Skip to main content

The scenario: Ugh. After a difficult day at work, you were looking forward to coming home to a clean, serene house. But instead of taking out the trash and putting the kids to bed as promised, your spouse is sprawled out on the couch, claiming exhaustion. How do you cope?

The solution: Your immediate reaction may be to grit your teeth and just do it yourself, but new research suggests that it's better to confront your lazy-pants significant other.

Making minor sacrifices after a hard day – like doing your partner's dirty work – may hurt your relationship.

That's because people generally aren't very good at keeping their work and personal lives separate, so after having already encountered numerous hassles at work, making more sacrifices at home merely adds to their overall stress.

The new study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, suggests that not only do these sacrifices sap your energy to have positive interactions with your partner, you aren't likely to be thanked for them either.

In many cases, individuals failed to notice their partners were doing anything special for them. The bottom line: Gently nudge your spouse off the couch and save your sacrifices for a stress-free day.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe