Letters to the Editor
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Your Poor Wife
The technical advice is very smart, but what I want to know is if this happens when she calls you, or when you call her.
Because I feel empathy for your wife. My cell has added little to my life, but been the catalyst (and sometimes the cause) of much stress. First of all, I hate feeling obliged to respond to the Pavlovian nightmare. Your blood pressure goes up when you dial, imagine how she feels when you make a bell ring on her person, and do not doubt that most husbands do treat it as their wife’s obligation to answer.
Think about that for a moment. You make a bell ring and expect her to respond.
And what for? How many true emergencies, and I mean REAL problems, has the phone diverted? Probably NONE. But if you are like all other cell phone users I know you use it to change plans at the last minuet and ask her to run errands. In other words, to add stress to her life.
Then while you are at it you add in a dose of anxiety, I’m checking in on you because I expect you to be in danger/trouble. I don’t trust you to navigate through your own life without being presided over by the omniscient ear of ME.
And now there is a new layer, she doesn’t do it well enough, she isn’t up to your snuff, and believe me she hears that in your voice.
She responds to your bell like a well trained pup but she is flustered, out of the house, concentrating on something else, probably had to fish it out of a handbag, and after that the damn thing doesn’t sound right--
but you expect her to be gracious about it.