Latest / The Dr. Psych Mom Show with clinical psychologist Dr. Samantha Rodman Whiten / Why Men Don't Usually Have An Acts Of Service Love Language
Transcript
- 0:06Hi everybody, and welcome to the dr.
- 0:08Psych mom show. Today we will be talking about
- 0:11why men don't usually have an acts of service love language.
- 0:14They don't usually like to receive acts of service which is
- 0:17terribly inconvenient. For all the women that are only
- 0:20comfortable giving Act of service to show love and we will
- 0:23discuss why. There is this disconnect between
- 0:26the genders and my experience working with couples, right?
- 0:30Before that though, I will tell you to subscribe as I I always
- 0:35do my most recent subscriber episode was, you don't actually
- 0:39have to be happy being alone before you can date because that
- 0:42is a major fallacy. Just like that whole you gotta
- 0:45love yourself before you can be in a relationship.
- 0:48Come on man. Like these, these bars are very
- 0:51high and really Fantastical for the majority of non Perfect
- 0:55People, which is everybody. So I will discuss those
- 1:00actually. I discussed the second one even
- 1:02in in the same pod. Intro of that other one, so I
- 1:06discuss. Also, why don't have to love
- 1:08yourself before you could love somebody else?
- 1:10So, if you're interested in either of those topics, you
- 1:12should definitely subscribe. So you can access all my
- 1:15subscriber episodes for the low low price of five ninety-nine a
- 1:18month, which is really pretty good for the amount of content I
- 1:21pump out. Okay, so a lot of times women
- 1:24only have an act of service love language and I have a podcast on
- 1:28why acts of service and physical touch or diametrically opposed
- 1:31Love Languages but only in the situation where the woman's Only
- 1:35love language, is Fizz Act of service.
- 1:37So if the woman's only love language is acts of service is
- 1:40usually means that she's pretty emotionally avoidant.
- 1:43And the act of service one is basically, the only one that's
- 1:46just task doing so it's pretty impersonal compared to the
- 1:50others. It is the only one that you can
- 1:52Outsource fully if, if active service is a love language among
- 1:56others though, then that does not necessarily point to
- 2:00emotional avoidance. But in fact, is, is probably
- 2:03like every Mother has active Service as love language because
- 2:07she's just overwhelmed by shit to do and many women have acts
- 2:10of service as a secondary love language.
- 2:12It would be very convenient though if more of them did
- 2:15because basically or rather, it would be very convenient, if
- 2:20more men had an act of service love language because remember
- 2:23acts of service is what you want to receive.
- 2:25So there's a lot of women who are saying stuff like but I cook
- 2:28him dinner but I do the laundry but I do this but I do that.
- 2:32Why does it matter that I haven't touched him since?
- 2:34Owen. And that's because they are
- 2:37really comfortable giving active service and not any other love
- 2:41language. So why is it so messed up that
- 2:45men? Don't value this.
- 2:46Well, I'll tell you why, so many reasons, but let's just focus on
- 2:50Main to most men have more energy than most women.
- 2:54Women have higher rates of anxiety and depression.
- 2:56There are more floored by month-to-month day-to-day minute
- 3:01to minute variations and their menstrual cycle as men, do not
- 3:04have Menstrual cycle. Menopause happens, pregnancy
- 3:07happens. Nursing happens.
- 3:09If period happens, I mean, and you know, I mean, shit happens,
- 3:13women are I have higher rates of being depressed which in
- 3:16atypical depression which is the one that women have leads to
- 3:19fatigue, a let in paralysis. I discussed this all the time.
- 3:23You can go to my podcast on depression and my posed atypical
- 3:27depression and women. So the point here is men have a
- 3:32lot of energy. Usually now if you're like wait,
- 3:34Wait a second, my husband doesn't have a lot of energy
- 3:36will. Then a couple things, your
- 3:38husband may be depressed too. And also, your husband may be
- 3:41suffering from low testosterone or your husband may just be
- 3:44somebody who is lazy. I don't really know.
- 3:47But usually, when people are laying around on the couch, it
- 3:50means that they're depressed. So, if your husband has much
- 3:53less energy than you do, this is biologically, not a normative
- 3:58situation and he should have energy, you know?
- 4:03And if he doesn't that's a Problem, of course, is problem.
- 4:06If you have zero energy to and you're probably depressed then
- 4:08too, but I mean you probably know it because more women have
- 4:12depression than men and more women.
- 4:14Go to therapy than men and more women read about psychology than
- 4:17men and all of that kind of thing.
- 4:18So like there are so many people I talk to where the woman's
- 4:21like, oh yeah, I was first diagnosed with depression when I
- 4:23was like 22, right after college.
- 4:25And then of course, I had postpartum and then
- 4:27unfortunately, no. So often work for me and like
- 4:30this, this whole mental history, and then I asked the guy, like,
- 4:33do you have any sort of, you know, his History with a
- 4:35therapist or he's like not, oh no, I don't do that.
- 4:37I no, no, I'm fine, everything's fine.
- 4:39And if he was depressed anxious anything, he doesn't really even
- 4:42know. So your husband, if he's sitting
- 4:45around on the couch all the time and especially if he is also
- 4:49like - irritable angry, kind of distant apathetic then he's
- 4:54probably depressed and you probably want to get him into
- 4:57therapy. And really, I have plenty of
- 5:00podcasts on how to convince your partner to get it to couples
- 5:02therapy. And as I always say, Easier to
- 5:05convince them to do something with you than without you.
- 5:07So couples therapy would be the first step if they won't go to
- 5:10individual. Anyway.
- 5:12So generally though, and particularly the men that I work
- 5:16with, as I talk about a lot, I work with many high-achieving
- 5:19people. And it is a rare man that I work
- 5:22with. It does not exercise, you know,
- 5:24and exercises, you know, linked to having a lot of energy.
- 5:27And basically, here's the thing men, this is why I'm talking
- 5:32about this men. There are, there are many women,
- 5:36right? Who say God, I really want to
- 5:38clean the kitchen. I should really clean the
- 5:40kitchen. The kitchen looks like shit.
- 5:41The kitchen looks like shit. I'm just so tired.
- 5:43I'm so tired. I'm so overwhelmed.
- 5:46I just wish somebody would clean the kitchen.
- 5:48I feel so much better. I have never ever, ever heard of
- 5:52a man say anything like that. If a man wants to clean the
- 5:56kitchen, not bad, if he really looks around, there's like
- 5:58fucking cockroaches, and it's just disgusting.
- 6:01And like, his parents are coming over or something and like
- 6:04whatever. We're like he just listened to
- 6:06enough of my podcast and so he says, oh women, they like the
- 6:08kitchen clean. Okay, I'll do that.
- 6:10And he'll just get up and do it, you know?
- 6:13Like, cuz again, he's probably not struggling with symptoms of
- 6:15depression and overwhelm and he's not gonna get his period
- 6:18tomorrow and whatever else, women are just more sensitive
- 6:21creatures, okay? So that that is what it is.
- 6:24So if there is a man that exists in the world that's like, you
- 6:26know what? I should really clean up the
- 6:27kitchen, he just usually fucking does it or sometimes he'd be.
- 6:31Like, I should probably hire somebody to do this and then
- 6:33he'll do it. What he Don't do is say God, if
- 6:36I was the kind of person who kept a clean kitchen, what would
- 6:39my life be? That's the kind of parent that I
- 6:42want my kids to have. Why does this get away from me
- 6:45so much? I'm going to look up like like a
- 6:47website about, you know, like how to structure my time better,
- 6:50because maybe, like, I was it a kitchen cleaning routine.
- 6:54Then that would like, you know, spill over into other aspects of
- 6:57my life, maybe I could get back into yoga.
- 6:59And I wouldn't be so depressed. That's not how a man talks.
- 7:02That's called a woman. So if you are, if you don't know
- 7:04what, Woman thinks like it was what I just did.
- 7:07So when a man thinks boy, this XYZ thing really needs to get
- 7:11done, they either do it or they hire it out or they don't do it,
- 7:16and don't care. So that is not how a woman
- 7:18operates. So if you want to make your
- 7:22husband feel better by like doing some shit for him, there's
- 7:26no point to do that because if he wanted the shit done, he
- 7:30would do it himself. And there are all I have never.
- 7:34Ever, ever, ever, ever really actually heard a man say that he
- 7:40would have felt closer that day if a woman had done tours.
- 7:43That is just not some shit that happens in the world.
- 7:47So like, if you are thinking that, that is anything that's
- 7:49going to happen or if that would be nice or if that would be like
- 7:53so easy because of your husband, really wanted you to do laundry
- 7:56and then check it out. You're already doing the laundry
- 7:58then that could kind of double dip as his like love language
- 8:01because you know, that would be real easy.
- 8:03Cuz it's what you're doing anyway.
- 8:04Well, there's no free lunch as I say constantly, so men don't
- 8:09want that. What men want is something
- 8:11romantic and sexual something that you cannot Outsource or
- 8:14would be unethical to. And that is only between the two
- 8:17of you, like it's cute if you bake him cookies or something.
- 8:20That's like nice. But if you bake him cookies but
- 8:23then you're like gone and you guys don't spend time together.
- 8:25There's no romance, there's no intimacy, there's no sex.
- 8:28He doesn't give a shit about the cookies.
- 8:30He wishes you to spend the 40 minutes of the cookies hanging
- 8:33out, hugging and kissing. Kissing talking and or having
- 8:36sex, right? So that is how men and women are
- 8:39different. Now here is another thing which
- 8:42I went passed really quickly so I want to make sure to amplify
- 8:47it for you. Men.
- 8:48Also a very like low standards generally for shit that they're
- 8:52not going to do themselves. So you could be like, no, my
- 8:55husband's this rigid motherfucker.
- 8:57And he like wants everything done exactly the right way with
- 9:00the car with the house with this with that.
- 9:02Well, 9 times out of 10. Unless he is are like really old
- 9:07outlier. He's gonna do that shit himself
- 9:10and basically just asking you not to fuck it up.
- 9:12So like he could have, let's say like he's a real asshole about,
- 9:16you know, he mowed the lawn and he has to mow the lawn
- 9:20perfectly. He's not asking you to most a
- 9:22lot. He's just say, like, give me the
- 9:24time during the day to mow the lawn, you know, so that I can
- 9:27mow the lawn in the way that I want to mow the lawn or if it's
- 9:30like he likes to keep his car clean.
- 9:32He's saying don't bring food into the The car.
- 9:35What he's not saying is you go clean the car, he's not saying
- 9:38that. Why?
- 9:39Because, for men, when something is important for them to do,
- 9:41they do it. Sorry.
- 9:46I was coughing and laughing at the same time, but they do it
- 9:49and that's it. Like, they just do it and they
- 9:51could get mad if you fuck it up, but they're not telling you to
- 9:55do it. We are ads.
- 9:56Like I hear women that are like it's really important for me to
- 9:59have a clean kitchen. So I want him to do it which is
- 10:04like and Like they like they don't understand it, there's
- 10:07like a disconnect, because it's so not how men operate right?
- 10:10It would be like you saying, man.
- 10:12I really want to go to yoga, so I sent my husband, he did it for
- 10:18me. He did the yoga for me and so is
- 10:21better that way. It just doesn't work like that.
- 10:23So for most men doing something like a task is like something
- 10:27they do, it's not that they tell you to do.
- 10:30So if your husband wants to work out the car, he doesn't tell you
- 10:33to go work on the car. Our and he isn't easy to
- 10:36secretly hoping that you go figure out how to repair the car
- 10:40better than he can. And then you take that chore off
- 10:43his plate. No, he's doing it.
- 10:45And if he decides that he doesn't ever want to work on the
- 10:48car again, then he'll do one of two things.
- 10:50So make his his business to make enough money that he can have
- 10:54someone else work on the car, or he will stop caring about the
- 10:57car and the car will just be a piece of shit.
- 10:59It'll be one or the other, you know, have nothing to do with
- 11:02it. He's will never tell you.
- 11:04Start to work on the car in his stead.
- 11:07Whereas, women do do that. And why do I think that it is
- 11:10because a, they have extremely high standards for housework at
- 11:13things like that. But B, and this is the part that
- 11:15doesn't get talked about enough. They don't have as much energy,
- 11:18they really don't, they really don't a lot of the month.
- 11:21They don't have any. A lot of women have depression,
- 11:24a lot of women are dealing with hormonal issues and really a man
- 11:28is physically stronger than women, so that I believe is
- 11:32really unassailable. So, So, I mean, you could just
- 11:35sell it if you will. But I mean that is the truth.
- 11:38Then women need more sleep by research shows that women need
- 11:42like something like 15 minutes, more silly.
- 11:43But that's just an average. So anyway, the point is when
- 11:47women want acts of service, it's because they feel overwhelmed by
- 11:51something. They consider extremely
- 11:52important but they do not have the energy or the drive or the
- 11:57the ability to not feel overwhelmed enough to do it
- 12:00themselves. So they are asking you to take
- 12:02something off their plate and within the Except a loving close
- 12:06marriage. This goes well for the guy
- 12:09remember everybody is not in a dysfunctional sexless marriage
- 12:12for many people. Many women feel extremely
- 12:15appreciative when the man cleans the kitchen or does whatever.
- 12:20And feels like they hit the jackpot and that he's a great
- 12:22guy so that is a happy marriage it.
- 12:24So he does extra stuff and she feels love.
- 12:26That's really what acts of service.
- 12:28Love Languages, sometimes acts of service.
- 12:30Love language gets butchered because people think that it
- 12:33only is it A situation of A Dysfunctional couple where
- 12:36everything is Loveless and sexless and resentment filled.
- 12:39So in those situations, the man does acts of service and then he
- 12:42turns to her and she says so why did I have to ask you to do that
- 12:45you live here too. So that it's like fuck you
- 12:48because you know, you said it was active service.
- 12:50Was your love language. I don't give a shit about any of
- 12:51it, I would order an every meal from now until we die.
- 12:55I don't give a shit and so you know it's like he doesn't care
- 13:01at all, but the woman is like that An act of service love
- 13:05language basically. She's just telling him.
- 13:07Here are your chores to do and that should never be thought of
- 13:10as an act of service love language and acts of service.
- 13:13Love language is when you feel loved when somebody does chores,
- 13:17not when they do chores and you're just like, okay cool, you
- 13:20live here, too. So that's not any sort of love
- 13:22language. Love is very far away.
- 13:24Love is like 500 miles away from that interaction has nothing to
- 13:27do with it. So when women say okay, so
- 13:31here's another situation, there's some women with low
- 13:33self-esteem about their Leti to be competent and to be good
- 13:36Homemakers and good moms. This is usually younger women so
- 13:40I'll say up to their 30s. Usually because that's when
- 13:43people have babies 20s 30s and then the small children 30s, you
- 13:47know, and it's also before perimenopause hormones, you
- 13:52know, hit which is 10 years before menopause menopause 52.
- 13:55So you could do your subtraction.
- 13:57So as I've discussed women in their 30s or generally I said,
- 14:01you know, your window to change is when your wife is in her 30s.
- 14:04It's not what she's in her 40s because by then, or hormones
- 14:07started to decrease a little bit.
- 14:08She doesn't give a shit really about, you know, taking care of
- 14:11you and the relationship in the same way she used to.
- 14:14She could also see the writing on the wall that the kids are
- 14:16going to leave the house at some point.
- 14:18So it's not like marriages in their 40s.
- 14:19Can't be fixed, but they take a lot more effort than if the man
- 14:22put that effort in when she was a little bit younger with young
- 14:25kids, and she was in the young mother stage.
- 14:27So, in the young mother stage, Sometimes women and this is goes
- 14:31back to my femininity was masculinity and femininity mean.
- 14:34You don't know my feminine energy podcast.
- 14:37Listen to that one. So these women are still big
- 14:39into, like, how is my female identity shaped by what I can do
- 14:43around the home. Now, in that case, I've seen
- 14:46women that are younger, you know, get very upset that the
- 14:49man doesn't need them to do anything practical in their
- 14:53estimation. They have this idea about who
- 14:56they want to be as a wife and mother which includes being.
- 14:59You know, a very good Homemaker and keeping everything, very
- 15:01nice and making all these treats for everybody and keep
- 15:04Everything spotless and she's looking on Pinterest for like,
- 15:07you know, how to clean your house with the lemon juice or
- 15:11whatever and so in these cases that intelligent man will say
- 15:16something like how could you bake me those cookies that you
- 15:19made last week? They're so great.
- 15:21Or who can you make your lasagna this weekend?
- 15:24Wow. Or man like you did so good at
- 15:28organizing the kids Closets By color.
- 15:31It's like so amazing. Look at that.
- 15:33Like you are like the best homemade.
- 15:34Aker ever. If she really has an identity
- 15:37focused on being a good Homemaker, which is great.
- 15:40You know, that makes life nice for children and everything, you
- 15:44know, they certainly did. It's a good thing right?
- 15:48For your children for you, even if you know that you could buy
- 15:53the cookies, you know, yourself or that.
- 15:56It doesn't matter what the closets look like, say nice
- 16:00things because this is part of who she is and if she really if
- 16:03your wife is You don't need me for anything.
- 16:06Like, what do you even need me for?
- 16:08Don't answer sex. I know that's your answer.
- 16:11That answered never goes. Well, learn from men who have
- 16:14come before you and say, things like you keep a wonderful home,
- 16:18everybody's happy because of you.
- 16:20You set the mood of the house. You're such a good mother, you
- 16:24do everything with the children, you cook.
- 16:27Well, you bake. Well, you organize well look how
- 16:29well you decorate. So this is a situation where a
- 16:32woman's Act of sir. Service around the home are what
- 16:36she wishes was your love language.
- 16:39So as long as she gives you other things, besides the
- 16:41cookies, make a big fucking deal out of the cookies.
- 16:43Are you gonna die from doing that?
- 16:45No, that's a case where like you should focus on the positives.
- 16:49It's not even really lying like you.
- 16:51You like the cookies fine. You like the cookies don't be
- 16:54the person who's like well yeah I like the cookies but honestly
- 16:56I would rather that you had sex with me for the 40 minutes.
- 16:59It took you to bake the cookies unless you are in a sexless
- 17:01marriage or a low sex marriage in which case, sure.
- 17:04Are, you know, I mean don't say it like that, but you could say,
- 17:08I really do. You know, I love the cookies,
- 17:10but I value other things too, but as long as things are nice
- 17:14in your relationship, if you get the impression that your wife
- 17:17really wishes that you were more like her own dad, who really
- 17:21liked the cookies that her mom bake for him or whatever, just
- 17:24like go with the flow and compliment her on the things
- 17:27that you see that, she wishes that you valued because you like
- 17:32the cookies, isn't it cute? Believe me one day.
- 17:34She's not. Going to be making cookies.
- 17:35Cookies comes with estrogen. And when the estrogen goes down
- 17:38the cookies, going to go down to, and then you're going to
- 17:40miss him. So anyway, the point is that you
- 17:44as if you were in this situation where the woman has the acts of
- 17:48service love language and wishes that the man did to he can do
- 17:52one of two things. If he's generally happily
- 17:55married, he can act like he has more of an act of service love
- 17:58language if that's what she likes.
- 18:00And also, he can deeply understand why she wants him to
- 18:03help out. Everything.
- 18:04Because as I've told you like, you know, she's is feels very
- 18:08overwhelmed. Frustrated.
- 18:09She has no energy, she's tired, she's depressed.
- 18:11What have you? So this can help to facilitate
- 18:14empathy on both sides. If you are the woman though,
- 18:16listen to the other side of it, which is he doesn't give a shit,
- 18:19right? He doesn't give a shit because
- 18:21anything he wants to do, he does, if he doesn't do it, he
- 18:25hired somebody to do it or it doesn't get done.
- 18:27So for him, this has nothing to do with love at all.
- 18:30Nothing. This is like a separate Universe
- 18:33from anything that he thinks. Of his love.
- 18:35Nothing to do with it. No overlap.
- 18:37What he thinks of us love is spending time together, hanging
- 18:40out laughing joking. Touching each other kissing
- 18:42cuddling having sex. That's it.
- 18:45That's what it has to do with. There's no housework, there's no
- 18:48housework in this. It is a housework list zone.
- 18:51So if the primary way that you've been thinking, that it
- 18:54would be natural and normal for him to receive love would be
- 18:59through. You do an act of service, then
- 19:01you are wrong because there is no man like that.
- 19:04Very few, I'm sure I'll get the one who does like active service
- 19:07who's going to write in, but generally active service is a
- 19:11great, you know, cherry on top. I mean if you have a wife that
- 19:15you're joking around with and hugging and touching and kissing
- 19:17and having sex with and she bakes a mean, chocolate cake.
- 19:20Well, then you feel like king of the world but also you would
- 19:23feel that way probably if she didn't bake a chocolate cake.
- 19:26So that is the reality. And this actually should be
- 19:30thought of as wonderful because it's a it's it's the shows.
- 19:34Is that men are really feminist. They don't want the woman in the
- 19:37kitchen, they really don't. I don't see any that do.
- 19:39It's, of course, I don't see everybody at every, you know,
- 19:43when every community and culture and whatever I see, as I said,
- 19:47mostly high-achieving people that are dual income, or the
- 19:51guys income is very high and then the woman is stay at home
- 19:55or what have you either way? These are people that can
- 19:58Outsource the buying or the baking of a chocolate cake.
- 20:01Everybody cannot and there are many different cultures where
- 20:03homemaking is. Valued in different ways,
- 20:05however, no matter what culture, it is.
- 20:09I do believe that the average man, not a man who struggles
- 20:13with his sexuality, or as little bit or whatever, but the average
- 20:17man would always rather have sex.
- 20:20Then you bake him a chocolate cake, and understanding that can
- 20:23be really transformative to your marriage.
- 20:25So if you only have enough, you know, energy for one thing,
- 20:28picks X do, don't pick the chocolate cake, because it
- 20:31doesn't make any sense. And from the male perspective,
- 20:34Perspective to understand why she values acts of service and
- 20:37that within a loving marriage. Really are taking something off
- 20:40her plate. She really does feel a deep
- 20:43sense of relief that the kitchen is clean.
- 20:47Like you can't even imagine that.
- 20:49You have never felt probably about any cleaning of any sort
- 20:52of thing ever. You don't even associate, you
- 20:55know, intense emotions with cleanliness, but she does, you
- 20:59know, until the more of those things that you can do, then the
- 21:01happier, she will feel particularly If you are not at a
- 21:06horrible resentment, filled fueled place in your marriage,
- 21:11but rather at a nice place in your marriage where she says,
- 21:13wow what a good guy I was sitting here, feeling
- 21:16overwhelmed and exhausted and he cleaned up the kitchen.
- 21:18We have a great marriage. That's things that women think
- 21:21men don't think, oh, wow, I was sitting here on the couch, and
- 21:24she cleaned up the kitchen. We have a great marriage, and
- 21:26no, it does nothing to do with it.
- 21:28She cleaned the kitchen. Okay, good.
- 21:30You know. I mean not good.
- 21:32Bad as he doesn't know, it's like a Trick question, is it
- 21:35good or bad that she cleaned up the kitchen demands like I don't
- 21:38fucking know. Was I supposed to clean up?
- 21:40The kitchen is the kitchen dirty like what's going on here?
- 21:42But for the woman to always a wit, he cleaned up the kitchen
- 21:45always away. All right, well I will talk to
- 21:48you all soon hope you got something out of this and found
- 21:50it. Interesting and I as usual want
- 21:54you to subscribe and to join my Facebook group and if you ever
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- 22:16also have cat who does Curry another cat.
- 22:18It does career and nutrition. So that's all in the best life
- 22:20Behavioral Health Website and all of my therapist that are
- 22:23situated mostly in one state are great as well.
- 22:27And yeah, please do check that out if you do need a therapist
- 22:30or a coach and of course there's me.
- 22:32I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.