The listening rules for women are different than they are for men. Men have a totally different way of communicating. Men seldom are able to see what their needs are, they just feel, or sense, when they are not respected by someone. When you watch men talk, they allow the other person to complete their sentence before talking. A major issue in close male female intimate relationships are that men and women don’t see the differences in how they communicate.

Men need their spouse to be truly engaged, and just listening. Much like a women, men feel better if they would just be heard. The however here is that the rules have some major differences.

Men want to talk, without being interrupted. When they are interrupted in mid sentence or in mid thought, they can not come back to what they were thinking. It actually shuts them down. When talking, men will respond to questions and interaction in the conversation, as long as they feel they are being heard, and not interrupted.

Men want advise. Unlike women, men are asking for input from their spouse. This seems odd but it is true.