May Not be Going Straight but Forward Enough

As I approached this morning like every other morning, I had to share a humorous observation and perhaps offer our married children a way to handle many an aggravation between the sexes.

Take this scenario:

Hubby goes down to our basement to use the treadmill:
1. Descends the stairs
2. Lowers the treadmill for use
3. Sets his music for use
4. Walks nowhere for 45 minutes
5. Returns upstairs

Once he is done down there I think to empty last night's load of laundry in the dryer:
1. Descend those same stairs.
Notice the foot dirt and pet hair collected in the corners and grab the dust pan to clean it up.
Notice cat vomit on one of the steps so I return upstairs for a paper towel to clean it up.
2. Immediately smell the dirty litter boxes so clean up the litter boxes.
3. Grab the dust pan again to sweep up the scattered litter around the litter boxes.
4. As I throw away the bag of litter waste, I remember it is trash day tomorrow so pull the trash bag.
5. Notice that the pets' water bowl is empty so fill it.
6. Pick up a forgotten jacket thrown over the cat tree which of course was now sprinkled with cat hair
7. Pick up the now empty cat dishes from their earlier breakfast.
8. Carry the trash bag, jacket and dirty cat dishes upstairs.
9. Gather the trash from all the trash cans in other rooms and take the it up to the road.
10. Lint roller the cat hair from the jacket and hang it where it belongs.
11. Wash the dirty pet dishes
12. Go back downstairs to get that laundry from the dryer.

And the point is?

Men have an agenda in mind. They go from point A to point B...straight line

Women also have an agenda in mind. They go from point A and get detoured. Point B is reached...eventually.



There is a line from a song that goes "Don't go straight, go forward". That is kind of what it is like for a woman. She goes forward through her day but may find it impossible to simply stay on a straight path. That is because she notices everything around her at the same time! Men usually just notice what they intended on doing at that moment. That is where so many times women misunderstand men. They interpret a man's way of doing things as lazy or inconsiderate. If a woman wants her man to do something she has to write it down and post it somewhere for him as a reminder. Stop beating your head against the wall from the frustration of why you come home and find the house in the same disarray as you left it. I don't mean to generalize, since of course this doesn't apply to all males, but oftentimes men just don't notice things the way a woman does. If you want him to clean up the place he needs a detailed list of what you want done. Don't expect the typical man to notice or even care if the laundry is still in the dryer, if the dishes are still in the sink, or even if the dog's been let out to pee.

Remember the Women's March and the sea of pink hats? During the time it takes for a woman to knit something, her mind has never stopped. Just like those knitting needles in constant motion and the yarn being turned and woven in and out, a woman's mind is a swirl. That swirl makes her a whiz at multitasking but it can also allow for that swirl to gather steam and eventually explode. Kind of what is happening behind that march.