Men!

Our minds are focussed on higher things: either "ishoos" as Tony Benn used to say, or as Clive James used to say (and perhaps still does), sex.

Some unwarranted generalisations about men on this thread. I haven't had one around for almost thirty years but the two I know best are my now middle aged sons and I don't recognise either of them in the sweeping statements made by some posters.

Anyone ever watched Jeanne Robertson? She is an ex beauty queen now in her 70's who is an absolutely hilarious comedian. She calls her husband 'left brain' and the way she takes him off has to be watched - it'll make your day: www.jeannerobertson.com

Not sure if only just men. Lately my short-term memory has been really off and naturopath says its to do with my adrenal issues that we are working on. Again I thought it was just to do with ageing!

My experience makes me think...
1. Engineers have brilliant minds about engineering issues. But have a hard time
accepting/dealing with/ life issues.
2. Any man who does chores willingly around the house, before being asked to,
has become so trained by the wife it would be like living with a woman.
No offence meant, just my observations over many years.

Don't think it is wrong to generalise about men, we are different after all. I'm willing to bet if there were more men than women on this thread they could do the same about us!

As long as none of us take it too seriously it is fine.

Lucky you annodomini! ?

I don't think the hunter-gatherer theory can be all that wrong. I'm sure I read somewhere that women have a wider range of vision - imagine a cone of vision emanating from your eyes - the area of what you can see without moving your line of vision is larger than that of a man's.

When they were smaller, I remember my kids being totally freaked out when I looked them in the eye and said "Where did you get those dirty knees?"

To this day, if one of them can't find something in the cupboard which is exactly where I said it was, they use the excuse "It wasn't moving".

There is a definitive line in our life. I organise the day to day stuff - shopping, cleaning, gardening, kids, running the business office. OH does the major stuff - earning money and his hobbies - and it is difficult to get his brain to think of everyday stuff. I leave post it notes in the car if I want him to do something when I am not at work - like yesterday he had to remember to put the work rubbish out so I put a post if on the steering wheel (he did it!!). I do find it annoying that when he is looking for something he will not look UNDER anything, if it is not on the surface he can't find it, and if he has put it somewhere safe you might as well give up all hope . But I wouldn't change him (I am not giving up on 45 years hard work)

annodomini, ask their wives what they think! Having been convinced that my OH had incipient Alzheimers, I am so relieved to find that so many other women have the same problems with their menfolk! Selective hearing is just a part of it. Still, one way of dealing with it is to wait until they are watching football/rugby/golf, then mention something you want them to agree to but normally wouldn't. When you have received an absentminded grunt, you can say "But I DID ask you and you agreed" when the subject comes up!

My favourite saying if he was looking at something but still couldn't see it was "if it was a rat it'd bite you!"

My husband finds it difficult finding anything. I hear him say "have you seen the .....?" I've given up replying because 20 seconds later I hear "ahhh, I've found it!" 46 years of marriage has taught me that he never looks carefully enough the first time!

Oh thank goodness! I'm so relieved to read that mine is NFM (normal for a man),I thought he was the only one who's stock phrase is'its not leaping out at me'

It's the 'What have you done with....?' that drives me mad ?
It's usually about something I've never even set eyes on too!

I'm so glad to see so many of you writing about this subject. My OH is getting so bad I was wondering if he was starting with dementia! I can say something and one minute later he will ask about what I have just said. He's never been able to find anything in cupboards or drawers either,unless the item falls out on his head! I could go on but it's obvious this is a man thing and nothing for me to worry about. (I think!)

If this thread was going on about the deficiencies of women, we would all be up in arms saying it was sexist. Not all men are imbeciles.

PPP my OH definitely isn't an imbecile but he will tell you himself that he is single minded, and on his better days will tell you that he can't manage without me. We just like to gently tease.

OH is a past master at procrastination and selective hearing. 'someone' and 'people' are also brought into play when things aren't going right for him.

My usual response to his accusing me of nagging is 'well if you did what the situation required at the time I wouldn't have to repeat myself'.

PPP I think the difference is that women know full well what their own deficiencies are, (some) men have a bit of a problem with self-awareness.

Left brain thinking for you.
My OH - married 28 years - has a scientific mind. He retired before I did. Asked to put a home made Shepherd's Pie in the oven before I came home from work one evening he expressed puzzlement at it's lack of a crispy top.
But he had failed to take the tinfoil cover off the dish - "Well you did not tell me to do that !"

So for all the theories of heat and convection a soggy Shepherd's pie that night.
For those of you who enjoy a good laugh look up Jeanne Robertson on Youtube. Some cracking examples on there. It's why we love them ?

My husband is the first to say he cannot multitask and most of the time he is so obsessed by his engineering stuff that he is on another planet! We have a large open diary in the kitchen with everything written in it thats happening ( week to view) he will stand next to it and ask what are we doing today.

Is there a recurrent theme here? Absent minded husbands tend to be engineers?