Do husbands always "brag and whine" about being very sick when they have a "little cough"??

Question

When I'm sick and I mean SICK, I still get up, with fever, take the kids and pick them up from school. I swallow a bottle of Tylenol, but keep on going !! Oh, wait, there he comes "coughing".....

Answer 1

not men.. they think they are going to die when they have a cold...

which is why we will remain the superior form of our species..LOL

(watch all the thumbs down I get for that line..lol)

Answer 2

I am so thrilled to hear that someone elses husband acts just like a kid when they get the tinest cough or anything. They require more attention than a two year old. My hubby had a cold (not bad at all now) and layed up in the bed complaining for two whole days. He even went so far as to ask me to use our office walkie talkies while I worked in my home office which is down the hall and to the left.
I too, even when I am sick, get up, take care of my usual duties and go on with life. I may be able to get to bed earlier, but life goes on as usual for us woman.

Answer 3

No, I hadn't taken a sick day in 6 years, up until last fall where I finally broke down and went to the doctor, and spent the next 9 days in the hospital. The whole time the doctors were like, "why didn't you come in sooner?"
Now I take more sick days, you heal faster with extra rest than if you try to do your normal routine.

Answer 4

Depression can cause all that you list as well as untreated allergies and such. Food allergies or other issues with processing what he's eating. What does he do for work? Could he be being exposed to something or is it physically or mentally demanding or stressful? Hows the finances going? Problems in the marriage? Many things can play into it and without actually talking it through and possible getting a doc involved, it will continue to drag out.

Answer 5

More often than not, yes, we [males] generally are prone to brag and/or whine about minor illnesses or injuries. Most of us are trained from a very young age to believe (either consciously or subconsciously) that one of the defining masculine characteristics is "triumph in the face of adversity". Most of us who live normal lives that are not fraught with significant, life-threatening peril on a daily basis have to really stretch it to demonstrate that characteristic.

As a result, we'll seize any opportunity that we can, even ridiculously minor opportunities, to exaggerate the "adversity" we are facing, and therefore make our "triumph" over that adversity more noteworthy.

I know it must be frustrating for our partners/wives/lovers... and even as a man who RECOGNIZES that I do it, I still have a hard time preventing myself from doing it. Sorry about that. =/

If it makes you feel any better, I think that our core/subconscious motivation is not so much an attempt at self-aggrandizing (acting manly in order to impress everyone at large)... I think we're generally trying to impress YOU (our wife/partner/girlfriend/lover). We want for you to feel like we are acceptably masculine as a partner, so we feel a need to demonstrate our worth as a man and our devotion to you by proving that we can still somehow muster the extreme courage and strength required to suffer through our runny noses. :-O

Hey, if we could slay a lion for you, we'd try that, instead -- sometime we just can't find appropriate outlets for our compelling urges. =/

Answer 6

I think you are talking about the phenomenon we call "Man Flu" here in the UK. Everyone else has a bit of a cold but the man in question is at death's door with flu.

My wife was a nurse/midwife so had little sympathy when I was ill. In fact when I did have real flu once I had to be restrained from going to work with no trousers on...I was a bit delirious.

Sadly i lost my wife last year to cancer, so my three children have only got me to get my ar*e in gear. It does put Man Flu in perspective though. My pathetic Step-father often gets it!!!!

Answer 7

Oh yes, mine gets a little down and I must wait on him hand and foot but when I get sick he grabs his sleeping bag and (supposedly) sleeps in his office. I still get to care for the 5 children and do all the things that must be done.

Answer 8

My husband NEVER complains, no matter how sick he is. He always goes to work regardless of how bad he feels. He worked one day wearing a nitroglycerin patch and didn't tell a soul, not even me, about it. During the night he started having chest pains, the next night he had emergency open-heart surgery because he was so close to having a massive heart attack. I WISH HE HAD COMPLAINED!

If your husband irritates you with his complaining, why don't you say to him, "You need to tell it to the doctor; I'm too busy to listen to your whining?" That way, if it's really serious, he won't die because YOU didn't care.

Answer 9

Men are babies when they are sick! OMG! I'll rest a little more than usual when I'm sick, but I still have to do things also (errands and take care of my son). Life doesn't stop for us women when we're sick. But for men, the world will have to stop spinning until they're better.....

Answer 10

its age old. Men are terrible. As a mother I don't get time to be sick in bed. I have to be sick while cleaning, washing, ironing, getting kids from school, shopping, going out to work etc... Men are awful, they have one sniff and they got the flu, and if they actually get the flu then they got hyperthermia or worse.
When you marry and have 4 kids, you really have 5 kids.

Answer 11

I'm the husband and yes. Think about when your kids are sick...you pamper them right? There is something about us guys that when we get sick, even a little sick, we want Mama or someone who'll act like Mama and baby us.