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Dragging Men To Events

How serious is their grumbling?

Shefali O'Hara
3 min readAug 7, 2023
Photo by Sandra Gabriel on Unsplash

Recently I was talking with my SO about going to see the new Barbie movie. I was pleasantly surprised by his response. A lot of men expect their partners to join them in their interests while not returning the favor.

With other men I’ve been close to, both male friends and my ex, it sometimes took a bit of arm-twisting to get them to agree to go to events.

With my ex, the first time I met resistance — I wanted to go see a production of the Nutcracker in Colorado. He really didn’t want to go. But I had an inkling he would love it if he came. And he did. Afterwards he went on and on about how much he enjoyed it.

Being young and foolish, this annoyed me.

The pattern played out several times before I realized I needed to just accept it. I’d ask him to go with me to, say an organ concert. He’d grumble but then, afterwards, he’d be so happy he’d gone. The times I accepted his refusal and went without him — afterwards, he’d express regret for missing out.

I finally figured out — he just liked to grumble.

When I asked him to go see Cinderella Man with me, and he grumbled, I just kept quiet. He was surprised it was a boxing movie. He ended up loving it, along with Ratatouille, which I also dragged him to. He…

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Shefali O'Hara
Shefali O'Hara

Written by Shefali O'Hara

Cancer survivor, Christian, writer, engineer. BSEE from MIT, MSEE, and MA in history. Love nature, animals, books, art, and interesting discussions.

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