Modified Instant Replay - A good technique to patch things up quickly

Tonight Glenn offered to clean the toilet after he finished his blog entry. I was absolutely thrilled about this, as it would mean something on MY list would be scratched off. I needed to do some ironing and decided I would do that upstairs, where Glenn would eventually join me to watch some television.

So I got to ironing and a little later Glenn appeared. Afraid he had forgotten about the toilet and would instantly turn on the television and become absorbed, I asked, “You haven’t forgotten about cleaning the toilet, have you?” Well, a look of disgust appeared on his face and he then asked “I said I would do it after my blog, can’t I finish that first?” Again, according to the look on his face, he might as well have tagged “you jerk” to the end of that question.

So at this point I was feeling quite offended by his body language and tone, although I admit, I was at fault. Through a couple more brief words, I found out he was just coming upstairs to be with me. So now I felt like a jerk. But I also felt like telling him to just go back downstairs if he was going to carry that attitude. I knew that would only make matters worse, so instead, I decided to fix my error. I smiled and said, “Can we re-do that??

He turned around, walked away and then, instantly reappeared with a smile. I smiled and cheerfully said, “Hey babe! Are you done your blog?” “No,” he replied, “Just coming up to see you. Why don’t you come downstairs to iron? I’m working on two blog entries now and it’s going to take me longer than I thought.” I happily agreed, so off we went, supplies in hand.

Now THAT was MUCH BETTER. It turns out that a MIR (Modified Instant Replay) is a good technique to patch up minor misunderstandings. Try it today!