Feeling Silly

When I give Lynda a deadline for an assignment, there is always the opportunity for her to renegotiate the time table if something delays her.  But she hasn’t really learned to take advantage of it. 

I can’t count the times we’ve had this conversation while she’s over my knee:

“You know, (smack smack). If you had called me earlier (smack), perhaps we could have adjusted your schedule (smack), and you could have avoided this (smack, smack).

“But I did call you. Ow!”

“Catching me at the office just before your deadline is not what I mean (smack smack)”

Then she always says this to me: “It’s just that I feel silly calling and asking you… ow.”

“How do you feel now?” I ask as I smack away.  

And there’s no answer. 

Well okay, there’s one answer she often offers: “I just figure you’ll tell me you still expect me to get it done. So why bother?”

That could well be the case.  But I also know that things can get more complicated than we anticipated, and I’m prepared to make adjustments for her. Even if she is right about my insisting that she ought to still be able to finish the task, wouldn’t it be worth a phone call to see if I’m flexible, especially after I’ve said, “call me if you hit a snag.”? 

This feeling silly issue is interesting to me. Many readers wrote in the last entry that, like Lynda, they feel silly calling their husbands “sir.” As I wrote before, I can accept it, but I don’t understand. If calling me “sir” makes her feel silly, how does being upended and paddled make her feel?

Again, I don’t have to understand. Sometimes it is enough to accept. But it makes me scratch my head, and I admit it makes me smile in amusement—but don’t tell Lynda, it might make her feel silly.