My (34m) wife (31f) keeps tying my boots after I've told her to keep her hands off of them. I tried to teach her a lesson and really hurt her feelings.

Yes, you read that right. My wife has this annoying habit where no matter how many times I ask her not to touch my boots, she still does it. <br><br>Here's the backstory: I just got these new work boots and I want to make sure they look their best for as long as I have them. I've been carefully untieing them when I'm done, pulling them open with boot hooks, and placing them on a plastic boot rack to dry after a long day (they can get pretty wet and muddy).<br><br>My wife sees me do this almost every day and always asks why I'm so insistent on keeping them like new. My response is always "I just want them to look their best for as long as I have them. There's no reason to mess with them". <br><br>Well, the first time she messed with them, I noticed one of the laces were untied the next day and moved to the side. No big deal. I thought maybe my 2 year old had something to do with it the night before. So I re-tied them and placed them back on the rack. <br><br>The next day, I came home and they were tied again. Weird. So, I tried to take them off the way I always do and they weren't untied. Again, figuring it was my child playing around with them the night before, I untied them and placed them back on the rack. <br><br>This became a running theme until one day, I asked my wife if she'd been touching my boots. She said that "yeah, my dad used to do this too when I was a kid. I didn't want to to upset you or anything but the way you keep them just makes me remember my dad and I". I was flattered and told her it was no big deal as long as she stopped tying them. <br><br>Fast forward a week or so and I come home from work and they're tied again. At this point I'm getting a little annoyed because I feel like I'm being disregarded and she'sIDD doing it out of spite since i asked her not to. So, I tried to take them off the way I normally would and they were still knotted. Figuring this was my chance to show her how it is to have to deal with them knotted, I took out my pocket knife and cut the laces off. <br><br>When I got home from work the next day, she was very upset that I ruined her boot laces. Come to find out she had switched her boot laces with mine. She then went on to tell me that she's been doing this for the last two weeks to get me to untie them. I asked her why she didn't spend that time talking to me instead of switching the laces with the intent of getting me to do something to them. She said that she "knew I wasn't listening to her otherwise because I wasn't taking her hint". <br><br>To be honest I'm not really sure what to do. I tried to get her to talk to me about this (and she did) but really that's all I can remember from our conversation because the rest was her yelling at me and telling me that I'm a piece of shit for doing that. <br><br>I feel like I was pretty justified here and I'm more just hurt that she doesn't respect me enough to not touch my stuff. I'm considering just taking the knot out myself but at this point I'm over her doing this.