tionship in that one partner might think that the other is getting after them to pull more “weight” around the house when really they are just asking a simple question like if they took the garbage out. I am guilty of that when asked if I am keeping my apartment clean or if I have my homework done. Now I would like to start to give solutions on how dual career partners can keep from using pseudolistening. This is a hard accomplishment. It takes the work of both of them to work this one out. This is very hard to do if one partner needs to talk and you are watching an interesting program on television. All you have to do is take five minutes and let them explain what is wrong and offer advise or even just a hug. It can be difficult but if you actually listen to them there is a good chance that they will then do something nice for you. I will now offer a way to help with the problem of monopolizing the conversation. Monopolizing of conversations can be worked out by setting back a time when you can go one at a time and talk about your day. You could do something like that at the supper table while eating. You could also practice this by both of the partners help make the meal and you could talk about the day that you had one at a time. The main thing to do here is to listen carefully to each other and try your best not to interrupt the other person who is talking. The last that I will offer advice on how to fix is defensive listening. Defensive listening is a bad think because you can upset the other partner if constantly take their comments the wrong way. This is a hard problem to fix overnight. It could take months of listening to everything that they have to say and then try not to take it in the wrong way. You almost have to put yourself in their shoes and try to look at the situation like they do. This is something that I struggle with every day. I can’t figure out why I do this but I do. Like I ...
