Relationship 101 #1 - Men vs women in the car

"Add the salt, add the salt!" "Stir it, stir it, STIR THE DAMN THING!" "How can you flip the egg over this way? You need to flip it by flicking your wrist!" Sounds familiar? No? I guess no women likes to be told how to cook. We'll probably throw saucepans at the boyfriends/husbands who do the above.

I guess in the same way, men don't like to be taught how to drive. Or have us comment on their driving skills (or lack thereof).

It's standard procedure for a couple to quarrel in the car. Perhaps it's due to the claustrophobic environment, or it may be because of the near proximity to each other. To men, their driving skills equal their manhood and to comment or criticize it is to comment or criticize their manhood. I used to criticize the boyfriend's driving all the time. If he drove too fast, drove too slow, didn't put signal, braked too hard, turned too wide, turned too narrow etc. My comments sparked off SO MANY quarrels that now I've reached the zen level. I no longer criticize. When we meet a**hole drivers on the road who are true idiots and should never have been given driving licences, the boyfriend would be cursing and swearing beside me and I would normally agree and throw in a few comments of my own.

Other times when someone isn't in the wrong but he's just in a foul mood and thinks the whole world can't drive to save their lives, I would just keep mum. Well, he's already in a foul mood, being disagreeable with him would just piss him off further.

However, there are times when he's childish. Case in point: recently we went out for movie. He tried to park between a car and a wall (there was a valid lot), but he couldn't coz the idiot next to him parked too close to the lot. So anyways, to cut a long story short. If it were me (or other girls), I would have just driven off to look for another available lot. But for him (and maybe some guys), oh no, he has to do something about it. Like my girlfriend says, it's like guys have to carry out vigilante justice, be the super cop of all carparks and arrest all parking/driving idiots etc.

So the boyfriend went and pull up both wipers of the car. And I'm like, for what? How in the world does that solve anything? -_-" I think he was just being ultra childish.

Common childish things guys do:
- car A in front keep on braking, pissed off boyfriend drives to the front of car A and keeps on braking, just to "give the person a taste of his own medicine".
- car B drives on the fastest lane but drives really slow or according to the speed limit (which isn't fast enough for some people), boyfriend tailgates car B, and flicks highbeam at car B to signal to him to get out of his way.
- car C cuts into boyfriend's lane dangerously, causing boyfriend to slam on the brakes. Boyfriend goes to the next lane, drives up so his car and car C are abreast, then either (a) wind down window, (b) scold vulgarity at car C or (c) point middle finger. According to experience, the boyfriend says combining (a) and (c) is usually very effective. Sometimes when he's busy, he borrows my middle finger instead. :(

Anyway, girls, just bear with them! :) just like we don't like them to nag about our cooking, dressing etc, they don't like us to nag about their driving either. Keeping quiet is the way to treat this problem. Unless you have a child in the car. That's when you need to be firm and tell him to stop driving like a maniac.