Something started happening much more after I became a mother, but I noticed it a little before my daughter was born. What is it you ask? People talk to me and ask me questions instead of my husband.
I am not really sure of why this happens, but I think it may have something to do with an often accurate generalization about men. Men do not place importance on the same details as women.
A medical setting is guaranteed to have them talking to me instead of my husband (other than one doctor at a quick care facility where we used to live who intensely disliked me – she would only talk to my husband).
This was really evident when we were in a car wreck last year. In the end, none of us were seriously hurt, but my husband and I were injured enough to go to the hospital from the scene.
I was the one the paramedics asked to make all the decisions about my apparently uninjured daughter. It was up to me to decide if she should go to the children’s hospital to be check out while we went to another ER. I had to tell them her medical history as well as my own.
At the hospital, it just got worse. I not only had to take care of my and my daughter’s paperwork, but my husband’s as well. No, he wasn’t injured that much more than me.
Regular visits to the pediatrician are the same way. They do not even act like my husband is there when he is in the same room.
Even when my husband has gone to the doctor or for a test, they still ask me.
Food service employees always ask me what my daughter wants. Hair stylists always checks with me even if they ask my husband. Retail clerks ask me if they can help us when shopping for my daughter. The list goes on. . .
I am not sure if men are not sought for these answers because they pay attention to different details or if they pay attention to different details because they are not expected to know certain answers. Either way, I guess I will continue to provide answers even when my husband is right there.
