Sneak Attack Channel Change
The other day while watching TV, Ooh sits down next to me and changes the channel. I was quite surprised at this, so I promptly changed the channel back to what I was watching; which happened to be an interesting show called Project Earth that I recorded on the Discovery Channel, but that’s beside the point. The point is I was a little shocked. So, after I countered the sneak attack channel change, I hear, “I can’t wait to get my own TV”. I decide to finish watching my show, there was only 5 minutes left, and ask “Why can’t you wait to get your own TV?”, because of course, in my mind, there’s nothing wrong with this one; it works fine for me. Ooh says, “Then we won’t have this issue…it was a commercial, I thought I could change it.” My first thought is to say “What!?!”, but I decide to go with a more calm approach of, “You could just ask me. I would do the same if you’re watching something”. I usually try to go with a more calculated response in these situations. I’m more interested in trying to solve a problem, not win an argument. Although I really do like to win.
After a little more back and forth, it was somewhat resolved. But I still had this nagging thought about Ooh being inconsiderate, but Ooh isn’t an inconsiderate person. For a few days I couldn’t shake this feeling.
Recently, Ooh says “I shouldn’t have said that I couldn’t wait to get my own TV, I didn’t mean that.” So I take the opportunity to ask why the channel change. Ooh says, “Because you don’t watch commercials. I thought you weren’t watching anything”. Then everything clicks. During this viewing I didn’t skip the commercial. Now that doesn’t mean it’s ok to change the channel without asking the person watching TV, but I get it now.
I know this is a small thing, I mean c’mon, it’s a TV show. But the important problem here is communication. I didn’t tell Ooh that I thought it was inconsiderate to change the channel without asking. Which may be why I didn’t get the explanation of the sneak attack channel change being based on my TV viewing habits. So we both could have handled the situation better.
If we can’t communicate on the small things effectively, we won’t be able to communicate on the larger things.