Conflict Exhuastion

I am not a confortational person at all. If something needs to get done I can do it but I find that I am usually exhuasted at the end of it.

A few months ago our water heater started to malfunction and by the time we took a 10 minute shower we were taking a luke warm shower. We asked our landlords to fix it but because of the holidays they couldnt get it done. This leads up to last week where they finally get someone out to look at it.

The first guy comes out and looks at it and he doesnt know much. Fortunately for me I happen to know a bit about plumbing and home repair thanks to my dad. Because of this, we told our landlords that this guy was just trying to take us for our money and that he wasnt worth it. They send another person out that they personally used, and this guy was much better.

But after some time he tells me that our landlords want us to just "turn up the water hearter."

Now its at its hottest setting which produces about 130-140 degree water and if not careful this can burn someone with a first degree burn.

My wife gets up at 5 in the morning to go train her clients (she is a personal trainer at a gym). Well, at 5 AM those luke warm showers turn into some what cold showers, which isnt the best way to start your day.

Now its on. You are personally effecting my wife in a negative way, and I cant tolerate that especially since we already tried their method of "turning up the water" and it didnt work, we were still taking luke warm showers.

I basically told them that if they didnt fix the water heater, I was going to personally call them everyday to let them know we were still taking luke warm showers. I have never in my life been accused of threating someone until that day. Our landlord's husband came by the house to personally tell me to never threaten his wife again.

I stopped and had to think of why I was so fired up about this. I realized it wasnt about the water it was about not being valued or treated as human. They have been promising to fix some pretty bad things on the house for the last 3 years that havent got fixed, but I was as fired up because those things dont devalue me or my wife. Forcing us to take luke warm showers because they want the cheapest way out makes me feel less than human.