Your husband has a mere headache, but he automatically now believes that he is going to be a chronic sufferer of cluster migraines. Or, maybe he got a small splinter, but he now believes that he is, in all probability, going to end up with a staph infection. And, well, that cough of his (cough, cough) is going to have him laid up in bed for the next two days because he is just feeling so terrible. Sound familiar? It is all too familiar to me.

What am I talking about? How men are babies when they get sick.

When my husband gets sick, I like to call him “The Walking Dad."

Why? Well, because my husband truly looks and acts like a zombie when he is feeling ill -- and by ill, I mean he has that horrible thing known as the common cold. Throw in a headache, a body ache or some chills, and he just might be convinced that he has the plague.

In total truth, I dread him stating that he is “not feeling well” because I know all too well that means that he will be laid up in bed or on the couch too tired and ill-feeling to help with the kiddos -- but surely well enough to catch up on some favorite shows, play on his phone or even take a much-needed nap. On the occasions that he makes it from the bed all the way to the couch, well you can see how proud he becomes of himself. Then he usually asks me to order him some soup. Ridiculous, right? But this is a legit man problem and phenomena.

But why does this happen to men

The hilarious thing is that WebMD actually has an article on “Why Guys React Differently to Colds."

In the article, psychology expert William Pollack states that “the man cold might have some biological truth to it” and notes that “some studies say men may have more symptoms than women when they have a cold.” He also notes a few other biological differences between men and woman and how our bodies process illnesses but emphasizes that the differences are slight and not significant. For me, this means his initial contention equals horsepoop. Pollack, at the end of the article, pretty much states that it is all in the man’s head, mentioning that, “In other words, a man has to think his cold is this close to death, or else he shouldn’t be bothered by it. But of course, he is bothered by it.”

I will conclude by genuinely reaching out to all of you dear men who are not feeling well tonight:

I do hope that you have a quick recovery from your pretendicitis so that you can get back to helping your wife with your familial commitments. My children and I do express our deepest sympathies to your wife while you are dealing with rhinovirus.

This post originally appeared on jthreeNMe and was later republished by BluntMoms and CafeMom.