My husband and I are a part of a mentoring program at our church. It’s in guinea pig stage, and we were asked to participate in the first set of couples. We’re paired with an older married couple, and we’re going to be mentored by them– or rather, we’re mentoring each other in some ways.
The older couple set up a study for all four of us to do together, from a book called Love Talk by Dr. Les and Leslie Parrott. There is a main book and then one workbook for each the husband and the wife. The book is about learning communicate in a relationship or marriage, and is designed to supposedly relate to anyone in a relationship, no matter what the stage. I tend to differ on this– I don’t think we’re yet ready for it, not because we are perfect and know how to communicate, but because we’ve simply not had the time to develop poor habits and the knowledge of knowing exactly what they are. Anyway, I digress.
So, my husband and I are sitting in bed together, reading chapter one from this book and filling out the workbooks. We’re under the blankets, in deep conversation, sorting everything out — writing goals and taking assessments of our skills. To be clear, we’re completely into this book, when suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he gets up out of bed, and takes off his pants.
I watch, blinking.
He crawls back into bed.
Flabbergasted, I say, “Why did you just take off your pants?”
He replies, “Oh, because I’m getting ready for bed.”
“We’re not done; I was in the middle of a sentence.”
He laughs. “It seemed like the thing to do. I saw the laptop needed to be plugged in, and thought I would quickly get up and plug it in or put it away for the night, then I realised I wasn’t in my pajamas yet, so I started getting ready for bed, hence taking off my pants. Then I decided I was just going to let the laptop go for the night.”
Frustrated, I only blink.
Perhaps we are in need of better communication skills than I thought.