I take mine off when I go to bed (can’t sleep with it on, makes my finger numb), when I play golf, when I play catch, when I go swimming, when I paint or work with nasty solvents… basically, any time wearing it would put me or it in danger.
I take it off a lot, I guess. It bugs me when I don’t have it on, though, so on those rare days when I forget it, I fidget with my ring finger all day.
When performing open-heart surgery.
Hey, it might come up …
Yikes! There is no way I am going looking online for the pictures tremorviolet referred to. Just the thought is enough to scare me off the ring.
Thanks for all the info. I knew to take off the ring when I go into the machine shop, but that is only occasionally for me.
I’ll probably try goalkeeping to see how well it feels, and definitely take off for climbing or such sports.
I think that I will put my keys on one of those carabiner chains, and then I can slip my ring onto it when I need to take it off.
This happened to my BIL. He lost the finger because when the ring caught on the heavy equipment that he jumped down from, it stripped the flesh and hide and half the bone from the finger. There was nothing left to save, and at the hospital, they simply removed the remaining piece of bone and sewed up the hand.
DO NOT wear your ring to work–it just isn’t worth what it could cost you.
Regarding not wearing your rings on your fingers while at work…
I recall listening to morning talk personalities Mark and Brian (or was it Kevin and Bean?) describe a case where a recruit got creative about where to keep his wedding band during a formal inspection.
As the story went, inspections require soldiers to be in uniform, and that means no jewlery. Not even wedding rings. And since the barracks weren’t secure, and the uniform didn’t have an appropriate pocket…
… this one soldier put his ring on his manhood.
Of course, this is a bad, bad thing to do. Blood to the corpus cavernosum – the stiffy part – enters thru the middle and exits at the outside. Blocking the blood exit with a metal band blocks the exit, and, well… it’s not a good thing.
Pretty soon, the situation becomes irreversible because it swells up so much that you can’t get the ring off. And if you don’t, then you’re gonna lose that valuable bit of real estate.
So this soldier is standing at attention in formation, and his boyo is starting to engorge and get rather painful. And more and more painful. And he’s standing there sweating and getting more and more nervous… and in agony. Until he passes out.
Somehow the EMTs noticed what was going on. Eventually. Perhaps because part of him was still standing at attention. And they knew that there was only one way to get the ring off.
Yes. It involved a scalpel.
They had to let the blood out somehow.
Just a helpful tip, something my father told me a long time ago:
If you take your ring off to wash your hands (which is probably a good idea), put it in your pocket, not on the sink/counter. If you get in the habit of putting it on the sink, it’s only a matter of time before you forget and walk away without it.
Within a year or so of when we married my husbands hand got caught by the ringer and he broke his finger at work. It could have been worse as others have mentioned. He stopped wearing his wedding ring other than when we are socializing after that. He doesn’t wear it around the house, at work or when doing sports. When we go for an evening with friends, to church, on a trip, or out to dinner, it’s part of getting dressed, even if dressing is just nice shorts and a shirt.
I agree with what everyone else has said so far, but I have one more suggestion. I would also discuss this with the soon to be Mrs. That way she understands if you come home without the ring on your finger, and doesn’t think you aren’t wearing it for some other reason.
My husband plays softball a lot, so he takes his ring off because of his glove. I totally understand why he takes it off but it was nice that he told me upfront, before I found it laying on his nightstand one night. That could have led to a very serious conversation when he got home that night had I not known.
Upfront communication can save you from a world of arguments.
Another vote for the mentioned, but not emphasized, activity of swimming.
I would feel really bad if my band dropped into the murky depths to be rescued by Déagol (leading to his murder) simply because I forgot to remove it before swishing my hand around in the water.
A shiny ring is neither safe nor tactical.
When I get married, I will have a ring tattooed on my finger. There will be an actual ring, too of course. But after the wedding ceremony, it will be kept in a pretty display case somewhere on the mantle or something. That way I have a permanent “ring” that NEVER comes off. And it’s always safe and never shiny.
To get around the “No tattoos below your wrist regulation”, Ill wear the ring over it if ever I think someone’s looking closely. While in Class As for instance.
But for the majority of my life, the real ring will stay home. I think my wife wont mind since I’m “wearing” a ring that can NEVER come off.
Heh, MaxBabe does this! And you’re quite right - no rings. No jewelry at all in fact.
Before she did cardiac, she was in an orthopaedics theatre. She’s seen plenty of amputations and deglovings as a result of wearing a ring when operating machinery. It aint pretty.
Max.
After I got married, I tried to wear it a bit. But I simply couldn’t get used to having it on my finger when I typed.
Never liked it, won’t wear it.
I’m surprised by some of the talk about arguments and whatnot arising from not wearing one. Too possessive, people!
We’ve got rings but neither of us wear them ever. It would never have occurred to me to worry about whether or not Mr P wore his. Fidelity’s not about a piece of jewellery.
Dr.J hasn’t worn his ring at all in well over a year. He just never did get used to the way it felt, probably because he almost never remembered to put it on. (I’ve been wearing rings of various sorts since the age of 15 or so, so putting on a ring when I put on my watch was automatic for me, but he’d never worn jewelry of any sort.) Come to think of it, he probably doesn’t even know where the thing is, beyond “in his desk somewhere.”
I know a lot of women who would be up in arms over such a thing, but I never much cared if he even had a wedding ring, much less wore it. I just never have made much of a connection between a piece of jewelry and how seriously you take your marriage. Maybe it’s because my dad’s always worked in construction and never wore a wedding ring for safety reasons. Anyway, it’s never been an issue for us–any time either of us is safer or more comfortable without the ring, or it’s likely to be damaged, off it comes.
I don’t wear mine much, because I have eczema and very dry skin on my hands, which means I must use moisturizer on my hands every time I wash them. Between, cooking, cleaning, using the bathroom, changing the baby, and getting spit up on by the baby, I wash my hands an awful lot. Some people put lotion on while wearing rings, but I find that lotion will gunk up the prongs of my solitare. Rather than constantly taking them on and off, I tend to leave them off. Usually, I will put on my rings when I leave the house, but I don’t feel compelled to wear them at home. My husband wears his all the time. He never needs to put on lotion, and he’s a professional computer geek, so he doesn’t have many safety issues with wearing a ring.
My dad was a welder and millwright when he was working (he is now retired) and never owned a wedding ring – they had a single ring ceremony. He and my mom have been married for 46 years. He has lots of nasty stories similar to those here about people who lost their fingers by wearing rings while doing manual work. Many of these gruesome tales involved men who forgot to take their rings off before work in the morning. So, Dad opted to not have a ring – that way he wouldn’t have to worry about forgetting to take it off.
My husband has a wedding ring (and a desk job) but he takes it off whenever he’s working with his hands – working on the car or motorcycle, or doing yardwork, or working on the house. He actually almost never wears it when he’s home. He puts it on (along with his dress watch) before work, or before we go out. Then he takes it off again when he puts on his around-the-house clothes. If he isn’t wearing decent clothes (and his dress watch), he isn’t wearing his ring.
For what it’s worth, men’s wedding rings were almost unheard of before the 1940s. The “tradition” of the male wedding ring was an invention of the jewelry industry – an enormously successful invention, right up there with the “tradition” of the diamond engagement ring. 50 years ago there were questions to etiquette columnists about how to handle a double ring ceremony. Now many brides and grooms don’t even know that single-ring ceremonies exist.
Well, my lady wife takes hers off fairly regularly, because she has a combo engagement/wedding ring that has diamonds and such on it, so it can get snagged on things when she washes her hair, cooks, etc. Her fingers also swell a little at certain times, so it’s a hassle to keep them on, though of curse, i like for her to wear them.
As for me, I took mine off for the first time in years this past Sunday, to clean off some silicone gunk that had stuck to it while i was repairing a leak in our pool. Once I got it cleaned up, though, it went right back on. My ring is an unadorned circlet, so it doesn’t really catch on anything. The only sport I play- SCA tourney fighting- requires gloves, gauntlets, and other finger protection, so it’s not really in danger of getting hit/snagged.
Of course, it’s sort of a moot point- I am very brown (West Indian), and now have a bright white ring of skin under my ring. It almost glows when I take the ring off.
Due to the hazards listed above, along with the fact that my fingers swell when I’m exercising, there are times I don’t want a ring on my finger. I still like having it close, though. It’s not that I’m afraid of losing it; I just like knowing it’s with me. Shortly before we were married, I explained this to my bride, and took her shopping so she could help me pick out a nice silver necklace. She was touched, and I like the feel of the ring against my chest when I run; the act of putting on the necklace feels like an act of devotion.
By the way, if you do this, ask your jeweler for a necklace that’s made of a softer material than your ring. That way, the ring will scratch the necklace, rather than the other way around.
It wasn’t until about 4 years ago that I realised most married men wear a ring. My parents are married, but my dad has never had a ring as he doesn’t like mens jewellry. So I assumed that was the norm until I realised otherwise.
That happened to my grandpa. Jumped off of a truck, and caught his ring on a hook on the side…you guess the rest. Ick and ouch.