'I heard what he said to her. I wanted to tell her to run.'

I'm sitting at the bar in the restaurant attached to my building. It's happy hour but I'm not drinking. I'm getting a salad, and doing some work on my laptop.

A young couple sits next to me.

It's obvious they're in the infancy of their relationship.

They chat with me for a few minutes, and we laugh together. Their banter is cute. They're adorable in every sense of the word. I'm happy for them.

Until…

I hear the guy say, "Women getting in accidents, shocking."

He's insinuating that women are terrible drivers.

Watch: How to talk to kids about respect. Post continues below.

I can't help but look over at him to reassess his age. Why? Because I would hope something this archaic wouldn’t exit a young man's mouth. This mentality sounds like a disrespectful old guy.

And not a guy in his late 20s.

I want to tell this girl to run for her life.

I married a man who made jokes like this. I reacted the same way this young girl did. I laughed. I was easygoing. It seemed like my boyfriend and then-husband was being funny.

He wasn't.

He was being disrespectful.

Mocking women isn't funny.

It's not joking. It's a mentality. It's disparaging. It's disrespectful.

I didn't make man jokes. I was careful not to say anything that would feel emasculating to my husband. I didn't like it when I saw other women do it, either.

It's like talking in the third person in front of someone.

It's more insulting because they're standing right there.

My husband's 'joking' got worse with age. It was compounded by the years I became a stay-at-home mother. He discovered a lot more material to work with under that unfortunate stereotype.

You don't have to insult someone to be funny.

You don't have to insult a gender to be funny.

You don't have to make another person feel bad to make yourself feel good.

A lack of respect can make a relationship miserable. It's exhausting. You're dealing with someone who dismisses you. They don't care what's important to you, what worries you, or what stresses you.

They have a distinct mentality.

They have their view of the world, and disparage the view of others.

They're threatened by difference.

I always say, "Respectful people see you for who you truly are. Disrespectful people make you feel bad about who you are. They send a contradictory message. I love you but I don't like you."

I was sitting next to a young couple.

It was a simple sentence.

But sadly, it told me a lot about a young girl's future.

This article originally appeared on Medium and has been republished here with permission. For more from Colleen Sheehy Orme, follow her on Medium or Instagram.

Feature Image: Getty.

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