I don’t worry about it. I try to do right by the women in my life, regardless of their perception. Some of them notice or appreciate it more than others. Most don’t really appreciate it, but I don’t do it for their appreciation. I do it because that’s what I expect of myself, as a gentleman.
If I perceive that someone is going out of her way to find stuff wrong with me, I pretty much de-involve her from my life, though. Maybe that’s a pre-emptive response to nagging. Then again, I am still single!
I think the exchange with the waitress was overreacting, and uncharitable: You don’t know what that waitress has gone through with the men in her life, and you don’t know how tongue-in-cheek her remark was.
There may well be a history there that’s very painful, and so she deals with it via humor. I think slamming her is a bit premature.
I don’t like to criticize someone unless I first walk a mile in her shoes.
That way, when I do criticize her, I’m a mile away…
… and I’ve got her shoes.
