The Way Women Work

First off I want to let you know there is no connection between the picture tonight and the subject. Its just there are not a lot of pictures on my new computer yet, so the choices are rather limited.
Now onto the subject at hand. Tonight, I had a real “light bulb” moment as Oprah calls them.
Emery, Melanie, Casi and I went out for pizza tonight and then made our evening complete by heading off to the only store of any size in town, Wal-Mart. As Emery and I were standing in line ready to pay, there was a couple behind us, probably in their late 40’s or so. The woman did something that struck me as 100% womanly and to be honest a bit funny…simply because I work in the exact same manner and I believe most of us do when it comes to asking for an opinion from the man in our life about some purchase choice.
Here is how it went. The woman saw some dog chew toys in a display at the register area. She said, “oh we need to get the dog a new one of those things, one that doesn’t pick up leaves.” The man sort of nodded. I wasn’t really paying much attention at this point, but soon my attention was on nothing else as I saw clearly just how we women work. She pulls out four different toys, two furry and fluffy, pink stuffed things, surely the kind that would attract leaves like a magnet to them. Then a half stuffed one, there was a practical piece in the middle, then a very nubby plastic ring, yellow, functional and surely just what the man would choose out of the ones offered to him for his thought on which was best. Naturally, he picked the yellow nubby one. Naturally that is not the one she liked. It was if she offered it as a choice to be nice, as a token, but clearly with NO plans of letting that be THE ONE. She said, “oh, do you think that one is best, its so plain and so not cute..” He wisely commented with his head held down, “well, dear, its whatever you like”. “ You choose”. At this point she felt a bit unsure of her choice of the pink furry one and went to look back through the display. She pulled out a compromise toy. Stuffed animal like on part of it, but the center was a practical rubber ball thing. She offered that up as a new choice. By this time the man knew better than to really have an opinion. He mumbled something about, “whichever you like dear” and went on to notice the display of tiny tools. She forced him to pay attention by being cute and sweet. He still remained firm in saying, “ whichever you like dear”. He knew he wasn’t going to pick a winner anyway, and after all, the toy was not for him. He was not quite as interested as she was. She put the compromise toy in the basket and they both moved on to another subject.
I was struck by the obvious in this situation. We just ask them what they like without ever meaning to accept their choice if its something we already want ! On the way out of the store, I asked Emery if he knew this was the way we women operate and he sorta looked away and said, “oh not really” “ Guess I never noticed” Hummmm, I see, he was on to me. I was playing that same sort of game and he knew he should have the right answer, the one I wanted to hear. No, he wasn’t on to me even if I did such a stupid thing as to point out the way women work sometimes.
Life is fun, isn’t it ? That is a question for woman only, by the way. Men, need not try to answer that one : )