If a husband comes home, acknowledges his wife and her friend chatting on the couch, and then settles down in the kitchen with a beer, some food, and a magazine, is he being rude or considerate?
Edited to add: He says he tried to talk to us but we seemed to be into our own conversation, and when he comes home from work sometimes he just doesn't want to deal with people any more. I say he gets a B in Husband (if we were into grade inflation and generosity toward effort, maybe a B+; if we were hardcore about results, a B-).
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7 comments:
Doesn't the answer depend at leats in part on his motivation for not joining the conversation?
Considerate because he knows that they're probably talking about him. Or will be. Or just finished.
I'm with teof up there: depends. Probably considerate, unless specifically invited in, though.
um, that's teom. But I would have done better just to type the whole thing out, I guess.
Uh.
I'm going with "yes."
probably depends on what mood the hypothetical wife is in, no?
As a constitutional recluse who cannot now imagine living with another person, I see the husband's POV; but as a reader of Austen's novels, I will observe that it is a signal in those books of masculine lack of consideration to pick up a newspaper in company (Darcy in P&P, Mr. Palmer in S&S) and read it instead of having conversation! But seriously, this is so much a gender norm, I feel that it would be MORE conceivable to me to live with somebody or just generally be around people more if I DID think it would be OK to just read the paper or whatever!
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