Examples a friend told me, he's 32yo, graduated the academy about 1.5 years ago:
What do you tell your friend?
She (long term girlfriend) wakes up today and says she feels sick. She wants to go to the doctor. She asks if I'd like to come.
I say sure.
We go into the garage, I ask if she's driving. She says "No". I say, I don't even know where we're going??
I capitulate and drive my 3/4 truck, which irks me since she has an efficient little BMW.
She gives an intersection and street number for our destination (the doctor's office). They don't match.
I drive up and down the street looking. No success.
I'm irritated. She doesn't know the phone number for the doctor's office.
There's a motorcycle unit resting a bit and I ask him. She sees that he gives the same answer, "The intersection is south, the street number you have is north."
I'm ****ed because now I'm stuck trying to fix a difficult problem I didn't create, nor would've created had it been my prerogative to drive to the doctor.
We drive all over, up and down 1511 S. Avenue to 1511 N. Avenue. I tell her, this street goes through 3 cities, all with separate N/S street numbers. Are you sure it's this city? She doesn't know.
I rant a bit. I tell her, "This is why I didn't want to drive. I would've verified the destination and had the phone number in my phone memory if I got lost."
Finally we reach destination, about 10 miles from where she originally thought it was. she didn't have the correct street number, let alone North or South, let alone the correct city.
Doctor says she's sick, and to drink fluids. Which is the same thing I told her when she originally said she felt sick.
Half a day wasted... and she resents me.
I'm damned if I don't drive. So I give in and I'm damned more for my efforts.
Recently, I have noted that other people's bungles are irritating me more than normal. Is it wrong that everyone, now even my family (girlfriend, kids) seems just more than happy to create a soup sandwich and hand it to me with no instructions other than "fix it"? These problems wouldn't be so complex or time consuming if they'd take simple and reasonable efforts to PLAN AHEAD and double check.
I am losing my patience sooner than I used to. It seems to me that my loved ones just don't care.
For instance, take my son. I call him from work the night before his football game. "Boy, get your whole uniform ready, put it on, make sure everything is there and works. Then put the whole uniform in the corner of your room and don't touch anything".
I get home from a 13hr shift at 0330 hours, wake up at 0530 hours and we leave at 0600 hours for a football game. He doesn't have his socks.!!!!
I knew it. I knew he'd forget something. That's why I told him to prep everything the night before. I take the effort to remind him, and he's still to lazy to check.
Does it ever feel like you're working too hard and too strung out, to be dealing with people who don't care? ESPECIALLY FAMILY???
They just look at me like I'm the freaking answer grape.
The girlfriend wants to eat pizza. She refuses to order it. So I order the pizza. She doesn't want the pizza the way I ordered it. Then I have to call back and amend the order.
I don't want to just give up and not give a damn. However, at the same time I feel like I'm way overstressed fixing everyone else's problems.
This is resulting in a short temper. She says I'm "changing", and looks at me like I'm a stranger.
I say sure.
We go into the garage, I ask if she's driving. She says "No". I say, I don't even know where we're going??
I capitulate and drive my 3/4 truck, which irks me since she has an efficient little BMW.
She gives an intersection and street number for our destination (the doctor's office). They don't match.
I drive up and down the street looking. No success.
I'm irritated. She doesn't know the phone number for the doctor's office.
There's a motorcycle unit resting a bit and I ask him. She sees that he gives the same answer, "The intersection is south, the street number you have is north."
I'm ****ed because now I'm stuck trying to fix a difficult problem I didn't create, nor would've created had it been my prerogative to drive to the doctor.
We drive all over, up and down 1511 S. Avenue to 1511 N. Avenue. I tell her, this street goes through 3 cities, all with separate N/S street numbers. Are you sure it's this city? She doesn't know.
I rant a bit. I tell her, "This is why I didn't want to drive. I would've verified the destination and had the phone number in my phone memory if I got lost."
Finally we reach destination, about 10 miles from where she originally thought it was. she didn't have the correct street number, let alone North or South, let alone the correct city.
Doctor says she's sick, and to drink fluids. Which is the same thing I told her when she originally said she felt sick.
Half a day wasted... and she resents me.
I'm damned if I don't drive. So I give in and I'm damned more for my efforts.
Recently, I have noted that other people's bungles are irritating me more than normal. Is it wrong that everyone, now even my family (girlfriend, kids) seems just more than happy to create a soup sandwich and hand it to me with no instructions other than "fix it"? These problems wouldn't be so complex or time consuming if they'd take simple and reasonable efforts to PLAN AHEAD and double check.
I am losing my patience sooner than I used to. It seems to me that my loved ones just don't care.
For instance, take my son. I call him from work the night before his football game. "Boy, get your whole uniform ready, put it on, make sure everything is there and works. Then put the whole uniform in the corner of your room and don't touch anything".
I get home from a 13hr shift at 0330 hours, wake up at 0530 hours and we leave at 0600 hours for a football game. He doesn't have his socks.!!!!
I knew it. I knew he'd forget something. That's why I told him to prep everything the night before. I take the effort to remind him, and he's still to lazy to check.
Does it ever feel like you're working too hard and too strung out, to be dealing with people who don't care? ESPECIALLY FAMILY???
They just look at me like I'm the freaking answer grape.
The girlfriend wants to eat pizza. She refuses to order it. So I order the pizza. She doesn't want the pizza the way I ordered it. Then I have to call back and amend the order.
I don't want to just give up and not give a damn. However, at the same time I feel like I'm way overstressed fixing everyone else's problems.
This is resulting in a short temper. She says I'm "changing", and looks at me like I'm a stranger.
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