“What Is The Most Surprising Thing You Learned When You Started Living With A Man?”: 30 Women Share What Shocked Them

Well the first surprise was moving in with my Dad and I was shocked that he never cleaned or cooked. Had a maid for cleaning and ate out for every single one of his meals. And my goodness, men are good at painting the wall with their p**s.

The second surprise was moving in with my SO. Shocked to learn he is incredibly clean, able and willing to cook, and never gets p**s on the wall.

So I guess the thing I learned that would have been surprising to me as a teen is that all men are just as variable as women are. I blame my delay in realizing this on being raised in an all female home and not really having any male role models.

We've been living together for over a year now, and I think my girlfriend is still shocked at how often I have an erection.
"We just had sex! Why are you hard again??"
"You were bending over..."

I learned that sometimes when a man is very very hungover he will take a sad sitting down shower. Discovered my fiancé sitting on the shower floor like a drowned snuffleupagus

Besides my boyfriend, I've lived with plenty of men and what I've learned is that they're all different. Some are slobs, some are fastidious and clean, some are fussy and some have odd habits. It's almost like they're individual people with their own personalities. It's truly bizarre.

My BF is way fussier than I am though, I've noticed. I think I'm kind of a slob though, so it makes sense.

Men don't like to just talk, they like to fix problems.

Men don't pay attention to details, they like to condense to essence. This is why a "how did your day go?" convo lasts twelve seconds.

A lot of men would prefer their women bottomless in a man's shirt than in some fancy lingerie that takes ten minutes to figure out how to dismantle.

Men do not need a lot of space for stuff, but the space they have is sacred and should not be encroached upon. Leave him his closet and his garage workshelf, and he'll be happy. If he insists on a mancave, best to let him have one and do not mock it.

Men are literally mystified by why it would take more than four minutes to get ready to go out. They are even more mystified why women would bother to go through that ritual if you're not going to see anyone you know when you go out.

For many, many, many men, words of praise, acknowledging accomplishment and stature, are the most generous acts of love you can provide.

Men literally become uncomfortable in their bodies without a sexual release after a couple days. It's not like they just don't think about it if it doesn't happen. If it doesn't happen, then that's all they can think about.

How often men seem like they have something wrong, but they don't. For the first couple of months that we were living together I was convinced that he already hated living with me because there were so many times that he would zone out and not speak and give short answers.

Turns out that he would just have something on his mind completely unrelated to our relationship.

They have different "rules" about things. A shirt is not dirty unless it's smelly, wet, or has fresh stains on it. They'll wear it again before choosing to wash it. Making the bed every morning is not required, it's a waste of time. "But what if we have company?" "Why would they go look at our bed? If they did, what's wrong with it being unmade? They might *gasp!* know that we sleep there?" It's a lot of practicality and efficiency vs making things look nice and "wasting" time.

They don't need 3 meals a day. They just need a giant meal once or twice.

This might be just specific to my boyfriend, but I was surprised at how much he was willing to compromise. He stopped leaving the toilet seat up, he hates vacuuming but he'll mop, and if I cook he cleans. I was honestly expecting cohabitating to be a real struggle, but it has strengthened our relationship tenfold.

Pooping time is sacred and a great time to catch up on the news and browse some reddit.

Can be slightly inconvenient when I need the bathroom and he's been in there for 1/2 an hour though.

Despite his balding hair, he insists on buying voluminizing shampoo.

Babe, that's not going to fix it.

Most men don't have a garbage can in their bathroom.

Hey guys, if you want to impress your lady friends, put a god damn garbage can in the bathroom! We have stuff we need to put in there sometimes!

He can wiggle his penis.

You know how some people can wiggle their ears, or just the tip of their nose? If we're laying around in bed, he sometimes 'waves' at me.

I didn't know it could move that much on its own.

That when men have a cold, the world is ending. They can have a stuffy nose and sore throat and I would think they had cancer. One day I will go through the very intense and painful process of childbirth, and then maybe I will understand how a man feels when they're sick for a day.
Edit: I get it. All of you guys are superman and never complain about being sick unless you're super, dying sick.

If all of your socks are the same color and the same style, you don't have to mate them. You can just stick them in a drawer and pull out two random socks without even looking at what you're grabbing.

That when taking a dump their penis can accidentally touch the rim of the toilet bowl.

I had lived with a couple other dudes before my husband and never knew this was an issue. Then we bought a house and both of the toilets needed to be replaced. He spent a stupid amount of money at Home Depot on these toilets with elongated bowls and I was perplexed and irritated...until he explained why.

My wife learned that I cannot poop and hold a conversation at the same time. If I'm on the porcelain throne, then I demand solitude. I will not answer inanities like whether my blue shirt needs a wash or the kitchen is on fire.

Something I've noticed since moving in with my SO is how much I enjoy having someone to help me out with stuff.

I've always had kind of bad roommates who tend to not do their fair share of the work (to be fair, I'm a neat freak, so my standards are definitely set higher than the average person's). My SO, though, is always willing to help me out with anything I ask.

I also love having a perpetually available adventure buddy. Even if I just want to go to the grocery store, he's always willing to come with me.

Men are always hungry. They can check the fridge many times during evening to check if there is something tasty and ready to be grabbed. Also, if recipe says that it serves 4, it actually means that it serves 4 women or 1 man.

I can roll over, wake my boyfriend out of a deep sleep, wiggles my eyebrows and say " you horny?" We do the sexy times, He is happy, I am happy, he goes back to sleep, I take shower and do whatever.

Edit: we actually talked about it. I got horny one night and didnt wanna wake him up so I just ignored it and went back to sleep. Told him about it the next morning and he said I should have woke him up, he is always ready. Every time I have done this he has never said no. As we are still youngish, both of us around 30ish, I guess as we get older it'll start to diminish.

Edit again: clarified some things. He is the type that usually can fall back to sleep, he really doesn't mind. I wouldn't blue ball him.
Also this is my highest comment.