Dear Queenie,
I work full-time and my wife is a stay-at-home mom to our toddler son. She does a great job of taking care of the baby, cooking, laundry, paying the bills and fixes me a great lunch to take to work, but our house is always a mess.
It vexes me every time I have to pick up something she has left lying around. I have spoken to her many times about this but nothing gets any better.
Queenie, what more can I do?—Tidy husband
Dear Husband,
I have news for you: Your wife also has a (more than) full-time job taking care of the baby, cooking, laundry, paying the bills and fixing you a lunch to take to work.
What more can you do? Give her a day off once a week while you take over caring for your son, cooking and maybe doing some laundry and see how much time and energy you have left over for tidying up the place.
Then perhaps you should look into hiring some (at least part-time) help for her. And if you cannot afford to do so, you can either pitch in and do some tidying up yourself or let up on your expectations and stop being so critical.
