Dear Netty,
I read about your dilemma and I think I can add much in answering your question. Men do not "play" dumb, they are in fact the resultant factor of thousands of years of evolution stemming from a single cell organism that later became influenced by something called "selective hearing". This process involves the ability to immediately hear selective words and phrases, even if they are emitting from a televison set, down the street, around the corner, downstairs, in a house, in somebody's basement. Likewise, it also is evident in the tuning out selective words and phrases, even if they are said in one's pressence. Thousands of years before television, when grown men slept in caves, and did not have the resources available to him to be entertained by box scores, RBI's, and the spike network, the only option available to him was the long, prolonged stare into a hole.....with a fire in it, interestingly a symbol of destruction, and tremendous bordem. This self-induced trance, stemming from burning a couple of sticks .... later gave rise ... much, much later ... to the printed page, newspapers, and so on and so forth ... and because of this, Men cannot immediately comprehend the entity known as "octopus woman", a strange, and obscure element, because like their predecessors, thousands of years ago, they are still stuck in that self-induced trance, forever to be unaware of things such as poopy diapers, spilt food, and who did what to so and so... In order to break this trance one must literally bring the element of destruction in one's own household, or as my husband likes to put it "unless its dying, burning, or on fire, don't even bother waking me!" Hope this answers your question Netty, Enjoy!