You be the judge: should my boyfriend double-knot his shoelaces?

It’s embarrassing to be walking and talking to myself for a full 20 seconds when he’s on the floor tying his shoelaces My boyfriend, Derren, doesn’t double-knot his shoelaces, and it’s annoying. We’ll be going somewhere, and often running late (which will usually be his fault, too). I’ll be speed-walking or regaling him with a story only to turn around and see that Derren is way behind me on the ground, tying his shoelaces again – or just completely out of my sight.

It’s embarrassing. It means I’ll have just been talking to myself for who knows how long. I’ll admonish him when he catches up to me, and say: “Can you just let me know where you are?” but he just laughs.

I think Derren has an aversion to double-knotting his shoelaces just because I’ve asked him to do it. I feel that it could be a very simple fix. I’m not a double knot purist, but you need to understand when a situation calls for a certain knot.

I double-knot the shoelaces on my boots for example, because the laces need the extra help, but my Converse shoes work fine with single knots. Derren, meanwhile, laces up his shoes very loosely – I think he’s got weak fingers – so he really should tie a double knot every time. I have told him this, but he says he doesn’t like undoing them at the end of the day.

We’ve been together five years, but we were long distance for the first four of those so I didn’t notice the trailing laces. It only became apparent when we moved in together .