Sara’s got her finger on lockdown squabbles
Aparable for modern times this week, courtesy of Radio 2 presenter Sara Cox on Twitter. “All very well these smart doorbells,” she wrote, “but they also catch you leaving for work and angrily putting the finger up at your hubby after a squabble,” – accompanied by a grainy image of her angrily motioning through the closed front door.
There but for the grace of God … I’m convinced that such (v mature) gesticulations are what got many couples through lockdown. After all, when you’re working from home together and spending weekends indoors staring at one another, souring the atmosphere with a blazing row just won’t do. Much better to flip the bird once their back is turned, or flick a quick but satisfying V sign behind the fridge door.
Angrily storming out wasn’t really an option. Still isn’t – given that you have to locate your face mask (sure it was by my keys) and pick up the hand sanitiser before you can leave the house. By which time you’ve forgotten what you were flouncing out about in the first place.
Still, you don’t really want your other half to know you’re giving them the finger, do you? Defeats the object. Best forget the idea of a smart doorbell – although, naturally, if I had one it would have only caught me enthusiastically clapping for the NHS and feeding the birds, not flipping them.