I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people that when the phone rings, I answer it even when I don’t know who the caller is because it would drive me crazy if they didn’t leave a message and then I would wonder who it was. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who always either opens or deletes email so that I won’t have that annoying number next to my inbox indicating unread messages. Fine, so I’ve been accused (more than once) of perhaps having some form of OCD and I’ve come to accept that this may be true.
All the more reason then that it bugs the livin’ daylights out of me that my husband is the exact opposite of me in this way. Not only will he not answer the phone when he doesn’t know who it is (and often even when he does know who it is) but then he won’t listen to the voicemail. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve called him and left a message only to have him call back some time later and wonder what it was that I wanted. Me: “Didn’t you listen to the very detailed and extensive message I left you?” Husband: “No, I just saw that you called and so I’m calling you back.” So then I have to repeat the exact things I already said in the voicemail. Sigh.
And don’t even get me started on his email inbox! There are so many unread messages, I want to hack into his account just to delete all of those emails. When I look at his iPhone, I literally cringe. Those of you familiar with the iPhone know that any unread emails, unlistened to voicemails, unclicked on missed calls all leave red circles next to the app with a big number in it. My husband’s phone has those glaring red circles everywhere. The other day, I finally convinced him to clean out his inbox. He had over 4,000 unread messages. Yes, you read that right. 4,000. The red circled number doesn’t even go that high on the iPhone. It makes my little OCD head feel like it’s going to explode.
This picture representation is not nearly as bad as my husband's phone. I'd be happy if the red circled numbers on his phone were this low.
I came here after a plea from Mr. Standupkid to rally to his cause.. sorry, Mark! We’re completely the opposite and I 100% sympathize with your bride.
Mrs. Freelance Producer’s cellphone voicemail box is always full, she lets the phone ring until the answering machine picks up (with the volume on silent – I’ll give her a pass on this one since we’re, ahem, a little behind on some bills), and rarely checks email or her facebook page unless I bring it to her attention! Just got her a bberry in hopes of curing this, and I still get a recorded voice saying “The mailbox is full” because she’s stuck on vibrate and won’t take it off that setting. Argh!!
If you come up with a solution, I’m all ears!
Ha, ha, I hack into my husband’s voicemail and email and delete the old or irrelevant messages, only. He knows, though, for the most part….it’s like cleaning up clutter.
My boyfriend does the same thing! It is so annoying. He also doesn’t open his mail for weeks.
My husband listens to the ringing phone and asks me WHO it is?!? Go figure.
My husband’s the same way! He’s got hundreds of unread emails. It’s newsletters, notices, etc he subscribes to. Sometimes he’ll forget to log off & I’ll see his Inbox & ask him about the traffic notices & he’ll tell me it’s old news but he won’t delete them. Incredible!
He also subscribes to magazines then leaves them unread for months. And buys books & doesn’t read them. Not reads them months or even years later, just plain doesn’t read them. Not even when I suggest he brings it on a trip so he can read some of it on the long flight. I can’t tolerate an unread book in the house, so I ended up reading them. I finally had to tell him he’s not allowed to buy books anymore.
Funny, my husband is the exact opposite. He HAS to read his e-mail everyday or he’ll explode. I guess it would be one thing if he did business via e-mail. But it’s just jokes, that’s all he get’s is jokes and the occasional ad to “up you credit limit”… BS. And the statement he makes. “I have to go check e-mail” Like it’s something important. Wha? What? Yeah, I don’t get it. His phone on the other had, ignores it like he does the garbage!
Hahaha…I’m the same as you. My fiance’s inbox currently has 114 unread messages. Yes, I just checked. I delete EVERYTHING. I like my account to be at 0. Apparently, he doesn’t care. Seeing that like 8 of those are emails from me that are….UNREAD.
Hahhaha I am totally like you. I ALWAYS answer the phone…whoever it is, whenever the hour. I would hate to not know a number, miss the call and have them not leave a message. I would wonder all day about it! My husband is like yours it will ring…he won’t pick it up and i’m like why? He’s like I dont know who it is, and then I go nuts FOR him! lol I don’t leave messages for my husband anymore b/c I know he doesn’t listen to them…it’s better off that way!
MY husband doesn’t care if he misses a call. He says, “If it’s important, they’ll call back.” UGH! And if he DOES go to answer the phone, he walks so SLOWLY that they end up hanging up before he gets there. If I say who was that, you guessed it, “I don’t know. If it’s important, they’ll call back.” UGH again! And he also refuses to learn how to text, too.
I guess I’m the good and the bad. I’m with ya about the numbers next to unread emails. I will double click it just to make the number go away, even if I don’t read the email. And heaven FORBID if I have a blue number in () in my DELETED folder.
Then again, I AM that girl who won’t listen to the voicemail but will call back and ask what the person wanted. I’m even guilty of it at work, which is bad since there’s many times where I deleted the message before I got a call back number (when I thought I had it, but didn’t). I look like a real boob when that person calls back wondering why I didn’t return their call or even asks me “Didn’t you listen to my message?”
Uh, no. That’s why I’m calling you back!
IN DEFENSE OF MEN: We hate — and I mean HATE — talking on the phone. We don’t care who it is, we do not like that type of communications. I personally wish I didn’t have a cell phone. But, it’s 2009, so I’ve got no choice. Your husband isn’t annoying, he’s normal. So call him on the phone and tell him you’re sorry for posting this.
Uh-oh. I’m just like your husband. I have one email account with over 300 unread messages. I’d better get crackin’!
My husband is the same. In fact, the home phone could be right beside him ringing, and unless I say something, he won’t even acknowledge that someone’s calling. It’s a good thing I’m not lying in a hospital bed somewhere, it would be hours ,maybe days, depending on the food supply in our kitchen, before he thought to check his messages.
I agree with Mike. I hate talking on the phone, especially to people who love to be on the phone. Everybody that I know is programmed into my phone. If I don’t recognize the number, I have no desire or need to see who it is. On the other hand, I’m ALWAYS checking email.
I must confess I almost never answer the phone – it drives my friends and family mad! But I do listen to voicemails, unlike Mr Kitty, who also has that irritating habit of calling me back without listening to the message I’ve just left him, thus forcing me to repeat what I’ve just said. But if I say, ‘Why don’t you ever listen to your messages?’ somehow I’m the idiot because obviously it’s much more important that he called me back immediately, right?!
My boyfriend is the same! He never checks his voice mails and now calls it “Laura’s Therapy” – I get out all my crankiness on the voice mail and then I am calm when he finally does call me back.
He also has lost or damaged his phone so many time – no cell phone company will insure him. It went down an elevator shaft, in a bucket of water, in the toilet bowel, lost in a scrap metal yard!
I thought I heard the faint sound of a cell phone ringing in the old scrap metal yard…
AH
Oh. My. God. I think our husbands are twins. He does the EXACT same thing. But it’s the not checking voicemail thing that DRIVES ME CRAZY. We could save so much time by him just doing that one little thing.
Yes. Same thing. It drives me nuts he always has the mailbox on the top of his phone indicating texts/voice mails for weeks!! and he has over 5,000 emails in his inbox constantly! And the not answering the phone. ALWAYS. If he doesn’t recognize the number he just lets it ring, and I’ll ask who it is and he just shrugs and lets it ring and ring. AHHH!!
Ok, apparently I’m an odd woman. Got 2,589 messages in my inbox, check my voice mail about once a week during a good month (sometimes every other week), will go for months without responding to Facebook messages, don’t answer the phone if I don’t know the number and sometimes even if I do know it because I don’t feel like it, hate going to doctors and will go for years if possible without making any appointments, asked my ob/gyn if she could help with my ear infection (my husband loved that one — he was there, and embarassed…), leave empty cups in our bedroom, pile anything too big to fit in the trash on top of and around the can, and yes have my dirty clothes all over the place (I’ll pick them up on weekends).
The odd thing is, I honestly never realized these habits might annoy my husband. I think he’s been telling me for years that they bother him, but I never fully understood that. My mind has been too consumed by the thought that he has annoyed the hell out of me every day since we married.
Maybe I am the most annoying? I think your husband and I are clones.
Wow.
My husband is oppossite. He loves calling me and talking to me on the phone. He’s checking his email and voicemail all the time. He’s answering the phone even he doesnt know who is calling and even sometimes it irritates him already because of those insurance people.
I am just glad he’s like that or else… war is coming. lolz
Ha! I am the EXACT same as you and my husband is the same as yours. I DO actually go into my husbands email occasionally and clean it out. It just drives me INSANE. I never snoop – just scan through and spot the obvious junk and DUMP it. I can’t STAND any icons showing something that isn’t done. Yeah…totally OCD, but I can’t help it!!