I sat in amazement as a couple of situations played out before my eyes the other day. Two of my three boys, Robby and Kevin were all at the house. Caitlin had been writing thank-you notes all day and gotten to the point where she decided she needed Kevin's help to finish knocking them out. And so, he had obediently written his portion of notes as per her specific instructions...or so he THOUGHT he had.
The guys were just sitting around talking when all of a sudden, Caitlin said, "Kevin!" I knew that tone; apparently he did not yet. It was a "You've made a mistake" tone. He sauntered over to the table where she was checking to make sure that he had written his portion of the notes correctly. Yep! You know how that goes ladies. We give our guys a task, with the purpose not only being to assist us but also as a "test". It is a test of sorts to see if we can trust them with any further tasks. Well, I must say that I felt a little sympathy for Kevin, for the newly wed did not know that!
Now, bear in mind that Kevin is a smart guy; he's a doctor. I watched, however, as Caitlin began to run through the list of "why" some of his thank-you notes were not suitable to mail. Robby could tell that Kevin was more than a little offended by this and immediately offered his words of wisdom from being married for over 30 years: "Don't be offended, son, this is a good thing. Now that you have proven your lack of ability to satisfactorily complete this task, you will never be asked to do it again." Kevin still looked a little offended as Robby looked at me and said, "Tell him, Barbara...Have you ever asked me to write thank-you notes for you?" "Absolutely not", I replied. As Kevin sat there still shaking his head in disbelief, I realized that he had just been introduced to "Marriage 101".
Not to be outdone and attempting to create a sense of comradery between the guys, Ryan tapped me on the shoulder and whispered a question in my ear: "I learned a new word the other day...Do YOU know what a cardigan is?" I looked at him a bit astonished because this was a smart kid too; he was about to be in his third year of dental school! He quickly told me NOT to say anything because he was going to pose a question to the other guys to see if THEY knew the answer. He told all of the girls in the room not to answer and then got all of the guys' attention and asked, "Do y'all know what a sweater with buttons is called?" Of course, Robby jumped in like a contestant on a game show, "A cardigan!" Ryan disappointedly said, "Awww, Dad, I didn't want YOU to answer..." He then told us that Allison had called him to see if she had left her cardigan at his apartment and he told her, "No, but you did leave a sweater here." Laughingly, she told him that WAS a cardigan. He shared his theory with us that since a cardigan was merely a sweater with buttons, it had to be a marketing ploy to be able to charge more for sweaters.
Yes, men really might be from Mars. We definitely don't think alike, men and women. However, after having been married for over 30 years, we begin to just accept those differences. After all, I have a "few" quirks of my own...
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