Has (have) your partner (s) ever been unbelievably insensitive? Have they ever ignored something they should know bothers you, because it's obviously bothersome? Something you'd never have done to them?
Have they reacted with bafflement? Did they think you were overreacting? Was everyone clearly talking past one another about different angles of an issue and not understanding why something was a sensitivity?
We come from massively different places. Even if we grow up across town from one another, our families are different; our moments that cause pain and sensitivity are different; our traumas are different; our lives are different. Only by respecting this can we actually come to agreement on how to address each others' sensitivities. (And, honestly, only by admitting this to ourselves, that we have these, can we let our partners in enough to help.)
If you find yourself telling a partner "You're so insensitive," or "you're too sensitive," take a beat and look at what's different, not what's the same, there. It might be enlightening.
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