Grr... men who walk two paces in front of their wives / girlfriends

[MrsSawdust]

AIBU to think this is rude and arrogant in the extreme? I see it so often, and the poor woman is usually half running to keep up.

Thing is, my own DH does this. He is a wonderful husband in so many ways, and we do without doubt have an equal partnership. But he comes from a very working class northern background in which this way of walking seems to be the norm (sorry for the generalisation).

When I complain (which I do, all the bloody time) he says I should catch up to him and he's just walking in his own way, not deliberately ignoring me.

So AIBU to think that a couple who are walking together should ... well ... walk together?

My dh does it too!!

I've moaned about it for 20 years to no avail. It drives me insane but he just can't seem to stop doing it.

Sometimes every so often he stops and looks back with a 'come on, come on!' expression. When he starts that up I walk especially slowly just to annoy him back.

I see couples walking along nicely and having conversations, maybe holding hands. Not us. If I do hold his hand I get dragged along like I'm 3 and I can hardly speak cos I'm out of breath.

DP is always the one lagging behind me, it's so annoying because I find walking slowly much more tiring than walking quickly - you have to physically suspend your legs in the air and linger on your knee joints for longer than is comfortable. Walking quickly it's all just left to gravity and momentum and it's much less hassle!

My mum is the worst for walking fast though, she has an incredible knack for snaking through crowds and traffic a nanosecond before the gaps close up, so you're left for dust, basically.

YABU. My DH does this as he is just a fast walker. I know he doesn't do it on purpose. He does try to slow down and let me catch up.

My OH used to consistently walk two paces behind me. It drove me insane! He only did it at the weekend when he was in realxed, no worries mode. In the end I trained him out of it by stopping dead and letting him walk ahead of me. When he looked round and stopped to let me catch up, I then stopped dead again. Then we'd have a 3 second stand-off and I would give him an innocent smile and wave him on.

Took about 3 episodes to get him to realise how irritating it was and stop.

I did acknowledge that sometimes I walk faster than necessary and sometimes it's nice to slope along not in a hurry. But as someone else said, it was the fact he was walking at the same speed as me, but BEHIND! that really annoyed me.

Well unless you are going to deliberately walk at the same pace all the time there is always going to be someone in front or behind.