When a woman asks for your opinion

Bill Cosby has been quoted saying that when a woman asks a man for his opinion she is really looking to hear her opinion in a deeper voice. I think it's funny in that it's mostly true but that's not the point of this blog post. I accept that sometimes you will ask someone for an opinion and you won't necessarily like what they have to say and that's just a chance you have to take. On the other hand there are those times when you want to just have a good rant about a situation or person and all you want is for the other person to listen and once you've gotten that out of your system you can go on to talk about other things. 

 The problem is that for the most part only other women are able to listen to this without trying to fix everything for you because sometimes you don't want to find a solution right there and then or perhaps there isn't a solution to be found (that's me, always the pessimist) , sometimes you just want to get all your feelings out there because once they are spoken out loud you feel like they are not going round and round in your head and driving you crazy (or perhaps that's just me). 

 Have you ever tried to just emotionally unload with a man be it a family member or partner? from my experience I can say it does not work and it usually leaves you frustrated because you don't feel you are being heard and he gets annoyed because here he is giving you all this wonderful advice and you don't seem to be taking any of it on board. But not every problem is something broken that needs to be fixed. 

 Yesterday I arrived at my parent's house after a cross-fit class feeling extremely sleep deprived (day two of my hangover) and a little emotional so not really the best company at all and my dad was home. I knew he had recently upgraded so I asked if he still had his old iphone which led to me having to explain what had happened to my phone and instead of just saying no he didn't have it, he instead told why he no longer had his iphone and then proceeded to give me solutions to my problem that didn't help. Like to buy a refurbished iphone (they still cost a few hundred euro) or change my contract ( I'm tied in for another 20 months) and when I explained why these wouldn't work for me I was treated to a lecture on taking better care of my phone. All very helpful stuff indeed. As I mentioned I was bit all over the place as sleep deprivation makes me teary and uncoordinated so when he then asked me to reverse my car (it was blocking his) and I successfully reversed into the ditch along our road, I was tempted to just abandon it there.

 Once my head cleared a little and I was happily ensconced  in my bed nest (me +many blankets curled in a ball on my bed) Because yes, I was really feeling that bad. I got to thinking about many times when I have attempted a rant or some such unloading about work or a friend or a problem I was having, with a boyfriend and got a ton of unsolicited advice instead of some mandatory head nodding and maybe the odd you're totally right like I had actually been hoping for.

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