High Maintenance

Unless we are talking about the fees charged by a condo complex or the cost of upkeep on a Mercedes, could we ditch the phrase "high maintenance"? I found myself in a store standing in line behind a bochur who was talking on his cell phone as if he were in the privacy of his own home. (Cell phone conversations in public places is a totally different "rant.") He was clearly discussing a girl. And from what I, and everyone else within a twenty-mile radius, gathered from the conversation, someone had asked his opinion of the girl. The exact dialogue was "Nah, keep away from her. She's really high maintenance."

So what does this phrase really mean? Did the bochur giving the opinion know that this girl wanted to live in a high-priced neighborhood, buy a Million dollar plus house and fill it with designer merchandise? Was this girl dripping with gold and precious stones when he met her? Did a sleep-in maid answer the door when he went to her parent's home? Was her conversation filled with "When we were in Italy for the shopping last week" or "We keep a weekend place in Aspen"? Are the girl's parents, as the vulgar saying goes, "loaded"?

Or is it perhaps that when the bochur saw this girl she was perfectly put together, hair nicely styled, clothes in fashion? You know, the kind of thing most boys don't think about unless the girl does not look like that, and then they complain. Did this girl volunteer that she wanted, when married, to--gasp--buy a house?

As a descriptive adjective "high maintenance" is vague and most certainly negative; yet, it says so little while implying so much.

I wonder how we would apply this to males? Might "high maintenance" be used to refer to the boy who wants all the pleasures of marriage but will be sitting and learning for years without producing a penny in earnings? That boy would certainly be "high maintenance" for his wife and her parents. Or might we apply it to those males who are working but whose chosen field of endeavor will never bring in enough to support a household alone, requiring a working wife? Or perhaps we could apply it to those males who are addicted to every new electronic gadget that comes on the market? Or every new car?

Why don't we just drop the phrase altogether. It's full of innuendo without being honest enough to give the facts. There are areas in each and every one of our lives that could be considered "high maintenance." It's time this phrase was buried, buried deeply.