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It’s because women talk much more than men. Men are perfectly happy being silent if there’s nothing to say, women want to have a conversation.
Even though I make an effort not to say anything, sometimes I will move my foot to where the brake would be if I were driving and push down with my foot, every time my husband isn't coming to a stop at the same deceleration I would have employed. My husband talks more than myself, and my 'backseat driving' is often more in the form of gestures, flinches, and gasps.
There is an element where I do think my husband is a more dangerous driver but he has said he likes driving and if I tried to become the primary driver it would be insulting.
He's gotten into four accidents that have required body work since we've been together, each one he has been found not at fault, each one I was not in the car with him. My record is 0 accidents. He drives about twice as many miles as I do. He readily admitted that he was spared a fifth accident because a rental company got him a Tesla and it did some nifty accident avoidance on him when he was about to crash someone in the highway.
This is a specific instance, but the data also seems to indicate men are more aggressive drivers. Perhaps you all deserve some backseat driving?
I freely admit that in this, and many, specific cases, poor male driving is the cause of women backseat driving, but also the ‘women be talking’ stereotype totally drives much backseat driving which is entirely unrelated to such things.
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My mother got a kitten that recently has gotten sick. I spent few days with her to keep company (we live close by) but maaan...... I know her greatest trick is to "talk loudly that ensures everyone is listening" when she tries to be passive-aggresive or spiteful, but to witness this technique being used non-stop to cope with stress of a sick animal for 4 hours straight was also close to torture. (She was not bad-mouthing anyone, just speaking aloud whatever was in her head at the time)
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