Ok, I have no idea why this bothers me and I don’t even know what to call it. My husband is a “come here” guy. Something he thinks is interesting and wants to show me - hey, come here! Nuclear apocalypse - hey, come here! Why the hell wont he just tell me why he wants me to get up, trudge to wherever he is, so that he can reveal the surprise like some sort of performative art ? I never know if it’s going to be legitimate, a disaster, or something stupid. The walk to wherever he is is insanely stressful because the whole time I’m running through all possible horrible scenarios (we’ve had a lot of issues at the house lately so I never know if I’m going to find water in the basement or raccoons in the attic or a hole in my foundation, or just him looking at a funny cat video). I’d rather he say “hey, babe, something is happening wherever/whatever, come see this.” Instead I have to have the whole performance and reveal and I fucking hate it. Anyone else know what I’m talking about or am I just mental ?
“Hey hubby, I’m not sure why, but when you say “Hey come here” to me, I feel really stressed as I’m walking to you not knowing whether it’s a good ‘come here’ or a bad ‘come here’. Can we workshop a way to communicate that doesn’t feel so stressful to me? Could you say something like “hey, babe, something is happening wherever/whatever, come see this.”?”
Tell him what you are feeling until he understands and wants to help you feel less stressed. Another option is to ask while you are walking, something simple like “good or bad?”
This is good. I’m going to try this.
I hope it helps!
Over dinner with friends, they were sharing their own “communication pacts”. My one friend said they had a “No gaslighting” rule where if something even sounds like a potential gaslight, they call it out and squash it.
My wife and I have a few rules. A “No surprises” rule would resolve this issue. “Come here” is vague, which can be surprising. I’d enforce that rule.
We review these couple rules every year or two. Been married for 15 years.
“Hey, [husband], it really bothers me when you just say come here, because it makes me feel X and Y. Can you not do this anymore please? Instead, if you want to show me something say something like Z.”
People are not mind readers. Talk to eachother.
Communication can solve SO many problems in relationships. It’s critical.
You’re not alone. My wife does this all the time, usually by text, which is even more annoying since we’re always within earshot of each other.
I think it bothers you (and me) because it’s akin to someone ringing a bell for their servant. It doesn’t value your time at all to simply call you over with no context.
Once in a while? Fine. Always? That’s just being disrespectful.
I’ve simply resorted to “what is it?”, “I’m busy right now” or “I’ll come later”, and that usually ends up with a “never mind”, so I know it was never something important enough to stop what I was doing.
If your wife is using text instead of talking to you, I would consider that a sign of respect. At least this is why I text people I could just as easily talk to.
Texting is inherently asynchronous. Your wife is telling you, “This isn’t urgent. Read it whenever you get the chance.” If you’re in the middle of something, texting is less obtrusive than if they just started talking with you out of nowhere.
This is just my personal interpretation. Only you can decide if it makes sense in the context of your relationship.
If your wife is using text instead of talking to you, I would consider that a sign of respect.
Nah, she’s just super lazy. LOL
She knows I’ll be working, but I have to “come here” because “Can you bring up my water?”… literally just ask me to bring up water and save me two trips and 15 minutes to get back into what I was doing!
It’s a habit that needs to be deprogrammed.
That’s an assertion of dominance. I would hate it.
Because, unless it is an emergency, the “come here” person expects you to drop whatever you are doing and immediately switch your attention to what they are doing. If it is only “come here” then they provide, like you say, no information as to how important it is or if you even care about it. They may not intend it but it feels like a lack of respect that their time is more important than yours.
As someone who’s been dealing with OPs exact scenario with a family member for 20+ years, I can 100% say that this is the only correct answer.
What started 10 years ago with me asking nicely to drop that habit because it feels like a disrespect of my time, has over the years turned into major conflicts. I can get behind somebody calling me with a simple “come here” to get my attention, but as soon as I ask “what for?” and they go out of their way to make the reason a secret by repeating “just come here” over and over, it’s stops being a bad habit and quickly turns into straight up malice. Especially after being repeatedly told that it’s something that I value for them not to do.
I’ve adjusted my behavior far more for people that I like a lot less, just to adhere to their comfort. If a coworker asks me not to stack boxes too high because she has trouble reaching them, I will. Even though their respect or friendship means a lot less to me than a family members or friends, I will go through this minor trouble because it’s just common courtesy.
But for some reason, the request of giving one sentence of context for a call down two flights of stairs from a loved one, is impossible to fulfill.Since my situation has been going on for so long, I’ve naturally started looking into this behavioral issue and sought out other people experiences with similar things.
Simply put, it’s a form of narcissism.
I’ve started noticing other typical narcissistic patterns with that person too. Like for example on multiple occasions I’ve been busy with something else in another room and hear somebody dropping and breaking a plate, suddenly this person rushes to me and asks me why I made them drop the plate, because their brain is incapabile to recognize their own wrong doing. This isn’t even the most extreme example, just the most common one.In short, if this is something that has been going on for a long time and your requests have been ignored, that person has most likely a mental condition. This is not normal adult behavior. If you’re tethered to this person you can read up on how to deal with them or ask some experts. But just know, that getting them to change is fighting for a lost cause.
No, that’s annoying. If he’s a reasonable sort he’d be willing to recognize that too. However, fixing this kind of simple, ingrained-from-childhood habit is a pretty epic amount of effort, and I can all but guarantee he’s mentally weighing whether the effort (probably weeks to months of it) will be overall less annoying than whatever the bad habit is costing you.
Also worthy of note that he’s probably going to severely underestimate how much it actually does cost you, because it’s not necessarily strictly logical, it’s a conditioned response that built up over time.
Worth having a serious chat about imo.
We have talked about it a lot. He recognizes it’s a weird behaviour but he can’t break the habit, so the childhood thought tracks. And I also think you’re right about the effort bit. He’s lazy by nature. If something needs doing and he doesn’t know how, he just shrugs and says “I don’t know how”. But when you’re a couple, and something needs to be done, anything shrugged off by #1 becomes the responsibility of #2. Which means instead of him having to learn it, I have to. Just google it dude. Watch a youtube video, like I’m going to when you wash your hands of it. It’s easier for me to learn something new than it is for him to learn something new which is bollocks. The only reason it’s easier is because it’s not his effort. Somehow in his mind learning something new is too hard on his part, but takes zero effort on mine. Like, what?
To be fair, they don’t really cover bad habit-breaking in high school. College either sometimes, depending on course of study. They probably do in the military, but most people don’t enlist.
The information is out there though, perhaps you could find him a useful reference material that isn’t too long and covers a basic, evidence-based technique.
Ah, a bit of the ol’ weaponized incompetence.
Wanting your best friend to experience something like you did for the very first time is the sole reason he’s doing this. Sure, it can be annoying, but at least it’s coming from a place of love and a hope for a common connection. He’s not trying to inconvenience you, though he may be.
And it could be easily communicated with intent to share an experience just as much to explain what they saw. Laziness to communicate one thing doesn’t explain laziness to communicate another.
One thing about benign intent - it does not always matter.
One of the things about the female experience is that there are a lot higher instances of people treating you like a child or a dog. The more you are subjected to a disrespect the shorter your fuse between the incident and the emotional response. OP has stated that this is not her first time broaching the issue with her husband. Moreover women are constantly conditioned to ignore their own feelings because people’s actions “aren’t coming from a bad place” and told to “consider the feelings of the other party.” Less often are they given space to just lay out the unvarnished reasons being what they think about something and request solidarity and understanding without the moral filter of “well that’s not very nice!” applied.
The question was not "Why is he doing that? " the original question here was "why does this bother me?/ Am I alone in feeling this way about this thing? "What is actually being requested is a sounding board for her feelings, not a defense of the husband’s intent.
If she thought it came from a bad place she likely would not be trying to rationalize her own feelings to help meter her response or be trying to explain her needs more accurately.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted here. This is accurate with every word.
This is a pet peeve of mine as well.
Long ago I noticed that on Star Trek, nobody wanted to tell the captain what was going on over the comms, they wanted the captain to stop what they were doing and go to a different part of the ship / station. I always eyerolled at the absurdity of the staff having so little respect for the captain’s time.
Then it started happening to me. I’m not a captain, my time isn’t that important, but have a little respect for what I’m currently engaged in? maybe?
Realizing we’re talking about an imaginary world here, but in some cases probably appropriate not to discuss sensitive matters when you don’t know who is within earshot of the communicator
Not only that but also some things require a demonstration and discussion. Why tie up bride wide comms for 30 mins while explaining something. Come here captain so we can discuss
I can relate. I’m a words person. If my wife tells me to come see something, I’m thinking “just fucking tell me.” If I click on a news link, and it’s a video instead of an article, it’s the same thing: “just fucking tell me.” But not everybody is a words person.
I fucking abhor how all information on the internet has become videos instead of text plus pictures. Very rarely does video add anything useful, and you can’t easily search it or quote it. It’s such a stupid way to share basic information 99% of the time.
And you can’t skim a video. It’s a waste of time.
it’s because it’s way easier to monetize
OMG, I’ll spend an hour looking for an article or a description of a fix for an issue, before I’ll watch a 10 minute video on it! Mostly because that video has about 9 minutes of complete bullshit before answering my question.
instead of letting contempt fester in you why not literally just say “im busy rn can it wait?” and then give your partner some fucking time later to share something with you they find interesting? you sound like a bitter person tbh. maybe just talk to them damn.
I have talked to him. He acknowledges he does it but doesn’t know why. I’ve explained how stressful it is for me, and he says he understands. I’m bitter because it annoys the fuck out of me, not because he’s trying to “share” with me.
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How about asking him to come to you instead each time? Or try to find some other way to help him break the habit. Don’t let yourself get too worked up about it.
Why the hell wont he just tell me why he wants me to get up, trudge to wherever he is, so that he can reveal the surprise like some sort of performative art ?
maybe he just wants to spend time close to you. maybe he likes the way you smell, or the way you stand near him.
it’s selfish and silly to ask you to drop whatever you’re doing to attend him, that’s inconsiderate and you need to find a way to communicate it. but perhaps he’s just bad at requesting your company.
Sounds like you should take this up to him, and ask him yourself, having communication is really important, and remember, you could be doing something that also annoys him and he doesn’t say anything
Because when someone says “COME HERE” they’re making the statement that whatever you’re doing is pointless shit that can be dropped immediately.
I didn’t tolerate that with my parents, and I sure as shit wouldn’t tolerate it with a spouse. If you can’t be bothered to give me a reason to go there, don’t fucking tell me to go there.
“Hey, check this shit out!” - Fine. Implies it’s on my own time. “Could you come in here?” - Fine. A request can be denied. “Come here.” - I’m not your fucking dog.
True.
And I agree with you.
But there’s also plenty of room in the equation for a simple benign intent, so responding with hostility and assuming the worst also seems counterproductive.
So I agree that OP should issue some sort of a challenge response, but perhaps not go quite so directly to “I’m not your fucking dog”.
In this specific case, I feel like, “What is it?” is a perfectly acceptable and reasonable response, that puts the ball back in the other court to determine how the rest of the exchange will go and to shed light on the tone.
If you get a real answer, like “this cat on my phone is playing the piano” then you know it’s innocent and well intentioned and can respond more softly and/or circumvent the issue.
On the other hand, if you get a response that addresses the request in a way like, “just get over here” then yes, draw your line in the sand and have an argument about respect.
Aw, he just wants to share something with you.
I can see how this would be exhausting after a while. I get a “come here” from my wife every couple of days or so when my daughter is doing something cute, or something weird is happening outside. It’s generally reserved (for the most part) for something fleeting that’s worth coming there to see.
As Tyrone from Trailer Park Boys would say, “You’re sayin’ “come here’” too many times! 80 or 90 times? That’s too many times! Once or twice is cool, but 80 or 90 times, man?! That’s too many “come heres”, know’m sayin’? That’s too many times. Once or twice is cool, but 80 or 90 times?”
I’m not sure I got the message Tyrone is trying to tell. Could you have him say it 77 or 87 more times?
This sounds like a you problem that can only be resolved by talking to him about it. Maybe a counselor or therapist if necessary.
