LuckyAlbatross
Posts: 19224
Joined: 10/25/2005 Status: offline
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This is just too good to be true in timing for me. Now, I'm going to talk a lot about my partner and we aren't at all the master/slave based dynamic, but I think it's interesting and relevant, so deal. My partner also takes some pills every night. And he used to have a problem remembering what he took- even as he was taking them. He also had the typical resentment of having more pills added by a doctor and avoiding taking them. So I did do something simple- I bought a nice round pill box at the dollar store and I fill it up every week for him. It's worked wonders. I am convinced that my partner lives in a shifted time dimension. As long as I've known him, and he tells me this has been true for his life for as long as he can remember, he is always running behind. It truly amazes me how much longer it takes him to do things than anyone else. It's not that he's not smart, or doesn't understand. I think it really is that his mind doesn't process time and can't "time things" correctly. He also gets distracted and doesn't prioritize very well- he's almost missed flights because he took time to burn some CDs rather than finish packing. In preparing for our vacation this weekend, I told him the day before several times that his number one priority was just to get his stuff OUT for me to pack for him. Not anything else- just getting it OUT. I made him repeat it back to me and felt good that he wouldn't get distracted from that. Now, we talked around lunchtime and he mentioned actually packing. I casually said that this would be nice if he had the time, but not too important. Sadly, I had forgotten for a moment how HIS mind works, and his eagerness to please me and not make more work for me meant he focused on packing and not getting stuff out. While the stuff was packed beautifully and cleanly by the time I had told him- it was only 3/4 of the stuff he was supposed to get out. Now, he is also very forgetful and loses his stuff a lot. I tend to go through periods where, before we go anywhere, run through a list of what he needs to have and make sure he knows where it is. Then, for awhile he'll do it for himself and keep very on track. And then he'll start getting sloppy again and I have to start the checklist again. But again, progress is being made. On packing to come home from our trip, I told him to do a final walk around and make sure we hadn't forgotten anything. Unfortunately, I did another spin around 5 minutes later and found 3 things we hadn't packed yet. His mind just doesn't SEE details in things like that. I was irked at him, but understood he had simply once again let his immediate feelings interfere with the priorities. This is something I've focused my attention on for him since DAY ONE of being together and it is still something we have problems with- but he's amazingly better today than he was a few years ago. Do I feel he's disobeying? No. I've punished him occasionally when his negligence is causing enough of an issue to merit it. I've had many talks and tweaks in how I relate to him and give my expectations to him. But it's really all part of the process- I'd be REALLY upset if he tried to EXCUSE his negligence. He never once has said "Well it's just that my mind doesn't work that way." He understands that my expectations for him are completely reasonable and it's a continuing thing we work on TOGETHER.
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Find stable partners, not a stable of partners. "Sometimes my whore logic gets all fuzzy"- Californication
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