The way I have found is the best route to H's heart regarding the tenderness v. running hot thing is this: Being tender while stroking his ego. That seems to take the Mom Edge off the encounter. He gets the admiring female and I get to indulge in my tender side. So I might say Wow you had a bad day at work. You look completely beat...let me get you a beer. Gosh is your neck always this tense? (rub his neck and dodge him trying to shoo me like a fly. This is, after all, MrHP we are talkin about here) You know, I can't imagine anymore what it would be like to voluntarily insert myself into the rat race. Thank you for doing that for all of us. I really appreciate it, especially when I see you on days like this.
He acts the entire time as if I've just subjected him to the most torturous treatment known to man, but I think he secretly likes it because he always comes back for more.
If I just flat out mothered him, he *would* swat me like a fly and that'd be the end of that.
