I See My Husband’s “Messy” Habit Very Differently Now That We Have a Kid

Care and Feeding Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Andrey Zhuravlev/iStock/Getty Images Plus and WoodysPhotos/Getty Images Plus. Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here. Dear Care and Feeding, My husband is a great partner and father. He pulls his weight and then some in household tasks, is the primary earner, and is great with our kid. But he has some blind spots. One of them is that he is always dropping pills on the floor and not picking them up. He takes various vitamins, a statin, and a few other meds each day, and sometimes he’ll take ibuprofen when he gets home from work. He keeps all of his meds in the bathroom and takes them in there, too, usually with the door closed during his shower time. The problem is that I am constantly finding loose pills on the floor. Like at least once a week. We have a 1-year-old! This is ridiculous! I have been pointing this out to him whenever I find the pills, and he always says he doesn’t know how it happened and he will try harder, but then the next week I’ll find another pill, again! Our kid is just starting to be mobile, so this is really serious now. How can I convince my husband this is important? —Hate to Be a Pill, But Dear Hate to Be a Pill, He probably understands why this is important and doesn’t want your 1-year-old ingesting his cholesterol medication any more than you do; he is just used to his (sloppy) routine and hasn’t figured out a new one yet. Obviously, he needs to. I’m sure he’s had bigger adjustments to make since you had a kid, and this really shouldn’t be your problem to solve. But since he’s made it so: You could suggest that he start taking his meds somewhere else—either in a room your child has no access to whatsoever, or somewhere like the kitchen, over the table or counter, so if he drops any pills they will land there and not on the floor. A pill organizer might also help, reducing the number of containers he has to open and close. He should also be the one responsible for checking the floor afterward, to make sure he didn’t manage to lose any—he can build that step into his new routine as well, so it’s not your job to check or clean up after him. —Nicole More Parenting Advice From Slate I am a mom to two boys: “Will,” who is 20, and “James,” who is 18. James has always been a nice, shy, rule-following kiddo. A bit of a goody-two-shoes, even. I always assumed that at some point, James would break out of his shell and rebel. However, that hasn’t ever happened and now I’m wondering if I should be worried. Never miss new Slate Advice columns Get the latest from Prudie and our columnists in your inbox each weekday, plus special bonus letters on Saturdays. Advice Family Kids