17 Things From 17 Years: Post 7

#7: My husband wants to be told plainly, not hinted to.

I am not a straightforward person, so maybe this one is particularly for me. But I don't think so. I think this is pretty strictly a female idea: "If my husband does something for me, it doesn't mean anything if I asked him to do it."

Know what I'm saying?

How many of you mothers with little children have gone through the rush and flurry of getting out the door on a Sunday morning thinking one frustrated thought -- "If he really cared about me; if he really loved me, he would see that I need help and offer to do something!!"

Or, how about this. It's Thursday and the grass really needs to be mowed and you know that Friday night your husband won't be at home and Saturday the chances of rain are very high and you really, really want the grass cut because you're planning to have company on Sunday. Do you sit down and explain all of that to him plainly? Or do you make a few subtle hints about everything that needs to be done before Sunday and look how tall the grass is getting already and wonder why he doesn't get it that it would be nice if he would offer to mow tonight?

Tell the man! Tell him. He cannot read your mind.

He cannot always know what restaurant you really want to go to or when you wish he would wash the dishes or which evening it would be so helpful if he would bathe the toddler or when you are reaching a breaking point and really need some alone time or that picking up his socks every morning is really making you angry or how you feel about having sex tonight.

Sometimes he will know. Sometimes he will offer to bring pizza home for supper or have the house all cleaned up when you come back from being gone or put the baby to sleep when you are exhausted or think about mowing the grass Thursday because you're getting company Sunday. But most of the time he wishes you would just tell him.

That doesn't mean that every time you just tell him, he's going to sweetly do every little thing you want. But most of the time husbands love to make their wives happy. And they love knowing how to make them happy.

How can they know how if you don't tell them?