Us women are hard to understand sometimes. Yes, we give mixed signals and no, we don't always mean what we say. What women want men to do is seemingly obvious to the female, not so much for the males. I'm going to go over a few common terms women use to drop a hint to you men.

"It's OK" or "I'm not mad."

For this one, it's all in the face. If she says it with a smile and a laugh, it's generally fine. If she says it with an eye roll and maybe yells it a little bit, you better get to doing some damage control.

"I'm fine."

Again, it's all in the face. If she's yelling this phrase at you, talk to her. If she's trying to hide her tears from you, just give her some time and when she comes around, talk to her about it.

"Oh, your parents are in town?"

This is for you gentlemen who just don't think about introducing your lady to your parents. It's a big deal to meet the parents for us ladies. We definitely don't want to invite ourselves because we want to make sure that you want us to meet them. But when they come to town and we've been in a relationship for six months, it's hard for us to see any reason why we shouldn't meet your parents. So, if you're not ready for her to meet them (or maybe you think your parents aren't ready for them to meet her) just tell her. She would much rather hear from you why she can't meet them over analyzing every conversation she ever had with you and why she's not good enough and blah blah blah. Just be honest.

"That ____ is so cute!"

Whatever fills in that blank, write it down. These are the hints she's talking about when it comes to Christmas, Valentine's Day and birthdays. Be listening all year long for hints like these so then you'll have lots of options to choose from and you'll know she'll love every one of them.

"Nothing..." vs. "Nothing!"

This is where we separate the boys from the men. If you ask a woman what's wrong she'll respond with "nothing." Now sometimes there really is nothing wrong, and that's usually when they are still acting like they usually do. If they say "Nothing, nothing is wrong, everything is absolutely perfect!" then you've set off a bomb. Before you respond, think of something you did. Something she wouldn't like that you did and then just apologize for it. Oh, that wasn't it? Try saying sorry for something you didn't do like "Sorry, the ozone layer is disappearing I didn't know you would be so upset about that. I'll try and get that fixed for you." If she laughs, you're golden. If she doesn't, you're screwed and you're just going to have to wait this one out.