How to deal with roommate tension?
There is no particular situation, per se, but currently I am living with two people in my academic program (for another three weeks), and at certain moments, things can get a little... tense. There are three of us: I share a room with the other girl, and there is a guy who has his own room.
Here's where it gets a bit tricky: the guy has never lived on his own before, and is four years younger than I am (my roommate is two years older). It's not a big difference in age, but there's a gap in maturity that no amount of wine can hide. Believe me—we're in France, I've tried.
We try to go easy on him, but he makes no effort to keep things clean, other than putting things in the sink—and even then we have to remind him; he leaves the toilet seat up; he doesn't seem to know what to do for dinner unless we tell him what's going on (we take turns cooking, although he doesn't really know how to cook). He's very high energy, and my roomie and I are definitely not. We're content to sit in silence while we work, or take a walk around somewhere without talking, but he's always talking about anything and everything. He's also very anxious and always needs to know what's going on, asking questions left and right.
So, do you guys have any tips on how to handle this? We've talked to him about housekeeping and cooking, but there are some times I get so frustrated I have to physically remove myself from the room so I don't snap at him, or I'll just go down the street to sit in a café for a while, but I don't necessarily think that's fair. And it's really annoying to have to answer all these questions that are basic knowledge or at least answerable online. Maybe we're just spending way too much time together with classes on top of living together? I just feel like he's expecting our other roommate and me to mother him, which is <i>not</i> going to happen.
Any tips on how to handle this situation so the next three weeks are spent in beautiful Parisian cohabitational bliss? Or any advice in general for how to live with multiple people at the same time?
