He’s In His Own Little Box
home, Ignoring & Inattentive, Jerk, Spouses & Partners, USA | Romantic | May 30, 2018
(I love my husband, but my biggest pet peeve with him is his tendency to completely zone out on me if he’s on his phone, reading, watching a movie, etc. He will literally not notice things happening right in front of him when he’s “in the zone.” I know this, so I try to make sure he’s actually paying attention if I’m saying something to him. Sometimes, though, the things he misses still baffle me. A couple examples
Me: *carries full dog bowls into the living room, where he is reading a newspaper, followed by three large, happily barking dogs* “Yay, puppy dinner! Who’s ready for dinner? Here we go!”
Husband: *thirty minutes later* “Hey, did the dogs eat dinner?”
Me: “Yes. Loudly and literally right in front of you.”
(One evening, I spend almost an hour in our enclosed porch, in full view from his spot on the couch, breaking down old boxes and straightening up.)
Me: *coming back into the house and sneezing multiple times* “Wow, that last box was covered in pollen! I can already feel my sinuses clogging up.”
Husband: *looks up from his phone* “What box?”
Me: “I just spent an hour tearing apart boxes and cleaning up the sunroom.”
Husband: “Oh, okay. Good job.”
(The next day.)
Me: “Ugh… my nose is so stuffy from that pollen yesterday.”
Husband: “What pollen?”
Me: “From the boxes.”
Husband: “…”
Me: “The boxes I spent nearly an hour tearing apart in the sunroom? I was cleaning up out there? You could see me through the window.”
(A couple days after that, we’re taking the dogs for a walk and decide to walk out through the sunroom.)
Husband: “Hey, it looks cleaner in here.”
Me: “Seriously? I straightened up the other night, when I was breaking down the boxes.”
Husband: “What boxes?”
Me: “Do you even notice when I’m gone?!”