In One Ear and Out the Other

I know I haven’t posted any entries in a while, but trust me it is not because I haven’t had any new material. No, don’t worry; my boyfriend hasn’t all of a sudden decided to stop all of his disgusting habits, I’ve just been a little bit busy with life. I’d like to talk about something I’m sure every single woman out there has a problem with, and that is your significant other not listening or paying attention to the words that come out of your mouth.



Every time I complain about my boyfriend not listening to the majority of things I say, there’s always another woman in the room who ironically agrees with me, “Oh yeah I know, but every guy does that. Men just don’t know how to listen.” Ok, that’s fine I get it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not totally annoying! Now I wouldn’t lose my cool if this kind of thing happened only once in a while, but I’ll tell ya, every single day there is an instance where I will tell my boyfriend something and he pretends like he’s listening. He does the whole shaking of the head in agreement thing while watching a show or on the computer, but literally 5 seconds later I will ask him to repeat what I said, and he might be able to get about 2-5 words right out of a 20 word phrase. Clearly, men just cannot multi-task like women, again we all know this and again it’s annoying. I can be watching TV, texting, AND folding laundry and I can still repeat back exactly what my boyfriend has said to me. I guess women are just talented like that.


There are also those times when I repeatedly remind my boyfriend of something coming up, every day for about a week. I always feel like he’s retaining the information, but sadly I soon find out that’s not the case at all. For instance, I’ll tell my boyfriend for a week straight starting on Monday that I’m working on Saturday at 5. Really, I will mention it once Monday, once Tuesday, once Wednesday, once Thursday, and once Friday. By Saturday I think to myself well there’s no need for a reminder today, I’ve been telling him all week. Well guess what, it’s Saturday and what does he ask me?


“Hey hun, what time are you working today?”


O-M-G really!?! I don’t understand, he basically tuned me out every time I reminded him during the week, he clearly wasn’t listening!


It’s so crazy how I can tell when the words that I speak are just not being retained by my boyfriend. Again we all know men cannot multi-task at all, so if he’s texting or watching the Celtics, or doing ANYTHING else while I’m telling him a story, I get the one or two head nods and the glazed over eyes and I know nothing is being heard! So when I ask for the repeat back I know I’m not getting anything in return that comes near to what I said. I’ve officially decided if I have an interesting story I want him to hear or something important to tell him, he just isn’t allowed to be doing anything else, bottom line. I’ve come to realize the solution to the problem of him asking me a question even though I’ve provided the answer numerous times, is simply not answering the question at all.


Let’s go back to the constant Saturday work reminder and my response to the ridiculous question, “When do you work on Saturday?”


My answer was actually very simple yet stern, “I’ve already told you 5x…I’m not telling you again!”


The sternness in my voice told him I was serious and clearly I meant business, and the refusal to answer the question forced him to remember back to the times when I gave him the answer every day for 5 days. He knew I had told him. He heard the answer somewhere, but guess what? He finally realized he wasn’t paying attention!!!


Usually, in a situation like this after a few minutes of reflection he either remembers “Oh yeah, you did tell me every day for 5 days.” Or he will own up to not listening and beg for the answer; at that point I tell him the answer, but then I also get the right to complain for about 10 minutes and remind him over and over again, “Everything I say to you goes in one ear and out the other!” And there’s nothing he can say about it because he knows it’s true!