I went thru something like this with an ex. What I did was just did it the proper way and she imitated it. That way it wasn’t me telling her how to do something it was her looking at what I was doing and deciding I had the right idea. Stole (yes meta) this technique from the man who taught me basic cooking.
People naturally want to be competent and will emulate success. If you tell them that they are wrong they will dig in their heels. If you show them how to be right they will copy without losing face.
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
As someone who has been on the other end of this: He’s not three years old. He has lived a long time without slicing his fingers off. Give him space for his own trial and error. It’s quite possible that you don’t know the best way to do every thing, and you might even learn something new.
I ended up feeling my SO had no trust in me and that there was no freedom to do anything my way, which took all the fun out of it. I’m divorced and hate cooking now.
Stumblinbear@pawb.social 10 months ago
But also he’s never cooked before, so genuinely doesn’t know how to not be unsafe doing certain things. It’s difficult to let him go through “trial and error” when “error” means a trip to the er
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
I realize you are concerned about safety, but nearly everybody in the world does fine on their own without the help of a partner to rescue them from cutting their fingers off. If you don’t trust your partner to navigate some risk you are infantilizing him and undermining his feeling that you trust him. It can cause long-term damage to your relationship.
Stumblinbear@pawb.social 10 months ago
I don’t know how you’ve seen nobody with in the world that has cut their fingers or their hand while using a knife. There are millions of people who use dull knives because they believe they’re safer. Just because you haven’t hurt yourself yet doesn’t mean you’re not introducing unnecessary risk. I’ve helped two or three people learn how to cook, and all of them have come millimeters from slicing the tips of their fingers off at one point or another by pressing down on a knife with their fingers curled under the tip.
I trust him to be competent in things he’s knowledgeable on, but for things he’s rarely done I’ll offer assistance if I know a bit more, and I expect the same from him. There’s zero shame in not knowing how to do something. I WANT to be corrected when I’m wrong or being unsafe. I don’t understand how anyone could want anything else.