- 6:36No anxiety is one of those things that people don't admit
- 6:38to having, because they don't think that it's anxiety.
- 6:40They think of themselves being real Taipei or something.
- 6:43But if you are somebody who does suffer with anxiety, slashes,
- 6:46really type a wound, really tight.
- 6:49High-strung constantly worrying has a million list always thinks
- 6:53about what could go wrong. You know, that person the person
- 6:55with anxiety. So if you're that person, then
- 6:58it's unlikely that the other person's tour performance or
- 7:02childcare or really anything is ever going to be yours.
- 7:05Our standards. You got to look internally at
- 7:07what your standards are frequently.
- 7:09You were raised in a very perfectionistic rigid household
- 7:12with a lot of rules and expectations for your behavior.
- 7:14Almost impossibly, high standards.
- 7:17And now when you see what you think of is anybody phoning
- 7:20anything and you get very angry and you should refer back to my
- 7:24podcast is a subscriber. One on white people hate certain
- 7:28traits and others if you are somebody who hates when people
- 7:31quote phone it in ever and you're telling yourself that,
- 7:35Because like you have such a big, you know, strong work
- 7:38ethic, it's also because you wish you could be relaxed you
- 7:41know on some level you just wish that you could sometimes be
- 7:44relaxed. And so you're jealous of people
- 7:46who, you know, clean the bathroom, but don't get down on
- 7:49the floor and take away every tiny Speck with a toothbrush.
- 7:52Like, you're not that person, and it's hard to be the person
- 7:56you are and easier to be that other person that doesn't suffer
- 7:59from anxiety. So there's that side of it.
- 8:02There's also the side of it that maybe the Husband Now is really
- 8:07doing a shit job out of some passive-aggressive thing where
- 8:10he doesn't know how to say. I either don't want to do this
- 8:13task and we'll figure out other ways to do it or I feel
- 8:17completely constricted by your anxiety and every regard.
- 8:21And like my life is is very really restricted and can only
- 8:28operate. We can only operate in this very
- 8:30narrow band of potential things that we can do because of your
- 8:34anxiety. As I talked about in the podcast
- 8:38eons ago and season 1 AK a couple months ago about why men
- 8:43want divorce they want divorce in frequently compared to women
- 8:47but when they do one of the reasons is they feel that the
- 8:51woman's anxiety is constricting and restricting their life and
- 8:54that of their children. So if you are somebody who is
- 8:57like 25,000 lists and rules and and bullet points in your head
- 9:01or written out about the ways that certain things should be
- 9:04done. Some men don't have the balls to
- 9:06call you out on this because they don't want to destroy the
- 9:09rest of the night /, the rest of their life.
- 9:11So they will and this is not good instead to passive
- 9:15aggressive sort of things like do an actually bad job.
- 9:21Not what they think is a good job which if they think it's a
- 9:24good job if they're like hey look I clean the bathroom, you
- 9:26like it and it looks in your mind like shit.
- 9:29That person actually tried to clean the bathroom.
- 9:31Well so say yeah, it looks good except like, you know, Next
- 9:35time. Like, you know, you also have to
- 9:37do the shower that's part of the bathroom, you know, and there's
- 9:40things like this, and people have never done anything, they
- 9:42have no fucking idea what to do. So they think that means, you
- 9:45know, Windex the floor. Oh look, I clean the bathroom,
- 9:48but I used to be like, oh actually the showers part of the
- 9:50bathroom. Here's how we do that.
- 9:52The same as you would with your kids, you know?
- 9:55But like instead, like some people will be, there are people
- 10:00that do this. You'll know, if you do this, if
- 10:01you're a husband listening to this that passive aggressive, We
- 10:05do a bad job because there are like my whole fucking life is
- 10:07going to be about this. I bust my ass all week, what is
- 10:10she even doing? And all she do running around
- 10:13like a chicken without a head, making up shit for herself to do
- 10:16and now she wants me to be on my knees scrubbing, the toilet,
- 10:19that's not what I'm going to do. So I'm going to do a shit job,
- 10:22they don't usually articulated that clearly.
- 10:25But the tone is there, and with a tiny bit of introspection, you
- 10:29can become aware if you are really, you know, being very
- 10:33passive aggressive in this. Right?
- 10:35And if you are what that means is you should immediately stop.
- 10:38It doesn't mean that then you have to do an awesome job at the
- 10:40bathroom. It means that you're being
- 10:41disingenuous your resentment. Toward your wife is mounting.
- 10:44It's likely that you will explode at some point when she
- 10:47tells you some other thing to do and or it's likely that in your
- 10:51mind, you're forming an escape plan for getting out of the
- 10:53marriage. So none of this should just go
- 10:56by the wayside and pushed under the rug.
- 10:59Instead, you need to have an open discussion with your wife.
- 11:02Hey, I feel really constricts. Acted by all the rules and
- 11:06regulations and standards. You know infinitely high
- 11:10standards for housework Child Care, Etc.
- 11:13I feel like I am not getting a minute to relax honestly and I
- 11:18want to go to a couple's counselor and discuss how we
- 11:20could divide this better. Like, yeah, you may be right
- 11:23that I tend toward being lazy. I think you tend to it being
- 11:25anxious so there must be some Middle Ground that's called
- 11:29being open that's being like a true partner and an adult what
- 11:34is not being a true. An adult is cleaning the
- 11:37bathroom grumbling about it leaving literally like like like
- 11:42mounds of dirt on the floor and then being like I thought I did
- 11:47it. I guess nothing's ever good
- 11:48enough for you around. That is not being a good
- 11:51partner, so don't be that grin are my person.
- 11:55So next, what are what are some other reasons, that your husband
- 11:59may say this? There's something called
- 12:01maternal gatekeeping. So this is applicable mostly to
- 12:04child care versus How's work, but it can be more for housework
- 12:07if your identity and it can be some for housework, it was more
- 12:11previous generations when woman's identity was also around
- 12:14keeping a nice home instead of just like being a good mom
- 12:18usually the women I see. They prioritize being a good mom
- 12:21and this generation above identifying deeply with the
- 12:24house. Some women do identify deeply
- 12:26with the house as well. So if you are doing gatekeeping
- 12:32Behavior with this means is that you are Basically,
- 12:35subconsciously stopping your husband from engaging on certain
- 12:39childcare or housework will stick to Child Care.
- 12:42Child, Care, related tasks because you secretly want to be
- 12:44the only one who could do it. I see this a lot with working
- 12:46moms who less so with stay-at-home moms but sometimes
- 12:50with them too. So, with working moms
- 12:52frequently, there's a lot of guilt for being away all day.
- 12:54So, there is a point of Pride about that that you are the
- 12:58preferred parent and you are the only one who can do X Y or Z.
- 13:03So, If you're like a man and you think that women are like
- 13:07totally 100% on ambivalent about wanting you to help with the
- 13:13kids? I don't see that like I mean
- 13:16there may be some women that are many women if it flips and the
- 13:21child prefers you they don't feel good about it.
- 13:25So you could ask your wife where she is on this spectrum because
- 13:28if you were the perfect I see I don't see any men who come in
- 13:32and say to me, I feel so bad that the kid reaches out for
- 13:34Mom. Instead of me.
- 13:35No, that's not true. That's not true.
- 13:36I've seen that a couple times. I have seen that a couple times
- 13:40that's among guys, with honestly, very preoccupied
- 13:43attachments. You could refer to my attachment
- 13:45Theory podcast. So, guys, you take that
- 13:47personally, there are some, but really most guys feel kind of
- 13:51proud of that. Like, I picked a woman who's a
- 13:53good mom, to the point that naturally the baby prefers.
- 13:56The mother, I do see this, by the way, with co-parenting
- 14:00situations, after divorce that a man feels really bad when the
- 14:03kid doesn't want to come to him. And instead keeps asking about
- 14:06the woman, but I see it much more.
- 14:09That women feel bad when the kid prefers, the dad, whether or
- 14:13not? They're divorced.
- 14:15So there's a lot of women who got to be really honest with
- 14:18themselves. So, if you say that you want
- 14:22like this whole, like default parent thing, I have rarely
- 14:25heard it said, without some sort of, you know, kind of like Pride
- 14:29a little bit like, oh, they go right past their dad, dad
- 14:32standing right there and they'll come over to meet asked for
- 14:34oranges. It's just the craziest thing and
- 14:37I say, why can't you go over to your dad?
- 14:39But when they're telling the story, this isn't like.
- 14:42So what I did was I left the house and I went out on my own,
- 14:47you know, for the day I really had a great day.
- 14:49Went to the mall once did some shopping and when they come to
- 14:52me I say no from now on Dad's going to be the only one to get
- 14:56you some orange juice. Never do.
- 14:58I hear that? Never why?
- 15:00Because I don't want to do that because there's something about
- 15:03the kid going to you that people.
- 15:05People like there are women who are not the default parent and
- 15:08it's because they do what I'm saying.
- 15:10They have a much more egalitarian split, so they are
- 15:13much more likely to lock the bathroom door when they're
- 15:17taking a shower, guess what? Kids aren't stupid, they go back
- 15:20down to death, you know, and they're much more likely to
- 15:24leave. The house are much more likely
- 15:26to schedule their gym time when the kids are awake and kids will
- 15:30then go to the dad. Of course they will.
- 15:32But if you're in a situation where Your husband is saying
- 15:36nothing's ever good enough for you with the childcare and you
- 15:39feel like the default parent. It's likely that there's some
- 15:43subconscious desire to do this. Maternal gatekeeping, which
- 15:47means you keep the gate closing. You only allow, like, certain
- 15:50behaviors to like pass muster. You are the one who determines
- 15:54when and how Child Care can be done and if it's good enough.
- 15:58So you may be doing this because subconsciously for whatever
- 16:01reasons maybe you saw a mother who did everything quote unquote
- 16:04in the house. Yo.
- 16:05Elf, maybe you feel bad about working or about having another
- 16:09baby that you pay attention to or whatever.
- 16:12You know maybe you are making the child care.
- 16:17The there's a lot of barriers to entry you know like what the
- 16:20child care and your husband has to get it 100% right but you
- 16:23don't even want him to get it 100% right really?
- 16:26Because then the child might prefer him and or would prefer
- 16:29you guys equally and you secretly like being mommy and
- 16:33this totally normal. Totally normal to want to be the
- 16:37preferred parent but when you do make it honest is the problem.
- 16:42That's when the problem comes, is when there is this
- 16:45disingenuous thing where women are like, no I totally want you
- 16:48to do exactly half of the childcare all the time but then
- 16:51somehow you're you're try, you are genuinely trying and you
- 16:56can't seem to ever get it. That's usually because there's
- 16:59this maternal gatekeeping going on.
- 17:01Sometimes it's because the guy is actually being extremely
- 17:05lazy, you know, and he is into doing anything at all.
- 17:08And here's how you can tell different, what do other people
- 17:11think of your relationship? If they think that your
- 17:14husband's really involved adding that the kids gravitate toward
- 17:17him and that he's good, he probably is if you have Infinity
- 17:21problems with how he does childcare that, maybe a, you
- 17:23think. And if other people, if your
- 17:27friends after y'all, go to a barbecue with the kids, if
- 17:30you're approached by friends, Were like, oh my God, you to my
- 17:33husband does nothing either, they were just standing over
- 17:36there, you know, drinking beer while we were in the pool all
- 17:39day with the kids doing everything.
- 17:40Well, guess what? Like that's a reality check.
- 17:42Yes. And your husband does less than
- 17:44other people. So then you got to think, am I
- 17:47the one who says, oh yeah, go over there honey.
- 17:49And drink a beer and then resents him.
- 17:52Or is it literally that I'm, I'm begging him.
- 17:55Hey, can you, can you come to the pool now?
- 17:57Can you come to the pool? I want to go drink a beer with
- 17:59my friends. Can you come to the pool?
- 18:00And he's like, Well, if it's in, that case, you definitely need
- 18:04to be in couples counseling. If this is, the first case, you
- 18:06need, to be an individual counseling.
- 18:08So that's how you can tell the difference.
- 18:09So, overall, what is the summary of this?
- 18:12There are many reasons. Oh, and one more reason that a
- 18:15man may think that a woman always wants too much and is
- 18:20nothing's ever good enough and whatever is because he grew up
- 18:23like that, he grew up in a house with very disapproving parents
- 18:27and he could never please them. And so he is basically
- 18:30re-enacting. The same Dynamic with his wife
- 18:32and we do that subconsciously by basically doing the same
- 18:37activity. So if it's very familiar to you
- 18:40that somebody finds your behavior lacking then a you'll
- 18:43find somebody disapproving or as I talk about in my podcast you
- 18:47either find or create the partner that reminds you of how
- 18:50you grew up or you basically do a shit job on things because
- 18:54that's familiar to you, to be disapproved of and the idea of
- 18:59yourself as somebody who would really Excel and Be approved of
- 19:02is so weird. You may say you wanted me to
- 19:05feel so uncomfortable that you stay in the comfort zone of kind
- 19:09of being a fuck up, that doesn't do much.
- 19:11That always has a woman first, your mother and out your wife
- 19:13rolling her eyes and basically thinking that you're lazy and
- 19:17this is kind of an individual therapy issue.
- 19:20So if that's you and you feel like your wife has even probably
- 19:24said stuff like that. Like like but like you don't
- 19:28even try, you know. Like sometimes women will Be
- 19:31like, it isn't me. You don't understand.
- 19:34Like I I beg him to do things. I think he does a good job, then
- 19:38somehow he always is saying like that, he can't do things that he
- 19:42can do, you know? So if your wife is trying to
- 19:45even hype you up, so there's some cases where you find
- 19:48obviously familiar to you as a woman who disapproves of you.
- 19:51So you'll find a woman who's critical of you in every way.
- 19:54But sometimes you find a woman who isn't, but then you kind of
- 19:57make it the same Dynamic. So if you catch this early
- 20:01enough, Then you could stop yourself from sabotaging your
- 20:03marriage and you could say, she actually says, I do.
- 20:06Good job that stuff and then I'm the one who says, no, I'm a
- 20:09fuckup, why am I doing that? I guess it must be because I
- 20:12deeply believe I'm a fuckup that would have to do with me stuff
- 20:16with my family of origin stuff, not with her.
- 20:19She seems to be saying I can do it, you know?
- 20:22And I'm the one who's like act acting like or saying that I
- 20:25care. So that's another issue as well.
- 20:27So the summary here is, there's Myriad reasons that you could be
- 20:30getting into this dynamic MC. Some of which have to do with
- 20:32you, some of which have to do with your husband, some of which
- 20:35have to do all of which have to do with the dynamic, that was
- 20:37co-created. So the first step is to think
- 20:40about this Dynamic more objectively with all the
- 20:43different reasons that I outlined on both sides for why
- 20:47this may be going so poorly. And why one or both of you
- 20:51frequently. Feels that there there is.
- 20:55There are no options when people feel that there are no options
- 20:58for ways to make the relationship better.
- 21:00Then they get I hopeless and stock and that usually a roads,
- 21:04the foundation, the marriage. What I'm trying to do is to give
- 21:07you options for ways to say, oh, if we intervene at the level of
- 21:10some of these dysfunctional thoughts, or behaviors, or even
- 21:14have a different frame, which takes into context are larger
- 21:17life experiences, particularly growing up, then we can interact
- 21:22differently. We do have hope for the future
- 21:25of this marriage. It can transform into something
- 21:27more functional and of course what helps with that couples.
- 21:31Counseling and what helps with the individual family level
- 21:33stuff individual counseling. If you ever need counseling, you
- 21:37should reach out. I have a group practice with
- 21:38people licensed in many states. So you'll never know if n people
- 21:42are reaching out, so that's great.
- 21:44And after Glee, I have somebody that can work for you.
- 21:48Now can work for you can work with you, for me, they work for
- 21:51me with you. All right, so that is a wrap on
- 21:56that. Please do, subscribe.
- 21:57If you've got anything out of this and I'll talk to everybody
- 21:59soon.