Women are confusing? SAY IT AIN’T SO!
It has been said that women are confusing creatures. Personally, I have no idea why anyone would say such a thing—I mean, when have women ever been known for anything but being crystal clear and speaking what’s really on their minds?
So, in order to bust this myth, I decided to observe the only woman in my life who wouldn’t kill me if I quoted her on the The Internets. Below are some of the following requests made by my lovely mother in the last 24 hours:
“Get me that thing in my purse.”
“Bring me that paper from my desk.”
“Can you get me my book for me?”
“Did you do that thing I told you to do?”
(She doesn’t like wasting adjectives, you see.)
But let us see what happens when someone asks for—god forbid—more details!
My mother: “Did you do that thing I told you to do?”
Me: “What thing? You’ve told me a lot of things to do.”
My mother: “YOU KNOW WHAT THING. Don’t be stupid.”
Highly descriptive, you see. NOT AT ALL CONFUSING, you see.
Myth busted, methinks.
Too funny! My wife uses the word “thing” all the time and it drives me nuts!
August 12th, 2008 at 4:43 pmMy mom does that too, and makes up words. I try to be helpful and supportive, but sometimes it goes to far, and I’m like “WHAT?! WHAAAAAAT?!?!? THING??! HUH?!?!”
August 12th, 2008 at 5:28 pm“You know what I’m talking about, you know it! Don’t pretend you don’t know what you did wrong?!”
August 12th, 2008 at 5:37 pmOh, man. I totally know what you’re saying! Haha, my mom does the same. It’s not uncommon for her to ask me to get “the thing from the thing.” :D
August 12th, 2008 at 5:42 pmMy mom doesn’t even give me the liberty of describing what thing I’m supposed to get from where. She just gets up herself and starts mumbling under her breath about how incompetent and stupid and uncaring I’ve become and how no one cares about her anymore to know her needs. I think it’s worse for me than it would be if I were confused.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:31 pmWell, all mothers do that I suppose. And all women maybe? I do it all the time…
-me: bring me that thing
-the other person: what thing
-me: THE THING. Is that so difficult to understand????
We’re hopeless, I think.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:45 amI know what you mean, my mom does the same thing. She speaks in the most ambiguous way, is usually highly unspecific and sometimes even says things wrong. And then she expects everyone to just know what she means. And she gets really angry if they don’t.
For example, a couple of weeks ago she asked my sister for a cup of water – “Get me a cup of water, but just a little because it tastes weird”, so my sis brings her some water. After sipping some, she yells at my sis, “this water is disgusting, why didn’t you put more ice in it? did you pay for the ice? I asked you for lots of ice, where the hell is the ice?”, so of course my sis said she never mentioned that she wanted LOTS of ice, she never even mentioned ice at all. So mom tells sis to go get her water right now, blah blah. My sister said she’d do if when she asked nicely or at least after she lowered her voice and stopped swearing. Mom got really mad and threw the cup of water at my sister’s face, called her many bad words and grounded her.
Sad. And the only excuse she came up with was that even if she did forget to mention the ice, my sis should have assumed that she wanted lots of ice. The water didn’t even need the ice.
And this happens regularly…
August 13th, 2008 at 6:55 amWhen I speak with close friends, I’m always terribly vague. They know me well; I know them well. So even if I don’t use tons of words, I figure that they should be able to understand me easily. Besides, why use more words than you need? Succinctness is good; it creates more efficient environments. :D
August 13th, 2008 at 6:07 pmAhhh, but as a woman you should have the built-in ability to decipher what your mum is on about and anyway. Certainly it comes in handy for the times when Karl says “I can’t find my thing” — I always know what his thing is, and more importantly, where his thing is.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:03 amSometimes I get really fed up with this whole gender stereotype crap. But women feel the same way about men, as well. Just look through a Cosmo. When in the hell did we need a magazine to “decipher” what the opposite sex was thinking? Even though we have different genitals, we’re still human.
What ever happened to honest to good conversation?
August 14th, 2008 at 8:10 amHi Chanel,
Interesting website. Found it by googling various people’s names. Checked out your photography portfolio– not much in it is there? What is there though is good except that blurry one, but that’s probably some modern photography technique that old guys like me are not familiar with. By the way, Flora and Flowers mean the same thing. Ever thought of a crash course in Latin? It’s amazing how helpful it can be in improving our knowledge of English. But I’m starting to sound too much like a pedantic old fool. God forbid!
I need more of that mangosteen juice. Can you e-mail me for details? Thanks. Give my love to the family.
P.S. Lene’s mother is in serious need of help! Dearest mommy sounds like the bitch of the Baskervilles!
P.P.S. Did I notice somewhere that you’re reading HAMLET in a Shakespeare for Retards version? Try to get your hands on the Kennet Shakespeare edition (Edward Arnold Publishers). It has excellent notes and explanations on each facing page.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:33 amMy parents do the same thing, especially in English and/or their native language, Tagalog.
But I guess since you’re very close to her it’s expected that you understand what she says.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:42 pmYou know, maybe it’s just me, but I usually know exactly what the “thing” is. Usually, though. Because they’ve already mentioned it to me or it’s something that is frequently asked for. =P
But no seriously. Andy is forever not knowing where his keys are, so whenever I spy a hot button item, I remember where it is so that when he asks, I’ll know.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:28 amLOL! I use the word “thing” a lot too.
August 16th, 2008 at 2:45 pmThat may be true, but whenever someone tells me to get that “thing” and I have no idea what they’re talking about, it’s really because I’m blind as a bat.
Or absent-minded as a professor.
LOL.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:19 pmOr in the words of my mom:
mom: “Can you get that thing?”
me: “What thing?”
mom: “You know, that thing…over there.”
me: “…”
August 26th, 2008 at 6:40 amhi,
its not that their are confused. its the fact that they want everything to be at its perfection. So this is nothing to do with how they are , the fact is we should consider the outcome of this. that will alone decide whether its good or bad. all are equally blessed in this world. only thing is the responsibility they posses decided who they are.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:19 amI know very well about the confusion of women because I am sharing my own experience here….
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:04 am