I was just reading this article on MSN. For all the gal’s reading my LJ, please take this to heart:
…on the car ride home, she was still mad. “I mean, at this point you shouldn’t even apologize,” she said. So I didn’t apologize. I said I understood. [And later, near bedtime,] “Well,” she finally snapped, “you could have at least apologized!” When I protested that she’d told me I shouldn’t apologize, she said, “It would have been a good place to start.”
Show us some mercy. We really do want to understand you. And we are often a little intimidated in the communications department, partly because we know we have a reputation for being so bad at it. But look at us. We’re trying so hard! Doesn’t that count for something?
View full article: http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/couplesandmarriage/articlerb.aspx?cp-documentid=5660256>1=10715
Zach communicates better than I do. Luckily he picks up on what I’m thinking quickly. Like the time I stared at a cute umbrella at Pier One for 10 minutes, he got the message and bought it for me. hahahaaa 😉
I’m married now and I’ve been telling my wife, “I’m just following the rules!”
“What rules!?” she’ll say.
“The rules you made!”
“I didn’t make any rules!”
“I keep a list in my head of all the things you get mad about and I fix it. Those are the rules. When you get mad at the kids for getting into your personal space, the rule becomes, ‘kids aren’t allowed in mom’s personal space’.”
“I never asked you to do that!”
…
I don’t know if I inadvertently internalized this article 15 years ago or if it’s just describing something timeless in the male condition: