14 June 2010

Flip-Flop

Question: How do you and your spouse come to agreements on important decisions when you each have polar opposite opinions?

Keith and I are flip-floppers. He will have one opinion, I another. We talk it over, get stubbornly entrenched in our ideas, and end the conversation more frustrated than we started. A few days, weeks, or months later, whenever we happen to discuss it again, he has finally come round to my way of thinking, and I have decided he was right all along. It is an endless cycle.

When our first child was born, we couldn't agree on a name. Keith liked this one best, and I liked that one. The next month Keith liked my name and I liked his better. We finally made a bet to settle it. If the baby was born with a head full of hair like the Perry family, we would choose Keith's name. If the baby was bald like the Carpenter kids, my name would be picked.

Keith won!

But figuring out what to do with our house is a completely different story. We can't just gamble that decision away. When we first accepted the job transfer to Phoenix, Keith was adamant about renting the house out, saying we wouldn't be able to get our money's worth in this economy. After talking to some friends in a similar situation, I thought we should at least try to put the house on the market, just to see what would happen. Best case scenario, we sell the house and don't have to worry about it anymore; worst case scenario, we don't sell the house and then rent it out like Keith wanted.

Fast forward three and a half months. We haven't sold the house, prices are dropping uncomfortably low, Keith has already started his job in Phoenix, crashing at my grandmother's and coming home on weekends, and I am here in Tucson trying to hold down the fort with three kids and no car. Now I am thinking as soon as our real estate contract is up let's get renters in here and Keith wants to keep lowering the price and just get rid of the house already. ARG! Seriously aggravating!

So tell me, how do you and your spouse ever come to any agreements?!