Communication

Understanding Communication The article “Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication” was interesting to read and reminds me of my husband and myself. A mention of the room being warm by the wife is interpreted by the husband as being a sexual proposal (Anonymous, 2011). The way that this husband and wife communicated is often the way that my husband and I communicate with each other. The wife was trying to get her husband to turn up the air conditioner and he thought she was feeling a little frisky. This miscommunication between the husband and wife could have been avoided by the wife simply asking her husband to turn up the air conditioner. If she had communicated a clear message then her husband would not have thought she was feeling frisky. There is a big difference between the room air being warm and a person feeling sexually frisky. It is a good thing that this miscommunication took place between the husband and wife instead of on the job. A woman making this kind of statement at work could lead a male co-worker to think that she was interested in a sexual relationship. My husband and I have been happily married for thirty years and this type of communication has not created any issues for us. With thirty years of communicating this way, we have come to understand each other’s wishes through this type of communication for the most part. There are times when one of us does not get the meaning of the statement made by the other. Communication is important and according to Johnson, “effective communication is the second most important ingredient in a healthy relationship” (Johnson, 2011, Pg. 20). It is summertime now and the temperatures in Virginia are high making it extremely hot outside. I come home from work and walk into the house and say that it is too hot outside. My husband knows that this statement means that I do not want to cook tonight and therefore we are going out to eat. This type of communication is what I would call slang communication. It may work for some but not for others. I can recall times when this type of communication between my husband and I did not work out so well. I made the following statement to my husband “I need to iron my uniform.” The following morning I got up to iron my uniform and there were no clean uniforms to be found. I called my husband and asked him why he did not do the laundry and he said that I did not ask him to do the laundry. My response to him was “you always do the laundry without me asking.” As a result of having no clean uniforms to iron I was late for work. This situation could have been avoided by me simply asking my husband to do the laundry so I would have clean uniforms to iron for work. To avoid this type of miscommunication from happening again, I now do my own laundry when it comes to uniforms. A former nursing instructor of mine taught us to “never assume, break down the word assume and see what you get.” When my children were younger, there was tons of miscommunication. We all know how kids like to twist around what you tell them to fit the way they want it to fit. I remember telling my son one day that he needed to take a shower. The following morning I went into his bathroom to collect the towel for the laundry. There was no towel in his bathroom. When I asked my son where his towel was, he said that he did not have one. I asked him how he took a shower without a towel. He proceeds to tell me that he did not take a shower. I told him that I had in fact told him to take a shower and he said that I did not say when he had to take a shower. He figured that he would wait until that weekend to take a shower. To resolve this miscommunication from happening again, my son was given the exact time and date that he was to take his showers. I also told him that if it ever happened again, I would give him a shower myself. After I told him that, he made sure that he took his shower as instructed. References Anonymous, . Close relationships sometimes mask poor communication. (2011, January). U.S. News & World Report,1. Retrieved July 15, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. Johnson, T.. (2011, March). Healthy relationships lead to better lives. The Nation's Health, 41(2), 20. Retrieved July 25, 2011, from Research Library.