Being in a relationship is a delicate balance. There are good times, bad times and times when you’ll plunge into a blazing row in 30 seconds flat. Like these:
Cooking ‘together’
Uttering the words ‘I can help, if you like’ sets you up for resenting your partner for saying yes, and your partner to resent you for obviously wishing they’d said no. Prepare to go from nought to angrily wielding the Sabatier paring knife in less time than it takes to stir the risotto the wrong way.
Washing up etiquette
This one comes off the back of the above for a perfect one-two punch. A simple but aggressive question about why they insist on putting the cutlery into the drainer the wrong way up quickly pivots into yet another furiously yelled rehash of your disastrous holiday to Kos in 2011.
Parallel parking
Doing anything with your partner in the car brings you close to spousal murder, but having them ‘help’ you with a parallel parking manoeuvre could also end up with dead bystanders after you stamp your foot on the accelerator and mount the kerb out of sheer, furious frustration.
Changing the bedsheets
Laundering these vital items guarantees that at 11pm you’ll both be stood naked, cold and screaming at each other when you realise you haven’t put them back on again. All you want to do is sleep and instead you’ll find yourself trying to put the duvet cover on from the inside like a weepy, knackered ghost.
Exes
Even if you’re married with two kids and a huge mortgage, briefly and casually alluding to someone you went out with for two months in 1998 will rile your partner into accusing you of maintaining a passionate one-sided emotional affair with them, you absolute bastard.
