All work and no play

One thing I'm going to have to speak to Guineapig about is his way of responding to text requests. Yesterday morning I emailed him to ask him to take his ankle irons to the office, and in the evening I sent another email asking him to wear them for at least an hour at some point during the evening, if possible. I always make a point of including the 'if possible' clause, in case of circumstances I haven't foreseen, and trying to word my requests in such a way that he feels encouraged to respond to them, either to confirm all is okay, or to raise any problems there might be with fulfilling them.

However, I heard neither confirmation nor denial that this period of restraint would be okay, and had to send a couple of texts before getting the response that he would do it if possible, but clutter in the office (he's moving) made it difficult to move around. I responded that of course I wasn't expecting him to do it if there were safety hazards (I hadn't known about the clutter).

My point is that he could just have replied straight away about the clutter. For me, a far preferable response would have been, "I'm sorry but I'm not sure whether I can or not, because it's a bit hard to move around the office at the moment with all the boxes", or words to that effect. What I don't like is silence, because then I don't know what's going on. He's known me for long enough now; he knows I won't be mad with him or regard any issues he raises as an 'excuse'.

In my opinion, it's common politeness to respond, either to say it's being done or to question whether it's possible/advisable (especially if new information needs to be brought to light). The fact is, if I'm not treated like a Mistress, I won't behave like one. I'm not one of those Dom/mes who responds to indifference, bratting, disobedience or reluctance by tightening my grip and coming over all Mistressly. Quite the reverse: I can't be bothered with that kind of behaviour, and instead of dishing out discipline and taking a strict tone of voice, I'm most likely to shrug my shoulders and mentally turn away. As far as I'm concerned, if a slave doesn't want to be owned by me or to serve me, then that's their lookout.