Men Need Praise like Petrol
My husband said something so romantic this morning. My 6 year old daughter was playing with some dominoes on her own, and he said to her, "I want to play with you." He often says these romantic things. Some of my favorites are, "Let's go change your nappy, big boy," and "How can I help you, my love?". I'm not sure if he has become more romantic over the years, or if I have just become better at recognizing the love which he gives me. Either way, I have definitely become better at appreciating his love. Men at play are interesting to watch. They don't just tell each other "Well done," at the end of the game. Every catch, every shot, every pass, gets a "Good shot!", "Go, you good thing!", "That's our man!", "Nice one, MG (or some other cute nickname they've given each other)!" And at the end, the game is rehashed and each play congratulated again - and this can go on for not just days, but sometimes even years later they are still recalling a particularly good or helpful move of the game. It occurs to me that to men, praise is like petrol. It is needed every time a cylinder of the engine does a stroke. Petrol must be present for each spark otherwise the engine misfires. That's a few times for each single revolution of the shaft and axel. You can't just give it once at the end of a job with a heartfelt, "Thank you!" and expect that to be enough. If you want your man to keep going (and I have heard from many ladies that they would love to see their men doing a bit more around the house), he needs to have a little bit of petrol for each 'stroke of the engine'. (I realize that this analogy might not be appropriate for most girls, but I am an engineer by training so it makes the most sense to me… Hope it makes sense to you, too.) Sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed that Rich might think I'm overdoing it or being fake by complimenting him too often, but I guess it is much more likely that I am in danger of erring on the other extreme of being quietly appreciative (or unappreciative…if that be the case.) So this morning I stroked his leg as he was playing dominoes with our daughter, and whispered in his ear that he was a great dad. After he finished playing with her I told him he was romantic and sexy to me when he was being sweet with our children... Now I've written about how great he is… Do you think I should mention it one more time this evening? Or maybe in a couple of days time... :)
