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Old Nov 03, 2010, 12:38 PM
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Perna Perna is offline
Pandita-in-training
 
Member Since: Sep 2006
Location: Maryland
Posts: 27,289
It mostly sound like you two have a major communications problem. You are doing things (changing out the drawer) you think are X and he's doing things (not making you food) because he thinks Y but neither of you are either checking with the other as to what they think or "knocking on the door and asking permission" to enter the other's life before entering.

You decided to mess with his stuff/drawers. Doesn't matter what your motive was, whether good, bad, innocent, or devious it is his stuff.

He decided you would not be hungry, would not want any of the food he was fixing to eat. I'm not sure if you were home yet? But if you were, he could be asked to practice and learn (it's not automatic; we do what we have learned to do, usually in our former lives as children of our parents) to ask a simple question, "Would you like some of this food I'm fixing?" If you were not home yet when he started fixing himself something to eat, you have to pointedly let him know, earlier in the day when you are together, "If you're going to be fixing yourself something to eat tonight, would you include enough for me? I anticipate I'll be home around X o'clock and I'll be starving by then!"

We have to let the other people know what we need, they aren't mind readers. Look at you, you thought he wanted his Tupperware bins traded and he didn't! If you had said something like, "I see you have your stuff in a broken bin here but have a whole one next to it, would you like me to swap your stuff out so it's in the good bin instead of the broken one?" He might have been saving the unbroken one for something else or not think the whole thing was worth taking the time for. It sounds like you did it to get his "thank you" and feel appreciated? Doesn't work like that, being appreciated has to come from the other person, can't be expected or maneuvered into. You'll only end up feeling resentful and even used if you try to use other people to make yourself feel good. Only what you do for you can help your self-esteem. Yes, you can feel good doing something for someone else but that is its only reward. Expecting other people to act or feel the way you want them to, especially without letting them know what you want, can't work because they are working on their own lives and goals, not yours.
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