The difference between men and women (well, not THE difference) is that women want to tell you their problems, and men want to fix them.  

The thing guys don’t get -  women don’t want it fixed.  They just want to “vent”. 

I’m not talkin’ ‘bout the fridge, door handle, or toilet flushie thing – you know, the one that’s inside.  I’m talking about “problems”.  

Your sitting there lookin’ like this guy…

… as the “love or your life”, who will from here on be referred to as LOYL, prattles on about some “co-worker” or non worker as the case may be or the kids or her mother or her scratchy heels (bigger problem for you than her) and you wanna’ say. 

“Smack her.”  (The co-worker/non-worker, not the wife!)

“Tell her to get to work.”

“Bring the kids to me, I’ll beat them.”

“Your mother, well, I’m just hopin’ you won’t be like her.”

“And Get a Freakin’ Pedicure!!!” 

But, you know better.  

You learned early on.  Whata ya’ do.  You keep your mouth shut.  

You sit there missing the news, some witty thing from Paula Abdul (ok, that’s not gonna happen), the scores, the name of the murder victim on SVU, and even the Oxy Clean commercial as you try to process just enough information from the fire hose coming at you so as you won’t say the wrong thing.  

You “Um.” 

You “Really.” 

You “No kiddin?” 

And so on. 

But do you offer any advice, solutions, fixems? 

Heck no, you’re much smarter than that. 

Aren’t you? 

But alas, your solutions might work.  Ok, don’t beat the kids, just rough them up a little.  And you might want to use a better choice of words about her mom.  Try something like “Your mother has so many good qualities, I like the way you make HER mashed potatoes/cornbread/grits.”.   As to the folks at work, you don’t know them, and it might all be her perception, so a simple, “your example may make them better” , just might do the trick.  Ok, probably not.  But guys, realize what you CAN fix and what you CAN’T. 

So ladies, let him fix something once in a while.

And guys,  pay for the pedicure.