You know when you don’t hear what someone says and so you ask them to repeat it …

[StressfulBedtimes]

Why do they then go on to only repeat half the sentence? Or even worse, and in DPs case, just one word from it?!

This just happened and happens regularly;
I’m in the bedroom and he’s in the bathroom
DP: mmmhhhdbdffg
Me (walking into the landing): what did you say?
DP: earbuds
Me: 🤨 what about them? I didn’t hear what you said
DP: I asked about the earbuds
Me: what about the earbuds!?! 😤
etcetc

Why? Why not just repeat the whole sentence the first time and save us all this

If you do this - do you realise how infuriating you are?!

My DH does this. I just reply ok and go back to whatever I was doing before.

I spend my life at work asking people to repeat the full thing

So they will say (random postcode) GU22 4FS
Me "is that F for foxtrot, S for Sierra"
Person < sigh > "no, G FOR GOLF.."
I got that bit

Or asking if it's F or S and they just say the same thing again, but louder. I don't care if you say F for fuck as long as I can make out what random letter it is

My hearing was damaged when I was 20 but it's only now in my 50s that the damage is taking its toll. I can hear really well in silence, it's when there's a lot of background noise that I struggle. And everything Thomasina says rings true for me too - don't mumble, I can't hear you when you're turned away from me, and don't 'fiddle with your face' (excellent description).

My DH's hearing is really poor too and he refuses to do anything about it. So frustrating! He had it checked 2 or 3 years ago and they said there was some loss but normal for his age. THAT WAS YEARS AGO! I'm so sick of having to repeat everything. He also does that 'sorry?' to everything, I'm sure he does it for thinking time. I now ask him which bit he didn't hear and it almost always turns out he heard all of it but still wanted me to repeat it for some reason.

We're not communicating well 😢

they are the same people that when you have an either or, or a choice of items just say yes. like is that yes to the last item, to what?

A bit like my DH... a clear and unambiguous statement, or answer to a mundane question, will always get the response "Really?"

"Plumber's coming round on Thursday"
"Really?"

No, I was just making it up, DH

My dad and DH both do this, repeat the last word only. I’ll get the ‘earbuds’ type comment so consistently ask them to repeat the whole sentence. It drives me insane.

Sigh. I have so many.

Dh asking me a question from halfway across the house. Or quietly from the top of the stairs when I'm downstairs. Anyone talking to me while I'm washing up. Or hoovering.

The worst has got to be my nine year old asking me stuff from the garden , through the kitchen window, while I'm washing up 😂 makes me go from 0 to 100 in about 0.3 seconds that one.

You understand that not all hearing problems can be “sorted”, right? Or there wouldn’t be deaf people

Haha laughing at my post now because it's actually not what the op asked.

I just vented my own hearing related issues. Soz 😂

I have had my hearing tested as I struggle in busy places- shops. Bars etc. I actually think it’s tone and that people mumble and speak to quickly. My pet hate is when I say sorry I can’t hear you and they repeat it just as quickly and quietly! No still can’t hear you!

My partner does this all the time or the other one is ‘can you grab the thingy’ and then gets annoyed when i’m not a mind reader and have 0 idea what ‘thingy’ is.

Frankly, it annoys me the amount of judgement and piss-taking that seems to be acceptable towards those of us who are hearing impaired.

My husband does something where he mishears me, but seems to have some kind of logic gap in mentally filling in the blanks. So I will say something, and rather than ask me to repeat myself because what I've said doesn't apparently make sense, he will 'repeat' it incorrectly back to me, looking completely puzzled by the apparent nonsense I am talking. E.g.

(Me) 'If you're going to the shops, could you pick up some butter?'
(DH) 'You want me to put the cats in the car?'

If I mishear something as something else that makes no sense in the context, I have a kind of mental 'pause' that tells me I have completely misheard, so I will say 'Sorry, I didn't hear that' - it's that 'common sense filter' that my husband seems to lack. After 20 years of marriage, I'm used to it and it doesn't bother me, I just find it a bit strange.

My dp does this often. Sometimes I feel like I'm in an episodes of give us a clue.

For a woman I have a reasonably deep voice, and I'm not a low talker, I do project, but the very old cannot hear me. I've spoken to 3 women in their 90's recently, they couldn't hear me.

I live with someone who's hearing impaired, like officially with hearing aids and everything, he CAN hear me, but always asks me to repeat myself. When I restart the sentence i do it slowly and, yup, he fills in the blanks. Why ask me to repeat myself if you just needed a beat to let the words sink in?

I don’t even react if I’m asked a question from another room or through a wall. It’s up to them to get their arses to the person they want the information from. Exceptions are help while up a ladder or something is falling in them but I can usually hear the urgency in their voice 😂

My partner does this. Drives me nuts.

My DB. Sits with his hand over his mouth while he is talking then gets pissy when the rest of us ask him to repeat himself or, y’know, communicate in a manner that allows the communicatee half a chance of hearing the whole sentence. Drives me bananas.

My dh if I don't understand what he means when he says something because he's using a word I don't know (related to his specialist knowledge) or because it's totally out of context so I don't know what he's on about to start with. ..

Me: <pauses< sorry, I don't understand that, what do you mean?
Dh: repeats exact same words only maybe slower
Me: I heard you, but I don't know what you meant by that! 🙄

It's like it's so clear his head he just doesn't compute it isn't in mine (even though I literally just said so), and doesn't have a quick little think about why that might be or even ask what I'm not understanding.

Are we all married to the same man?
We have been having this conversation for nearly 40 years so about 10 years in i decided that i would just ignore anything that came back as only the last word. I have complained about it for the entirety of our marriage.

So had to laugh a few weeks ago when one of the (adult) DCs complained that their dad and sibling both do it. And said Dad and Sibling just looked confused, especially when i jumped up shouting "YES YES YES YOU BLOODY DO"

Thing is, if you have been living with hearing loss since birth, your brain is so used to filling in the blanks that it can sometimes take a while to work out if you’ve heard or not. And sometimes you don’t know you haven’t heard till later…IYSWIM.