This weekend, a good friend of mine mentioned a book she recently read (or heard about) called Men Are Like Waffles – Women Are Like Spaghetti. The idea is that the brain of a man works much like a waffle in that it has divisions and separate containers for each thought. On the other hand, a woman’s brain works like spaghetti in that everything is mixed and intertwined.
Sound familiar?
We proceeded to discuss the idea a bit with a few other friends that were over – the conversation was primarily dominated by women, but did include my husband and my friend’s husband. The men gave good input like reminding us women that when a man says he’s not thinking about anything…it’s really true, he’s not thinking about anything. They said that sometimes some of their waffle compartments are just empty.
For me, that is extremely hard to understand. It seems that everything we do as women affects something else. We’re always thinking of the next thing while doing another. We are great multi-taskers as my friend’s husband was quick to point out. And, that’s great. It often works to our benefit. But, sometimes, just sometimes…I’d love it if my brain could function like a waffle and just focus on one thing at a time. And I’d really love it if I could have some empty spaces in that waffle that allowed me to think of nothing.
Wouldn’t that be nice ladies?
Just think how much more balanced we’d feel if we weren’t always worried about the next thing. Perhaps that’s why the majority of information on work-life balance that’s out there is geared towards women. Men already have it figured out? Or they don’t feel like they have to do it all? And all at the same time? They just focus on each little section of their waffle?
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as you think about yourself and your spouse (if you have one) or other relationships you’ve observed.
