Nobody Talks About...Always Being Right

“Fine, Esti. You tell it,” Moshe snapped, setting his fork down hard. “Apparently, I can’t even get my own story right.”

The laughter around the Shabbos table stopped.

Esti glanced at her sister, then back at him. Her cheeks were burning.

“Moshe, I only said it was a different hotel,” she replied, forcing a small laugh. “You don’t have to make it into...”

“One story, Esti!” he interrupted, his voice tight. “I’d like to tell one story without being corrected.”

Esti’s smile vanished. She opened her mouth, but Moshe had already turned back to his plate.

Her sister reached for the salad bowl. “Who wants more?” she asked, her voice a little too cheerful.

How could he speak to her like that? In front of everyone!

Esti pressed her lips together. Anything she said now would make it worse.

What bothered her most was that she’d been enjoying the story. He was imitating the hotel manager’s accent, and she was howling along with everyone else. She knew what was coming next - it was her favorite part of the story.  

Now they weren’t going to get there.

Lately, she only heard him laugh like that on the phone with his brother.

“Nothing much,” Moshe would answer with a shrug when she asked afterward what had been so funny.

She hated that answer. Clearly, it hadn’t been nothing.

Tonight, for a few minutes, she’d been part of the laughter instead of hearing it from another room.

Esti glanced at him again, but he didn’t look up. She wanted to tell him he was overreacting.

And she had no idea how to get back to where they’d been two minutes ago.

When Esti brought the evening to our next coaching session, she was still hurt. She’d been on that trip too. Wasn’t she allowed to contribute?

“I wasn’t trying to embarrass him,” she said, picking at the edge of her sleeve. “I corrected a silly detail. I didn’t say he was stupid.”

She pictured Moshe’s smile disappearing at the table.  She was beginning to see that just because she noticed a mistake didn’t mean she had to correct him.

And it hadn’t been just that evening. She corrected him when he called their daughter’s teacher Mrs. Friedman instead of Mrs. Fried. And when he described their new couch as blue even though she’d already explained that it was teal.

His sharp words still stung. But his reaction no longer seemed to be only about the name of a hotel.

“I don’t want to sit there afraid to open my mouth,” Esti said, folding her arms.

“What would you have lost by letting the hotel’s name go?” I asked gently.

She opened her mouth, then paused.

“Nothing,” she admitted. “It didn’t change what happened.”

That felt different from swallowing an opinion about something that mattered to her. She could join in, laugh, add her memories. Respect didn’t mean she had nothing to say.

Perhaps you recognize yourself in Esti.  The little corrections that seem harmless, and the ache when another conversation ends sooner than you wanted.

Sometimes being right costs us the moment we wanted to share.

If you’re reading this and thinking, We get caught in these little arguments too. I miss just enjoying each other, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

I’d love to support you.

Schedule a free Marriage Breakthrough Session with me here.

Let’s talk about how small shifts can help you move beyond the little disagreements that leave you far apart—and find your way back to laughing together.