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Multi-Tasking

I had to look up that word. Is it multitasking or multi-tasking? I think I have it right but if not, please correct me so I’ll know next time.

Vince and I went to town today and had the funniest conversation on the way home. For the last several days. I’ll say something and sometimes it’s a long sentence and he’s sitting right next to me and he doesn’t even hear me. He hears the TV. He hears the radio. He hears his friend on the phone. If I whisper something I don’t necessarily want him to hear . . he hears. I know . . he’s just tuning me out!

Today coming home from town, I said something and he totally ignored me.

Me: Vince! Are you going to answer me?
Vince: I didn’t hear you.
Me: How can you not hear me? I’m sitting right here!
Vince: Do you think I’m just sitting here waiting for you to say something?
Me: When someone starts talking, the other person usually just starts listening!
Vince: I’m not good at multitasking.
Me: What else are you doing?
Vince: Driving.

Then, he kinda started halfway listening. Twice I said something and he said “Huh?” I told him . . I’m going to start doing this to you and you’ll see how it feels.

We’re going down the highway and guys were out cutting hay in a field.

Vince: Looks like they’re cutting hay today.
Me: Huh?

He almost repeated it and we both had a good laugh.

I could continue to complain about him not hearing me but I’ll just use this to my advantage. “Oh, Vince. You didn’t know I was getting another dachshund? I told you and you didn’t say no so I figured you approved!”

No, I won’t do that but I’m betting if something like that happened, he would figure out a way to multitask and listen to me more.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. It’s a guy thing. They’re ALL like that!! We’ve managed to make a joke of it, too, but it really IS annoying, isn’t it? 🙂

    • Yes, except now I can say “I told you I was going to do that and you didn’t say anything so I figured it was fine.”

  2. I’ve read that the tone of a women’s voice is one of the early sounds of hearing loss in a man. Honestly, that’s what the article says. We may think our husband is ignoring us but he might actually have the beginning of hearing loss. My husband and I argue about this all the time. The recommendation is to change your tone of voice and see if he hears then.

    • No .. I’m not buying it. Half the time I say something and think he hasn’t heard me and 5 minutes later, he responds. Then again, sometimes he doesn’t respond at all. Sometimes I think he means to respond when he finishes whatever he’s doing, then forgets so he just says he didn’t hear me.

      I think he’s just practiced tuning me out for so long that he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.

  3. My eye doctor told me it was impossible to multitask…you can concentrate on only one thing?

  4. I had a boss like that many years ago. He always told us to make sure he was actually looking at us when we told him something, because there was no guarantee he was listening to us otherwise. LOL I think he did that to his wife a lot…

    • I think it’s a habit and I’m seriously going to start doing it to Vince and see how he likes it. Even when I would be counting knitting stitches or cross stitching stitches, if he said something and I couldn’t respond, I would whatever number I was on . . like “53, 54, 55 . . ” so he would know I heard him and as soon as I got to a stopping spot, I would respond.

  5. My mom took my dad to audiologist years ago. He diagnosed dad with “selective hearing disorder “. That didn’t help things around the house, my husband, grandchildren and sometimes my daughters have the same disorder.

    • Even little Oscar has that disorder. I can say “Come” a million times and he totally ignores me to the point I wonder about his hearing. Then, I very quietly rattle the treat container and he comes running.

  6. My husband gets mad when he talks to me and I hay “huh or what.” Since I finally got my Medicare, I went to an audiologist. She diagnosed hearing loss especially in my right ear. He asked her, why could I hear when I was looking at him? She said when people star to lose their hearing that they kind of star lip reading without even realizing it. But I keep telling him that he mumbles and faces away from me so his voice goes the other direction. So even though I have a doctor confirming that I can’t hear, he still gets mad. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them!

  8. Same thing going on at our house. My husband says my voice frequency is burned out on his hearing receptors. Haha!

    • Vince said “That sounds familiar. I can relate to that.” Then he said “You’re either talking too low for me to hear or you’re screaming.” Hmmm . . I thought we had this discussion/example of screaming vs. not screaming not long ago but maybe he’s forgotten. 🙂

  9. I read a book several years ago called Brain Rules, it said that people actually don’t multi-task but that we multi-sequence. Some people just are able to change subjects more quickly than others.

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