Ignoring The Woman In Your Marriage Or Relationship Were Not In Dateland Anymore Toto

You may have heard it said by a dating guru that ignoring a woman is a good way to create attraction. This is another one of those cases where the rules change when you enter a committed relationship - and most certainly when you get married - and you'd better know the rules if you expect to succeed.I got a response from one of the more active of you, whom I'll call Kevin to protect his identity, which brings up a HUGE point. His letter, referring to an excerpt from yesterday's newsletter regarding the "inner child," which you can read in the archive on our forum athttp://forum.makingherhappy.com/showthread.php/906-How-Your-Inner-Child-Can-Help-Make-Your-Relationship-or-Marriage-Work-IF-You-Let-It discussing whether the display of your inner child makes your wife want to mother you or "mount" you:Hi David....Just read below:"We've talked about the "baby talk" thing that couples do. BIG no-no. How about inferior positions during intimacy, like lying your head on her shoulder? This is what a child does when he doesn't feel good, is it not? Don't do it, EVER; being the protector is your role as far as the two of you are concerned, not hers"How coincidental! My wife and I were sitting together watching tv last night and here lately she has been initiating this hand holding for about the past 2 weeks whereby she had not been. That's fine with me because I think she is realizing her intimacy has been non-existent. But for some reason, last night she says to me, "You can lay your head right here and patting her shoulder".....Where did that come from! David, I did not lay my head there...I basically ignored the comment.KevinKevin was wise not to put his head on her shoulder, but ignoring her comment was a VERY bad move! My response:Hey, Kevin!The hand-holding is likely because you've stepped up the attractive behavior and have her seeking intimacy, which is great. BUT! NEVER ignore a woman. That's a recipe for disaster. When she invites you into an inferior position, it's not likely that she realizes that she's doing something dangerous, and is simply trying to nurture you. Instead, turn it around on her. Invite her to put her head on your shoulder, or to snuggle up under your arm and get closer, or even sit on your lap. That builds the intimacy and bonding without putting you in the position of a child, and doesn't telegraph that most negative of signals that ignoring her telegraphs: "I don't want your love and nurturing."Take care,DavidLet's be clear here, before somebody shoots himself in the foot. What the dating gurus say about getting a woman to approach you for a date and keeping her interested by ignoring her a little after you first meet, being a little slow to return phone calls, and making a show of independence is all correct, IN THE CONTEXT OF TRYING TO GET A DATE AND PLAYING HARD-TO-GET, especially the first few dates after the first one. But we're not talking about dating here, are we?We're talking about a woman you're at least committed to if not married to, and we're beyond the stage of trying to create curiosity, intrigue, initial attraction, etc. Love is now involved, her nurturing mechanism has been engaged, and you have to heighten and sustain attraction without damaging that other most crucial part of a happy relationship, love. That's why the rules change; that love, and the trust, loyalty, friendship, and respect it engenders must be protected.In the interest of heightening attraction, it is true that you must provide some mystery and fun, as well as maintain a strong, independent attitude, and making yourself scarce from time to time and playing a little "hard-to-get" can do great things to spice things up a bit. But you never, EVER shut out a woman that loves you by ignoring her, especially when she is offering something nurturing. Hard to get is best accomplished by teasing, not ignoring her when she speaks.There is nothing wrong with a woman wanting to nurture you; indeed, everything about it is right, if you've earned it. But women have no more cause to think about such things as having your head on their shoulder as you do, until their attention has been called to it, at least. They certainly don't want to kill their own attraction for you. But if you want to see a woman get hurt and angry, try telling her that you're not going to put your head on her shoulder because it's infantile just one time. One time will be enough to show you that you don't ever want to do it again.Instead, do as I told Kevin: take the lead, as a man is supposed to do. Recognize that she is trying to give you the greatest gift she has to give, her nurturing energy, and accept it, but in a more appropriate manner by taking action that triggers attraction instead of maternal drive. Give her the smile she's always looking for, and a "c'mere, you!" as you pull her up close and snuggle her up as only a manly man can do with his wife.Remember, as always, that these are biological triggers we are talking about here, not logical decisions. How she sees you triggers involuntary responses. The only logical part is your logical choice to make sure that the triggers that get tripped are the ones who make you the manly man who loves, excites, and protects her, not the ones that trigger the maternal urges to feed you and change your diaper.I'll be saying this until I die: It's not rocket science. Even the biology part of it is simple. You don't need to know the names of the neurotransmitters and other chemicals that make this happen or the order in which the cascade occurs, what part of the brain it happens in, or how any of this came to be that way. It's interesting if you're into that level of detail, but all you need to know to make it work is just the highest level of cause-and-effect relationships, the level at which you know with 100% certainty that if you display primal male behavior, she will respond with primal female behavior. You just need to know what that behavior is and allow yourself the experience. (And I say "allow" because it is automatic and natural, and in fact must be deliberately suppressed for it to not happen. Unfortunately, that deliberate suppression comes from a whole lot of bad programming that gets embedded in your head.)The same thing goes for communicating with a woman. You don't have to memorize millions of scripts to get you through untold myriad contingencies. Knowing (and following!) three simple rules that any fourth-grader could follow is all that it takes to do it right, both listening and speaking, so that you never again hear those most frustrating words, "You NEVER listen to me!" when the simple fact is that you listen, but don't have a clue what she's saying, and know that she's just going to roll her eyes and say, "SEE! You should just know!" when you ask her what she means.So do you know? Even if you "think" you do, why take that chance when somebody's already proven how to understand, know, and do all of this? Are you a guy who likes to get things right the first time? Or are you the one who ignores the instructions, and when the bicycle you bought with "some assembly required" comes out looking like a time machine instead of a bicycle, then blames the manufacturer instead of your own failure to follow instructions? If so, here's a big hint: blaming somebody else for your failure gets you one thing: a guarantee of repeated failures.I was about to close this post, but let's talk about something I rarely mention anymore: spending money, and a big difference in how the average man and the average woman does it. The average woman is such a bargain hunter that she will drive across town to buy something that she doesn't need because she can buy it at half-off the regular price, just in case she might need it later. Some men will do this too, especially with tools, but...The average man, especially a man who gets things done, will pay extra if it will save him time and effort. John Alanis once gave a brilliant example of buying a 150 office chair and spending an extra 10 to get it preassembled, because that 10 would save him an hour of dragging out tools, sorting through the little bags of easily lost hardware, bruising or cutting knuckles when wrenches or screwdrivers slipped, etc. The idea being that there are times when spending very little money can give you a huge benefit in quality of life.This is one of those times. It took me and a sizable group of people (of both genders) several man-years to figure out how all this works, and we did figure it out, and proved it by using it ourselves and checking the results and further refining the information. The amount of money we're talking about wouldn't buy you a good meal and cocktails for two in any restaurant I've ever been in, but it will buy you a lifetime of a relationship and marriage that most people would be thrilled to call a honeymoon.So do you want to spend months or even years trying to put this together yourself, and ending up with a broken heart and a broken bank account instead of skinned knuckles, or do you want to throw what amounts to "chump change" at it (especially when you consider that the average divorce in the United States costs 27,000 according to recent surveys), get the right information, and go right to work and have your success quickly, and know how you got there so you can sustain it?It's up to you, but I can tell you from having been there that I would have much rather read this book and used it than been the one to write it. And I would have, too, if it or anything close to it had been available when I needed it, but it wasn't. So if you want to take advantage of the easier path, the one I didn't have, go to http://www.makingherhappy.com and download your copy of "THE Man's Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage," and get started. Life is short. Don't waste it trying to reinvent the wheel, or just wishing you had the wheel.In the meantime, live well, be well, and have a wonderful day!David Cunningham "Being a man is something to which one should aspire, not something for which he should apologize." --David Cunningham