Thursday, May 3, 2007

In Sickness, And in Health

I was watching TV the other day and it seemed like all the shows I watched were on the topic of a sick husband or wife and the other spouse tending to their needs. This got me to thinking, as I always do, are women more sympathetic than men in a relationship? When they are sick of course. I have been getting sick a lot recently and I started to look at my relationship as if it were a sitcom.

Now don’t get me wrong, I'm normally opposed to comparing my relationship to other’s; especially on TV. But even for a sitcom it seemed very real to me. I have Crohn’s Disease and my boyfriend is very caring and understanding when I get those flare ups or when we go out to eat and I can only eat certain foods. But it also takes a toll on him too. Sometimes I do act a little overdramatic when I’m in pain, but when he has a cold he acts like he’s dying.

I went to other sources just to see if it wasn’t just my relationship that had turned into an episode of My wife and kids; minus the kids. And it turned out that both spouses said that the other one complained more when they were sick. So my search for answers ended nowhere, but I did hear some funny/nasty/weird stories of peoples behavior while under the influence of Tylenol, or even a hot toddy . Hmmm….I might save those for later posts.

2 comments:

Samantha said...

...are women more sympathetic than men in a relationship?

I can only say that I'm not. My husband is sweet and nurturing (and I just want him to go away when I'm sick), and I have a couple of male friends who are the same way (one offers to hold my hair back when I puke). So I think people can generalize, and I may be the exception, but for me the answer is no.

Cap'n Fatback said...

Tiffany--

I wonder if sympathy is the issue or if the need for sympathy is the issue you are describing, based on how you mention the comparison between the way you and your boyfriend look for TLC when sick.

Without proper punctuation, I'm unclear on how to read this sentence: "When they’re sick of course."

5/5