Why Married People Should Not Share Email Addresses

Here is a pet peeve of mine - married people sharing one email address.  Drives me absolutely crazy.  I understand that marriage means two become one, blah, blah, blah, but still not sure how that translates to a shared email address.* The thing is, I prefer to know who exactly it is I am talking to and who is reading my emails.  For example, perhaps I have some extremely personal information to share.  Of course, in reality, after hearing such news, my married friend may immediately go tell their spouse, but at least I can choose to disbelieve that they would do so. When the spouse shares the same email address, however, it becomes very hard to believe that both spouses are  not reading everything.  I mean, really, how could you resist?  Guess it is obvious it bugs me, but beyond that I do not even see the point.  It is not like you have to pay for each email address you have.  You can probably create about five billion free ones.  But I digress...

This post, although about married people, really is not about my pet peeve of sharing an email address, but it does show the lighter side of what can happen. My parents share a computer (not an email address).  Although they do have the ability to each have their own login, and actually do have their own individual logins, they are too lazy to switch between them. Really, it makes no difference because all of their settings are basically the same.  And my Dad, quite often, will just up and leave the computer in mid-action leaving his email open and on the screen. My mom will usually check and sign him out because they both use the same email platform (with different addresses).  Sometimes, though, my mom forgets and hilarity ensues:

The first email I received the other day was from my Dad and was a forwarded joke about women and men to which I responded:

Me: lovely

Dad: LOL I thought it was funny.

[stop - as an aside, this should have been my first clue as my Dad does not do LOLs]

Me: It was hilarious.  At first I thought "my dad is so sweet", then it just turned cynical and I thought "that's us, the [last name]'s"

"Dad": Yep, the swearing cynical [last name]'s LOL

[two LOLs - definitely not Dad!]

Me: Mom, are you answering Dad's emails?

"Dad": I thought I was answering you from a forward in my email?

Me: No. You are in Dad's email.  Look at the top, it says [dad's email address]. He must have left his open and you are responding in his email.

At the same time, a second email was sent from me to my Dad about a raffle. I received a response back from my "real" Dad (not my Mom) to which I responded. I then received this reply:

"Dad": I was going to ask Dad today and forgot...thanks for letting me know.

Me: Who is answering this? Mom? I sent this to Dad's email.

"Dad" a/k/a Mom: It's mom. It came to my email. Oh crap! Am I in Dad's email? ROFL

Me: And here I thought Dad and I were finally having a full on email exchange.

Now, do you see what I mean?  How confusing was THAT and they don't even share an email address.  Can you imagine if they shared one?  I would never know who I was talking to or, heck, even what we were talking about at any given time.  Please, people! For the sake of my sanity, maintain separate email addresses!!

That is all. Carry on.

*This post is not aimed at anyone in particular. I have had friends who shared email addresses with their spouses who saw the error of their ways so they are still my friends.