The Point System

The other night on my way out, sans the husband, my parting remark was, 'Don't have too much fun without me.' To which he responded, 'I never do.' My retort back was, 'Correct response.' To which he said, 'One point.' Ah but a very good point.

Women and men count differently. When a man does something for a woman, say buys her flowers, or takes her out for dinner or a trip to Jamaica – it's one point for each event. On the other hand, when a woman does something great for a man, it usually is about 50 points or several hundred. A man can live on the bounty of a good compliment from a woman for a long time. Sadly, the same is not true for the woman; it is still just one point.

I was introduced to this particular point system many years ago and thought it was rather interesting – didn't quite believe it and then I noticed that it was true. A great evening out with my husband, fun as it is, is still just one point. The next day, the counter starts again. Now the men reading this may think that this is totally unfair and yes, it probably is but if you can adapt yourself to the system.

For example, one rose = one point; a dozen roses = one point. Given the points system what is the better thing to do; one rose a day for twelve days = 12 points or a dozen roses on one day = 1 point? See, you can make this work for you.

Women have a short attention span when it comes to grand gestures; they enjoy them but they don't have staying power. In other words, you can't sweep a women off her feet, take her to Vegas for a weekend, wine and dine her and buy her diamonds and expect that to last a year or two, no, it doesn't work that way. The way women count that would be about 4 maybe 5 points and they all disappear once the weekend is over.

For a man, a wonderful meal, a great compliment, a beautiful gift can rack up any where from 50 to a 1,000 points; often good for a few weeks and perhaps even a year. Men will remember and therefore forgive a woman when she's moody, unhappy or downright miserable – he's still living off the points from last Christmas.

So then you have to ask yourself, why is the woman moody, unhappy or miserable? That's right; he's thinking that she's doing the same thing – living off the many points from that great birthday present or holiday. Nope – she isn't – she is down a few points now and any little thing he does is upsetting – because those big events were only two points and the slate was clean the next day.

This may seem like a very unfair way of counting and frankly, it is. But here’s how it works, you can accumulate many points in one day and it doesn't cost much. A great compliment, a helping hand, a thoughtful gesture – hug, kiss or even a rose – every day will keep you in the black.

Now aren't you glad I taught you how to count?