The Difference Between Men & Women and Design

I'm probably going to get in trouble for this, but I have to do it. First, let me say that I love my husband dearly, and he is an incredible father and is quite handy around the house. It seems nearly impossible to get anything accomplished in my daughter's room because she is always in the middle of everything, and the only time to get anything done is when she is asleep...in her room. So when the kids and I went away last week, I figured it was the perfect time to have my husband hang the light fixture I had purchased from Ikea months ago. To make a long story short, parts were missing for the shade and now there is a light-bulb dangling from a cord in the corner of her room. I'm sure I should have no safety concerns about that, but there was not a lot he could do to fix that issue at the time, and he did make an attempt with another shade that just wouldn't hang straight.

In any event, he also took the time to hang the new smoke detectors he had bought for the kids' rooms as it was making him nervous that we didn't have one in each room. As I said, great dad! BUT, what I can't figure out is why he chose to hang them in the center of the wall which is a drastically different color and near artwork (the adorable Beatrix Potter needlepoint that my mom made and that hung in my room for my entire childhood). Utilitarian objects like this are necessary, but the object is to make them "disappear". There is a white ceiling where it would have blended right in. If it needed to be on the wall instead of the ceiling, perhaps behind the door to her room where nobody really looks would have worked or on the also painted white door that accesses the attic space. But nope, he chose right smack dab in the middle of the biggest open wall in her room.

It just makes me wonder about how the minds of men and women work so differently. The utilitarian vs. aesthetic way of approaching things. I feel bad telling my hubby (so why not just tell the world in a blog post instead) because I know he always has the best intentions, but I can't live with it. Not that I want to give up my daughter's safety, but just keep her safe without the safety devices being so in your face. Would it be wrong to create a book of guidelines that need to be followed when placing things around the house? I think that makes me sound like a crazy you-know-what, but it's the little things like this that drive me bonkers every time I walk into a room, and I know that we just see things differently so I'd actually be doing him a favor by letting him know up front rather than having him constantly move things, right?