Despite being happily married, I often feel that I live a life of solitude. The reason for this is that my wife suffers from CRSD or Carefully Refined Selective Deafness. This appears to be a condition for which there is no cure.
It usually occurs at times when she is concentrating on something, such as a crossword for instance, and is triggered when I begin to speak. Curiously she quickly recovers as soon as I am silent.
Over the years I have learned to understand the various responses which she emits and these in essence are as follows.
Given the scenario that she is reading and I begin to speak the options are
1. She makes 'mmm' noises as if she agrees with me.
Meaning: She hasn't taken in a word I've said.
2. She is silent.
Meaning:
a) She hasn't taken in a word I've said. In this case she remains silent after I finish speaking.
It usually occurs at times when she is concentrating on something, such as a crossword for instance, and is triggered when I begin to speak. Curiously she quickly recovers as soon as I am silent.
Over the years I have learned to understand the various responses which she emits and these in essence are as follows.
Given the scenario that she is reading and I begin to speak the options are
1. She makes 'mmm' noises as if she agrees with me.
Meaning: She hasn't taken in a word I've said.
2. She is silent.
Meaning:
a) She hasn't taken in a word I've said. In this case she remains silent after I finish speaking.
or very rarely
b) She is hearing every third word and will respond when I finish. In this case there is a one in three chance that her response will actually relate to what I was saying.
I have tested this on numerous occasions. Here are two examples of the resulting dialogue -
Me: 'Your hair is on fire dear'.
Her: 'Mmm'.
Me: 'My cough is worse today'.
Her: Yes please, two sugars.
Maybe one day medical science will find a cure, but I doubt it.
b) She is hearing every third word and will respond when I finish. In this case there is a one in three chance that her response will actually relate to what I was saying.
I have tested this on numerous occasions. Here are two examples of the resulting dialogue -
Me: 'Your hair is on fire dear'.
Her: 'Mmm'.
Me: 'My cough is worse today'.
Her: Yes please, two sugars.
Maybe one day medical science will find a cure, but I doubt it.
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