Managing the man

My daughter is much more adept at managing my husband than I am! For example, the other day, my husband was telling us a long story at the dinner table about one of his obsessions: nuclear power/energy/bombs. He had visited the Hanford Nuclear Plant and was relating to us the details of his experience. It was a LONG story and, as usual, he "would not tolerate interruptions". Both my daughter and I were only half listening--it's not a particularly interesting topic for 9 year old or for me. In the middle of his monologue, however, he used the "s expletive" and both my daughter and I reflexively jumped on him for it. He became quite hurt, saying "all you care about is that word, not about me or my story. I'm not going to talk anymore.". Of course, he was right, but I tried to assuage him saying, "please tell us the story, we really want to know". He adamantly refused, getting angrier and angrier the more I cajoled. Finally, my daughter said, "what did the reactor look like?", taking the discussion back to the original topic, rather than focusing on his refusal to talk. He immediately began up again, and we got to daydream through 20 more minutes. My husband was happy and peace was restored. My daughter kicked me under the table. She was a genius.

The moral: don't argue about the argument.