A common fight between couples comes over washing the dishes, whether over who is responsible for washing them or whether or not the dishes should be soaked.
Susan Lehman took to TikTok to show off a mess her husband had left in the kitchen sink. “My husband invited people to watch a big game last night,” her video began. She then walked over to the pile of various plates and pots left in the sink.
“Look at all these damn dishes in the sink,” he said. The camera pans to a sticky note on the counter that says, “Got it” while pointing to the stack of dishes in the sink.
“What a good guy,” he said in the clip. “I love that he recognizes that he left a mess in the sink and don't worry, he'll take responsibility for it.”
“We have come very far,” he added.
“Leaving a simple note instantly made me not care about the dishes in the sink!! I love communication and we have come so far!! Lehman captioned the TikTok.
After the clip was posted, it received more than three million views. Some commentators applauded the communication the gesture implied.
“I love this communication. I was too tired to do it after a fun 'party' but I knew if I didn't you would have been mad :),” one comment read.
Another commenter agreed, writing: “It's not about the fact that he will eventually do it. “It's about him letting her know through healthy communication so that she feels relieved.”
“It's easy!!! Do I want to do the dishes after hosting? Hell no. Let me sleep and I'll do it in the morning. But the note changes EVERYTHING,” a third commenter praised Lehman's husband.
However, many people felt he was only being praised for doing the bare minimum. “Wow, the kid cleaned up his own mess. Everyone applaud,” wrote one commenter.
“That's expected of him, not a nice thing by the way,” noted another comment.
In an interview with TodayLehman revealed that she and her husband, Matt, have been together for the past 25 years and he wasn't always the type of person to leave notes like the one she highlighted on TikTok.
“After we got married, we definitely fell into these very clichéd roles, where I did the cleaning and he did the man things, and for a long time that arrangement worked,” she told the outlet.
“And then one day I thought, 'You know what? Other people can help me in this house.'”
Despite her feelings toward Matt's behavior, she clarified that “they both needed to change.”
After several “difficult” conversations, Lehman said Matt began making dinner for the family and now does laundry without being asked.
“Matt and I are high school sweethearts, but it feels like a new relationship,” she said. “The old me would have freaked out about the dishes and probably woken him up, but old Matt wouldn't have left a note either.”
He then informed the outlet that he ended up washing the dishes he left in the sink.
