A Task Delegated to Women?

According to the Telegraph there are some things that women do much better than men, that is no surprise to me, in fact I think women can do most things better than men. However I was rather surprised that buying underwear for men is among the many tasks that women fulfil for the men in their lives. According to a survey conducted by Debenhams men only take responsibility for 17 years of their lives!

Apparently by age 19 young men assert their independence by choosing their own underwear. Judging by the males in our family their independence doesn't yet extend to transporting their smalls to the laundry basket, but we live in hope. By age 36 men have delegated the responsibility of buying their pants to their wives or girlfriends. I don't pretend that Robbie is a typical male, the world can only cope with one Robbie, but in this respect he seems to be 'normal'. When Robbie and I first got together I soon realised that I wouldn't be able to change his 'unique' approach to fashion but at least I persuaded him that baggy boxers were not a good look, they bunched up under his clothing and made him look as if he very odd. That was the extent of my influence until recently when he started to have trouble with his trousers. Suddenly I am not only buying his pants, but I'm being treated to a personal 'catwalk experience' as he tries on each new pair and struts around the lounge showing them off. Scary stuff!

This really isn't a job that I am ready for. Robbie is the one who is into clothes not me. He gives hours of thought to what he wears (yes really!) but as far as I am concerned if it is clean, comfortable and it doesn't make me look like the back of a bus I'm happy. Why shop for clothes when you could go to a bookshop instead? So why am I spending hours contemplating the comfort of Robbie's nether regions? I think it is about time that he stopped being a statistic and took back responsibility for buying his smalls!

Pants

A recent shopper survey by Debenhams revealed that there are only a few years of independence when young men take responsibility for choosing their own underwear. According to the survey teenagers rely on their mothers to buy their pants until around the age of 19 and by the time men reach age 36 they have delegated the task of buying their underwear to their wife or partner.

Robbie is 37 and he still buys his own pants, if I bought them he certainly wouldn't wear those dreadful striped ones that remind me of an old fashioned swimming outfit. I have to admit that I have influenced his choice. When we first met he wore boxers, but they looked horrible and they bunched up under his suit to make it look as if he was wearing a nappy. He got the message after I started calling him Gandhi, now he wears trunks, they look much nicer and he says they are far more comfortable. Sam is almost 15, he would like to be able to select his own underwear, but since the kind he likes are £10 per pair I am unwilling to pay for that. We have reached a compromise on price, but he chooses the style.

Sam is left handed, he is just like Robbie when it comes sharing random snippets of information. The other day he informed me that they now produce left handed underwear for men! He is right, they stock it at Debenhams. Boxer shorts have a centre opening but trunks and Y fronts usually have a right handed opening. The pants made by Horn do not have a vertical opening, instead they have a horizontal opening just below the waistband. The company claims that this could save a left handed man three seconds each time he visits the bathroom. It doesn’t sound much to me, but I guess it would add up over a lifetime!

Help! I Need Some Dark Glasses 16.01.08

Robbie had an accident today, he 'accidentally' bought a shirt! Apparently it jumped out at him when he was passing through Paddington Station. He went to great lengths to tell me that the price was reduced and it would have been £65 full price. Robbie has enough shirts to kit out an army so I wasn't overjoyed to find that he had bought yet another one, but there was no point making a big deal of it. He was carrying the shirt in one of those silly paper bags with string handles that you get from posh shops, I didn't take much notice and I didn't actually see the shirt until much later in the evening. He kept telling me how wonderful this shirt was, but when he finally showed me the shirt I was absolutely horrified. He knows I don't like check shirts, bit this is even worse, it has multicoloured lines running horizontally and vertically to create a check effect. It is hideous, it has red, pink, brown, light brown, dark blue, light blue, mustard and lemon stripes. It reminds me of one of the test cards we used to get on television. If he thinks I am going to let him leave the house wearing that he must be mad! I will have to get him tested for colour blindness.