Okay, I have a cousin who started college last fall. She moved to where the college was, which is about an hour and a half away from her parents. She and a friend from high school rented an apartment together. They've never lived together before but have done many sleepovers at each other's house and hung out almost everyday during high school. They're both fairly matured kids and know their own responsibilities.
The problem that my cousin called me about a few months ago was.... food. Yes, food. They get along great, they both like the same things, have the same taste in home decor and everything but the one thing that gets to her is food.
They're both Asians and eat the same thing, but it's that her roommate can't cook. My cousin knew even before they moved in that she would be doing most of the cooking, and she's fine with it but expected her roommate to contribute in other ways so that it wasn't just her that was in the kitchen. My cousin said that at first she would kind of teach her how to cook so that they'd be doing things together. But after awhile it somehow became weird after they stopped going to the grocery store together. When they first moved in they would go shopping together and split the cost of groceries down the middle.
Well that's not the case anymore now, because they've somehow come to the point where it's like this side of the fridge is yours and this side is mine. She said they never spoke about it but they just knew to keep things on their own side. So she figured that okay, since they were shopping alone she figured she'd only cook for herself. But her roommate didn't see it that way. She still eats the food that my cousin cooks without helping in the kitchen besides washing the dishes that she used.
My cousin is a little frustrated and asked me how she should deal with this. I told her to tall to her about it and she told me that a few days ago when she cooked and was eating at the table her roommate came and sat at the table with her laptop and was like 'are you going to eat alone?' My cousin said she felt so guilty but she told her 'well you didn't help me cook, did you?' Even after she said that her roommate went and got the food my cousin cooked and ate it. My cousin didn't say anything to her, of course she's not going to say you can't eat it. She's a super nice person and I do feel now that she's getting taken advantage of, even though she doesn't mind that she cooks, she at least wants her roommate to help her prepare the ingredients or wash the plates and cookware after they're done eating. I don't think she wants to lose this friend, because she's a great roommate in all other ways.
All I could tell her was that she could just cook and right away put the other half that she couldn't finish into the fridge, all packed up, on her side. I don't know if it'll work or not. But this story reminded me of that story... about that chicken planting wheat and harvesting wheat and then baking bread, and one of her friend didn't help her out and at the end that friend didn't get the bread. I forgot the name of the story. -__-
And if she can't figure this out by the end of June then she's going to find a new roommate or just live on her own, which she doesn't want to do because she'll be paying for an apartment by herself. And plus it's safer if she lived with someone.