Show the Love Challenge Day 5 - Raging Hormones and a Star Chart

So we're loved up today and it's nice :).

Infact went to the mother of all kids birthday parties (Ali, you kick ass) and received a ridiculous amount of jibbing about how lovie dovie we were being.

My guess is that I'm on best behaviour and he's lapping it up, so we're both naturally leaning over for a cuddle and smooch. But, as per the previous post, this has not been smooth sailing and my point to ponder today is how much of it is hormones and how much of it is the actual poor blokey behaviour.

As my girlfriend Amy put it pretty succinctly today "hormones are like alcohol, they don't create the problem, but they can exasperate the problem". Blokes seem to be a different beast all together. They're pretty consistent emotions wise (major catastrophies like a fave footy team not winning, notwithstanding). If they're crap they'll just be crap most of the time, if delightful then probably delightful most of the time. My guess is most of our fellas will sit somewhere in the middle, nudging whatever side they do on a fairly consistent basis.

So what'll work then.

I was looking at R today and all of a sudden it hit me. What I had in front of me was a labrador puppy. Loyal, loving, gentle. But in the relationship sense, clumsy, temperamental (kinda contradicting what I said above, but we're talking specifics here) and needing a little training. He really really wanted to please, he just wasn't quite sure how to yet. I know. I know.

So I'm gonna go with the good old star chart for some good old behaviour training.

For example, R is really bad with dishing out the "yeah sure". Instead, there is always another response. See below and take a punt at what is more likely to put a smile on my dial.

Me "Can you empty the dishwasher"

Him "Why didn't you do it earlier".........or....."Yeah Sure :)"

Me "Stop the car! I need to go to the loo!"

Him "Why didn't you go when we were at home".........or....."Yeah Sure :)"

Me "Want to come shoe shopping with me"

Him "Are you mad?".........or....."Yeah Sure :)"

See what I mean? How blissfull would life be and how much would I be able to temper my hormonal rages with a few more "yeah sures".

So tomorrow we start and he gets a star each time I get a "yeah sure". Since he's keen to keep whatever is driving this nice behaviour up at my end, he's agreed to do it :). And these are his reward requests.

10 stars - shag (see, predictable)

20 stars - bikram yoga session at 5pm on a Sunday night (for those new to the blog, see here)

50 stars - a day out with me (awww...but how did Bikram get in first??)

100 starts - a weekend away with me (he's obviously expecting this star business to go on for a while).

Hope you're still having fun at your end!

Dovic xxx

PS Have just added a poll. Over there to your right. What do you rekon??