"It started innocently enough. One evening, he noticed our water bill was high. I shrugged it off, but he tried to get the water company to reduce the bill, and when he couldn't, he became obsessive. Every night, he started going outside with his torch, checking the water meter, as if he were a security guard doing the rounds. He's now implemented these rules."
"He's forever sending me articles about the optimal shower length, or how many litres of water are used during a toilet flush. When I wash my hair, which takes time because it's thick and curly, I hear Peter sigh loudly in the hallway. Afterwards, he says things like, you probably used the weekly quota in there, and 30 mins is 300 litres of water, you know, while showing me the timer on his phone."
"Who gets to decide the weekly quota? We've lived together for four years, and I'm not up for being monitored. Peter behaves as if we're in a drought. He makes me reuse the water after I've boiled eggs. I don't have a problem with that in theory, but it's annoying always having a pan out one time I knocked it over. Peter also wants us to limit our dishwasher use he only thinks we should use it after we've accumulated lots of pots and pans."
Peter became fixated on household water use after a high bill, checking the meter nightly and imposing strict rules. He times showers, nags about flushing after a wee, and sends articles about optimal shower lengths and litres per flush. He times and criticises longer hair-washing, reuses boiled-egg water, and limits dishwasher use until many pots accumulate. He built spreadsheets comparing showerhead efficiencies and treats the household as if in drought conditions. The other partner values sustainability but resents monitoring, finds some measures gross or impractical, and resists the invasive oversight.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]