My wife and I joke about some of the differences in the way we handle situations.
A case in point is a description I gave her of a fishing trip I was going on with my Dad and Grandpa.
It was early in the morning and foggy. We needed to find the lake. I was 16 and sitting quitely in the back seat while Grandpa drove and Dad navigated. They were both lost.
In this awkward situation, I wouldn't dare open my mouth. To insinuate that I was more intelligent because I knew where we were supposed to go and they didn't would be a terrible blow to the authority/ego of Grandpa and Dad. I knew this. And so I sat quitely while they figured out where to go. About an hour later, we found the right road to the lake.
My wife's take on the whole event was, "Why didn't you just tell them where to go?" I tried to explain that I couldn't. She chalked it up to a "male" thing and said that if she were riding with her Mom and Grandma, neither would have had a problem taking directions from a teenage backseat driver.
I hope this story came out right. In re-reading it seems awfully confusing.
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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.