The 62-year-old retired husband never cooks and always buys supermarket lunchboxes. His wife successfully found "the secret to getting him to start cooking."

The traditional concept is that "men take care of the outside and women take care of the house." Women should play the role of cooking and washing in the division of labor in the family, while men are responsible for making money and supporting the family. However, as times have changed, we know that everyone, regardless of gender, can exert their talents in various tasks and support each other in marriage. A 50-year-old married woman in Japan shared how she discovered the secret to getting her husband, who had never been in the kitchen, to start cooking.

The retired husband would rather eat at convenience stores than learn to cook

The article tells the story of a mature couple. The wife said that the 62-year-old husband has a mature and stable personality and is very serious about his work. He is now living a retired life, while she still works full-time five days a week.

In the past, most housework was done by the wife. The husband rarely stepped into the kitchen and never offered to help. After get off work in the evening, when the wife came home tired, she always saw the empty lunch boxes bought by the husband from convenience stores on the table. This made her very frustrated and thought that this was not only unhealthy, but also conducive to saving food expenses.

A "favorite lunch" opened the door for husband to cook

One night, my husband muttered that he didn't know what to eat for lunch, which made his wife couldn't help but ask him: "When you used to work in the company, what did you eat for lunch?" His favorite food was "ginger pork set meal", so she encouraged him to try it himself. Unexpectedly, he unexpectedly accepted the proposal.

At first, the husband was very worried that he would not be able to cook the same food as outside, but fortunately, his wife had a very good way of helping him.

First of all, my wife prepared the seasonings needed to make ginger-roasted pork in advance, including soy sauce, mirin and tubed minced ginger. She even carefully packed the portions and labeled them. By simplifying the tedious cooking steps, the husband, who was a first-time cook, was not in a hurry and the chance of failure was reduced.

That afternoon, my wife heard the sizzling cooking and her husband’s laughter coming from the kitchen. After the meal was finished, her husband asked her nervously how it tasted. She took a bite and thought it tasted good, so she praised her husband: "Is this really your first time cooking?" "It's just like a restaurant."

After that, her husband began to practice making ginger pork for lunch. He also took the initiative to search online for information on recipes, sauce ratios, and how to make the meat more delicious. He, who was not interested in cooking at all, now studies cooking skills seriously and even cooks for the two of them himself on weekends.

Although sometimes the wife can’t help but want to interrupt when she sees small details such as putting too much oil on her husband, she knows that she should let him go and let him do it on his own, because to her, the most important thing is that his husband is willing to make changes.

The key to getting your partner to try new things and persevere

1. Start with things that the other person is interested in

Don't "force" the other person to do housework, but stimulate his willingness to do housework. For example: What makes your husband motivated to cook is his favorite roast pork with ginger sauce.

2. Reduce the difficulty of getting started

You don’t need to give the other party too complicated steps at the beginning. Just provide general directions and help create an environment that makes the task easy to perform. For example: put the clothes in the washing machine first and ask the other party to press the button.

3. Replace criticism with support and encouragement

Praise is very effective and can give the other person a sense of accomplishment, which is the key to maintaining motivation for doing things.