knighton

Of Hail Storms and Humiliation

Mar 26, 2009

The worst of Wednesday evening's hail storms centered around my office building. There was severe damage, broken windows and headlights, debris everywhere.*

In a review of the damage this morning, some of the guys I work with mentioned that their wives' and/or girlfriend's cars were damaged pretty severely, too. What surprised me was the anger these men felt when their justified warnings to pull the cars under covered parking or overpasses went unheeded. There were lectures and yelling and arguments.

And then they asked for my opinion. I replied that "the correct response is 'It's going to be OK, honey. We'll take care of it.'"

Oh, the outrage!! You would've thought I had started torturing kittens at the office.

So, for the record and since I didn't get a chance to complete my thoughts (because, God bless them, these guys were RIGHT!), here's my reasoning:

Women are not children. And when stuff like this happens, we women are completely capable of accepting that you men were right about moving the car. We are even cognizant of the fact that our hesitation, distraction, or whatever, has cost our family - in both time and money needed to repair the damage.

Furthermore, when this kinda thing happens, we already feel like absolute crap. It's bad enough that we could have prevented it; it's worse when you lecture us. We don't need your criticism or anger to know not to do that again.

But here's the real issue: you want to protect us and fix the things that are broken, and you are frustrated when we unintentionally undermine those efforts. That's why your women came home in tears, guys. Not because the car got beat up, but because she knows that you will be disappointed AND you're going to let her know about it.

So, dear guys, let it go and don't worry that if you don't say something it'll happen again. It probably won't. And ladies, please listen to the man. He knows what he's talking about.

*I made it home before the storm hit, but only just. Our car was parked in the garage and remains undamaged. This story is not about me or Handsome. Just wanted to be clear.