Why are men so dramatic when they have a cold?

[Chloefairydust]

This is the third day of my partner being bedridden with the common cold… I just don’t get why men are like this though. I mean it’s crap having a cold , I know, but when I come down with one I just kind of take day nurse and get on with things.🤷🏼‍♀️

@PinkSyCo awk come on we're talking about snots on a duvet and massaging the feet of someone they love...the vile creature of a man must be a cheating, controlling, misogynistic maniac...

I always used to think my partner was taking the piss when he was ill. We’d have the same thing, I’d be getting on with it, he’d in bed groaning.

I try to be a bit more sympathetic now. Now I’ve seen him suffer through a period of cluster headaches (so painful he’d be throwing up violently, literally dripping sweat) I realise he’s not actually the big baby I had him pegged as in my mind. I also read an article I’m too lazy to find about the differences in the ways men and women physically react to illness, immune system differences, etc, that I accept they may actually feel worse than we would or are hit harder by illnesses.

Not to say your DP’s behaviour is fine but just that the “man flu” phenomenon is potentially more complex than they just choose to act like they have it worse than they do.

Mine doesn't succumb to manflu because he is a Hero of the highest calibre.
Even when he had covid recently (for the first time) he swore he was absolutely fine whilst looking and sounding like complete shit.

DP used to be like that, now he gets on with it... might be because of the sympathy he never got. Why should they lie about in bed, when women are expected to still take care of the kids and do housework and go to work why they lay there feeling sorry for themselves. I’m not a big believer in sitting around when your ill anyway, I feel it makes you feel worse.
Raising kids whilst we deal with periods, illness and in my case an autoimmune disease... completed it mate 😂

Hmmm I wonder if men do actually suffer more than women when they have an illness? 🤔…

Also @MissMogwai DH has now started to refuse to take medicine, he had some night nurse to help him sleep and was bawking and being very dramatic about it, but it really did help him and me to get a restful sleep. However now he’s refusing to take it as it tastes bad 🙄 … So now he’s coughing all night, and waking me up because he can’t sleep … 🤦‍♀️

OP has been running around after her husband enough! Excuse me if I don’t find the fact that she’s having to change and boil wash snotty bedding too, just because he can’t be arsed to use a tissue , acceptable.

I will occasionally ask my husband if he needs anything, when he has a very bad cold, but that is the absolute limit. I just leave him to get on with it mainly.

I couldn't pander to that shite. If a man is single and living alone bet you he wouldn't be moaning as much and would be getting up and making his food etc as he has no choice. Its nice if you have someone to bring you food and hot drinks but honestly the constant moaning would do my head in.

And totally disgusting he wipes his snot on the duvet, I mean it cant even be that much of a struggle to get up and go to the bathroom and take a roll of toilet paper back to the bedroom if there are no boxes of tissues about.

Oh I like this theory!

My partner only realised how much periods affect me (and, obviously, all women) when he was sat next to me at the dining table working during lockdown. Suddenly it became apparent that I was in pain, had to take regular painkillers, get up and stretch, get a hot water bottle, go to the loo often, etc. He looked at me all concerned one day and asked if this was a really bad period. Er... no? I'd barely noticed, it was just inconvenient.

DH has now started to refuse to take medicine, he had some night nurse to help him sleep and was bawking and being very dramatic about it, but it really did help him and me to get a restful sleep. However now he’s refusing to take it as it tastes bad 🙄 … So now he’s coughing all night, and waking me up because he can’t sleep … 🤦‍♀️
That would irritate me.
He has the means to relieve some of his symptoms, but he's choosing not to. He can't be that unwell then.

I feel your pain OP. Even when we're both ill at the same time, I seem to end up being an albeit very grumpy and resentful Florence Nightingale. It's easier to just bring another cup of tea, dispense the oh-so-hard to open paracetamol than listen to one more second of the croaky, sick person voice which drives me round the bend. But NO foot rubbing will be happening here. Not even if he has actual sore feet🤣🤣

OMG yes that voice!! 😂

Because perhaps he feels really old.

why do women whinge about periods, I have periods and never whinge.

Ill not cold*

Some women experience excessive pain with period’s though like if they have endometriosis… as a teenager I would pass out from pain. So that’s debilitating

Where as a cold, usually is just an inconvenience.

Some people are bed ridden with a cold and feel really ill.

stop hate keeping others pain and wellness

gate*

We are talking about a normal common cold though not actual flu 😆

And men do have form for milking it for all they can don’t they

It's the opposite in our house, it's my wife who gets man flu! It's not so bad now she's working, but it's still all a drama when she gets home. I don't mind getting her some Paracetamol and a cup of tea, but all the am dram washes over me now.

On the not wanting to take tablets front, I don't until it's pretty bad, because I don't like taking tablets. I wait until I feel that I really need to take something.

To be honest, I'm a 'hide away for a few days' kind of cold-haver - I refuse to just carry on regardless. I'll take the time off work and stick to my bed/room where possible because it's what gets me better quickest... and it means I'm not passing round the virus.
HOWEVER, I do not expect feet rubs and drinks making for me and babying! You are rather enabling the behaviour by doing these things for him. Tell him to grow up.

And men do have form for milking it for all they can don’t they

I hate comments like this. Imagine a man saying something similar about a woman.

Anyway my dh and adult sons always soldier on with colds etc and don't complain. In fact I don't know any men who do 'milk it'.

I am very, very rarely unwell (thankfully) and when I am I just get in with it rather than lying around in bed. My wife is the opposite. Catches everything and it’s very often bed for days at a time, loads of sympathy and being waited on hand and foot while I do everything.

I don’t complain because I understand that things affect people differently. Although on the very rare occasions I am sick, the level of support offered to me is very grudging, bordering on zero. Normally little digs like “oh poor you with your manflu” etc.

Really pisses me off. It’s sooooo fucking sexist. I think it comes from places like this where there is a real sexist contempt for and hatred of men generally.

Hw clearly has too much time on his hands. I have too much to do to be ill.

Anyway, he's a scumbag for snotting on the quilt. I don't think I did that, even when I was very young!