Why haven’t you come back home? When will you bring the groceries? Why isn’t your office over yet? If these questions made you picture your marriage and your wife, then these are signs of a nagging wife. You come home from work thinking of finally getting peace, but what you actually get is war.
A nagging and disrespectful wife is never satisfied with her man and undermines him at every chance she gets. She bickers all day and sucks out the man’s energy to an extent that he loses his decision-making ability and gives in. Stress from a nagging wife is a constant irritant a man has to deal with.
They say, “A happy wife is a happy life”. If your wife’s nagging you then you just need to do a few things right to ensure you don’t have to put on the earphones when you get back home. That’s the best way to shut a nagging wife up.
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Signs of A Nagging Wife
How do you know you have a nagging wife and not someone who has occasional mood swings or anger issues? We will tell you the characteristics of a nagging wife so that you will be able to handle your issues with your wife better.
- Your wife usually keeps repeating whatever she has to tell you
- You are stressed by your nagging wife because she always makes you feel that you are not doing enough
- She is a control freak and wants to micro manage everything but at the same time blames you saying, “You are not doing your bit.”
- The word “request” does not figure in her dictionary. She only demands and commands
- She flies into a rage and you are fearful about her temper tantrums
- She is shouting, nagging, bickering all the time. When you get into bed with her at night you feel so resentful you don’t even feel like cuddling, let alone have sex
- Home has become your dreaded zone
12 Ways To Deal With A Nagging Wife
Why does my wife nag so much? Why can’t she understand me? These are some questions that all troubled husbands ask themselves. Most of the times when your wife flies off the handle, you have no idea why.
All of a sudden she will nag about 7-month old incidents and you’ll be left clueless about what just happened. Wives get angry and nag when they are unhappy or when things don’t go as planned. Sometimes, this nagging becomes like an everyday ritual which makes you want to scream your lungs out.
Kevin Drew (name changed) says the moment he walked into the house after work his wife would start nagging. “It would begin with, ‘Have you kept the socks at the right place? The coat in the closet? Now come down to the kitchen and help me chop the veggies or go upstarirs and help the kids with homework…’ It was endless. She would drone on and on. Initially I would get angry but then I realised that it was a habit she wouldn’t be able to get rid off. “
Kevin eventually bought a small place for himself, a secret that he kept from his wife, and started spending alone time there. “I would tell her I was on tour and stayed in my place. I finally found my peace.”
If you’re frustrated with your quarrelsome wife and are tired of being kicked around the kerb, here’s a chance to end your suffering forever. Here are 12 ways to deal with a nagging wife.
1. Don’t answer back
When we tell you not to answer back, it doesn’t mean that you need to stay quiet and let your wife keep nagging you. When your wife nags you, you need to understand that she is in a hostile state of mind. Arguing and answering back is only going to make matters worse.
Imagine a situation where your wife says, “You always forget things that I tell you to do. It is a mistake to rely on you.” Instead of saying things like, “Yes, do it yourself then. I can’t remember everything.”
Wait for her to cool down and talk to her calmly. She will surely understand you.
2. Remember, the boss is always right
Yeah, your wife is your boss. The faster you accept this fact, the easier it gets for you. A nagging wife will always see herself as the one who is right. No matter whose fault it is, you’ll be the one to say sorry almost every time.
If you start to argue, it will go on and on. If your wife is bickering at you, an intelligent husband would want to play safe and tell her that she is right.
This will calm her down and her constant bickering will stop for a while. Your stress from a nagging wife will also reduce.
3. Dealing with a nagging wife – Talk it out
Most marriages turn into unhappy ones because of lack of communication between them. If your wife is nagging you constantly, try to understand why.
You need to talk it out and understand the problem. Things aren’t just going to magically fix themselves. A 15- minute conversation could fix a 3-month-old problem.
My friend was very forgetful which made his wife nag him constantly. He thought that it was his wife’s habit to just nag. Once he spoke to her about the real reason behind her nagging, he realized that it was a small issue and tried to be less forgetful. His wife too stopped nagging him.
4. Identify your mistake and apologize
Let’s face it – you may not be the husband of the year. If your wife is nagging you, it means that you’ve done something to tick her off. Wives don’t always rant and nag for no reason.
Like most husbands, you’ll have no idea about what you’ve done to tick her off. But truth be told, you could actually be at fault. Go over your past activities and try to understand where you must have gone wrong.
For starters, you may not be stepping up to your responsibilities or taking your career seriously. Are you living up to the promises you made to her before marriage? Instead of looking for signs of a nagging wife, look for where you are going wrong yourself.
Once you realize your mistake, apologize sincerely. A simple sorry can turn a nagging beast into your beautiful wife again.
5. Listen to what she has to say
Husbands are notorious for not paying attention to what wives say. When their wives nag at them, husbands focus on the part that their wife is nagging them but fail to listen to what their wife is saying while nagging.
The next time your wife nags you, listen to what she is saying while nagging. If it’s about a habit of yours that she doesn’t like or a mistake that you may have committed, work on improving those things rather than letting the nagging get worse.
Sometimes you are so focused on shutting up a nagging wife that you don’t pay heed to what she is saying. Don’t do that. Change yourself.
6. Try to see things from her perspective
Try to understand why your wife is behaving the way she does. Stand in her shoes to understand her perspective. If she keeps on bringing up past mistakes, understand why.
With other things on your mind, you might not be able to understand the reason behind your wife’s frustration.
By seeing things from her perspective, you may be able to understand her better and will find a way to tackle her nagging.
7. Talk about your perspective
It is important for your wife to understand your perspective as well. When your wife is nagging at you, take a stand for yourself and tell her how you feel.
Tell her how much her nagging is affecting your mental peace and is hampering your other engagements as well. If you feel she is controlling, tell her so.
Make sure that your wife knows how her nagging is affecting you. If she doesn’t want to listen to you then tell her that you won’t listen to her until she listens to your side of the story too.
Don’t settle for someone who doesn’t understand how you feel.
Related Reading: 8 Signs Of A Manipulative Wife
8. Work on yourself
Many wives get frustrated because husbands continue to live their life like a bachelor and don’t want to work on becoming more mature and improve life skills. Perhaps she expects you to help with household chores.
Or she wants you to be more affectionate towards her. You need to understand that you are married now and marriage brings in lots of responsibilities and obligations to fulfill. You will need to accommodate the responsibilities that come with marriage into your life.
Work on your old habits and try to improve them to become a better and more responsible person for your wife.
Start with the little things like saying “I love you” to your wife frequently, bringing the groceries, washing the dishes, etc. It’s time to grow up and finally become an adult.
9. Understand her role vs. yours
Men and women carry different labels that are based on their responsibilities and relationships. Your wife may be carrying labels such as daughter, wife, mother, entrepreneur and what not. Men too, carry various labels such as husband, entrepreneur, son, etc.
The difference here is that although men and women of today carry similar labels, their roles and responsibilities differ vastly.
Women tend to outdo themselves when it comes to carrying out their responsibilities and become multitasking experts. When men don’t live up to their roles and responsibilities, this is when women start nagging. You need to understand that your wife isn’t superwoman and it’s her human side that is nagging at you as a cry for help.
10. Negotiate with her
Marriage is about adjustments and compromises. You both need to compromise on parts of your personal life in order to fit in the obligations that you both have towards the marriage.
Negotiate with your wife and reach a workable solution. There’s nothing that can’t be resolved and you both will be able to work out a plan.
If your wife nags at you and tells you to wash the dishes every day, tell her, “Honey, Wednesdays and Saturdays are rough in the office. I’ll wash the dishes on the other days instead.” There’s nothing that is not negotiable.
11. Ask her to accept you
It becomes frustrating when your wife doesn’t accept you for who you are. Bitterness starts to creep in and threatens the very foundation of your marriage.
It is one of the characteristics of a nagging wife. Your morale and self-esteem lower because of your wife showing her dissatisfaction with you almost all the time. Tell your wife that this is the person who she married and she knew who you were before marriage.
Marriage does not change a person into someone else overnight. She needs to accept you for who you are for this marriage to work.
12. Talk to a counsellor
Counselling has many benefits and it can come to your rescue if you have been unable to find a solution to problems in your married life. If your wife’s constant nagging and bickering doesn’t stop no matter what you do, it is time for a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective.
Getting into couples therapy will help you both open up to each other in the most surprising ways.
All those years of pent up anger and frustration will finally surface. You both will be able to put forward your true selves in front of each other and the root of your problem will be finally identified.
The meaning of nagging in a relationship is constantly expressing discontent with your partner. Your wife knows what is best for you even if you wish to disagree. Her sixth sense combined with an understanding of surroundings do wonders in these instances. Nagging never comes out of nowhere. If your wife just exploded, there’s something that is definitely wrong.
Some women nag because of the masculine energy that drives within them. They feel that they need to be the superior and dominating force which makes them constantly nag. If your wife is nagging at you for small things that you can improve on, you can work on yourself and improve your habits. But if your wife is being unreasonable in her demands, there’s some thinking you need to do.
1 comment
This article basically says that a nagging wife is always right and a husband should just accept it because, of course, men are “always wrong.” Hit is an unhelpful narrative that simply shifts the blame unto one gender assuming that one gender should always admit they are wrong and there would be peace. In short, this article is trite, stereotypical, and worthless for those who are actually trying to fix their marriage.