In my humble opinion, in most cases women are much better debators than men. Well the average man that is, like myself. I have always told the Mrs. that she should have been a lawyer because in the heat of battle, she can talk circles around me.

Arguments in general go through a lifecycle, they begin small, usually over a legitimate mistake or mis-understanding, but quickly spiral out of control as the heat of the moment takes over. Like rungs on a ladder each sides takes an escalated step upwards.

Jumping to the end of an argument, someone usually says something that cuts so deep the entire thing falls apart and the combatants go their separate way. In good situations, time and seperation bring calmer heads to bear. In bad ones, well it gets ugly.

I have been in many of the latter. So much so that I quickly realized that the best way to deal with a situation is to recognize you are in a situation and pull the rip-cord as quick as possible. For me that is usually done by throwing out either “I Don’t Care!” or “Whatever” each designed to throw a quick jab and allow me to walk away from the heat of the moment. That is, at least what I thought until I was in a debate with the Mrs. the other morning about where my 1099 forms were for tax purposes because she was off to meet with the accountant.

She manages the finances here and when something like that comes in I put it on her desk and she does what she needs to with it. Anyhow, she couldn’t find them, I said “What do you want me to do?!?” and that started the whole thing. It quickly became a conversation about how I don’t pay enough attention to my own finanical life. That set me off since she insisted on handling everything and we were on our way up that ladder.

I then began to see the signs and realized it was time to pull the rip-cord before we entered the “ugly-zone” but then I said it…. “I Don’t Care” Oh boy…. that did it. All proverbial hell broke loose because I had just validated her point. The little guy in my mind began screaming at me as soon as the last sound left my lips… “RUN FOREST RUN!”

Luckly she had to leave as I was getting some of the information from the accounts on-line. She called in and I gave her the numbers and that call lasted about 20 seconds then *click.*

When she returned she was much calmer and said that the accountant didn’t need the 1099s now. And then said she was just stressed because she didn’t prepare the paperwork until the last minute. That was when I had to approach with tail tucked between my legs and apologized by saying that I indeed do care about my own finanical information and that I only said that to get out of the argument before it got really ugly.

She seemed enlightened by this bit of information. To me it was almost as if it were a basic instinct for me to exit a dangerous situation. Self preservation and all of that. Hell it served the cavemen well millions of years ago.

So ladies, when you are whipping your man’s ass in an argument and he yells out “I DON’T CARE” he really does, he is just trying to get out of the situation and try to find his “cone of silence” to digest what just happened.