Listen already!

I am as bad as the next person when it comes to using my listening ears. I like to multi-task, so if you're trying to talk to me I'm probably doing a few other things at the same time. During appointments at the vet clinic, I will perform the exam while simultaneously taking a history. Perhaps that means that I am super efficient. Or maybe it means that I do a poor job of both since I'm not giving my full attention to either. My practice manager feels the same way when she is trying to discuss a business topic with me as I write up my charts or read email (or worse, Facebook). Our conversations have become so disjointed as one of us will interrupt a discussion about planning our next staff meeting with something like, Oh my God, Casey Anthony is not guilty? (It's that Facebook thing again.)

But it works. My exams get done, the clients seem happy, my business hasn't fallen apart.

However, I have been driven to the point of near madness by my sons. Those precious almost-ten-year-old little men, who, like most men, cannot multi-task at all. (This is a gross over-generalization, I know). And when I say multi-task, I mean something simple, like the act of listening to me while petting the dog. It just can't happen! I have resorted to making them repeat back to me what I just told them and that still doesn't work all of the time. It's crazy. And God forbid you try to tell them something when the tv is on. I may as well tell it to the tree out front - the tree probably hears me better.

So of course I just LOVE it when my boys tell me, in exasperation, YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT!!! Sure. Do I need to write it down too? Maybe act it out?

Are they really unable to hear my words, or are they smarter than I give them credit for, using their male-singlemindedness as an excuse for not doing what I ask of them? I feel sorry for their future spouses, that's all I have to say. I've heard that this is not a trait that one grows out of.