Recently, my daughter went on a vacation for a few days. She has two very young children (three and one year), so it is quite an undertaking. You really need to have your logistics in order, especially if you also have to run your own company.
Her husband has no clue and isn’t very helpful. Because of his busy job and his youthful masculinity, his understanding of the female spirit and running a household with little children is not very well developed. Often, that leads to a lot of stress for my daughter, and the holiday adventure was no exception. After she had packed the car and put the children in their seats, she had to visit me to pick up an extra high chair. Her face red, she shouted in despair: “Shoot, now I have forgotten my make-up too”.
As a good father I tried to calm her by saying: “My dear, that’s no problem, you look wonderful and you don’t need any make-up at all”.She looked at me in an evil way and threw a fit, pouring out all her anger and frustration. How stupid my male consciousness can be… She is good looking, but she can still be pretty vain, despite her being a busy mother and entrepreneur. Her frustration did not ask for a denial of what she thought she needed. She wanted support and understanding, because she did not get that from her husband.
Of course, I should have let her rage and then tell her husband that he can yield lots of goodwill by going home to pick up her make-up. Ultimately, that’s what she wanted. Unfortunately, I am still male enough to miss the ‘hidden’ demands of the female spirit. So after she solved the issue to her satisfaction, she didn’t deign to look at me and took off. Nowadays, before I say anything, first of all I think of the lesson I learned from my daughter: Missing hidden messages in any situation can cost you a lot of sympathy and a lot of money. That’s for sure.