This is getting so old.

Sitting outside waiting for the sun to go down yesterday, I was having a conversation with my mothers' boyfriend. We got on to the topic of communtication.

He put it to me very simply.

Men are fixers, women are complainers.

William had said the same thing to me a few days prior.

What it basically boils down to is this. When a woman has a problem, she goes to her significant other, or friend, or whomever have you, and tells them all about it. If the person on the recieving end of said venting is a man, he immedietely thinks, "Well, I have to make this better."

So the man in question tries to offer up advice, when all the woman wants is someone to listen to her and tell her everything will be alright.

Women are generally satisfied with venting, and then letting go of their problems. Men approach problems in a solution oriented kind of way. Herein lies the problem.

Even though this is a very basic concept, is seems to be slightly out of my grasp. (Not to mention the millions of other people on the planet that just can't seem to make a relationship work.) As human beings, we understand that this is a difference between the way that men and women function. As one half of a relationship, we forget what we know to be true and take the other persons' actions as a personal attack when they are simply trying to help.

Men, you know where I'm coming from as well. How often have you come home from a less than flattering day at work and tried to talk to your significant other about your day. And how often have you gotten "God, your boss sounds like such an asshole!" or something to that effect?

It is because rather than trying to offer a solution, we try to empathize and show you we understand and feel for your situation.

In a perfect world, I could get paid to sit on my ass and offer up my oh so wise opinions, and love would be easy. Unfortunately it is not so. But when will we stop and realize that it is not that we are doing something wrong, we are doing what it is in our nature to do?