Tired? What do you mean tired?

      Being tired can mean lots of different things. When a parent says to a child, "I am sick and tired of____", you can guess that the child has been repeating an offense for which the parent has expressed concern and admonished the child more than once in the past. The parent is not tired in the sense they want to take a nap, although that may be the case as well. The parent is simply weary from a behavior being repeated without any hint of change/learning on the part of the child who is supposed to be taught. This is a form of frustration feeling that the parent is making an effort that isn't working and the child is not doing what he/she has been repeatedly told.
     When an employee says, with gritted teeth, "I am SOOOO tired of _____", it's likely that the employer or fellow employees have repeatedly made bad choices or attempted to employ bad policies that result in some kind of imposition on the employee. Again, there isn't so much a desire to take a nap because that won't fix the problem.
     When someone has been up all night with a sick child or working a night shift, they would sigh, "I am really tired." A nap would fix that. Saying you're tired can have so many varied implications that, without context, anyone listening would not know what you mean. This is only one, tiny example of how we communicate with each other, sometimes totally ineffectively. There has been advice to "parrot back" what a person says, using similar wording but not exactly the same to ensure what was heard was what was intended. But that can feel patronizing and uncomfortable. Some people, when asked questions for clarification, can become irritated, interpreting the questions as challenges or disagreements.
     As a part of acknowledging that we are all different, even if we are genetically related, romantically connected, or part of the same occupational group, gender, ethnicity, or whatever. Since we are all different, though we speak the same language, we don't always hear what another person means. Misunderstandings are probably one of the MAJOR causes of disagreements between people. Whether in a town hall meeting or across a cozy table for two, it would be helpful if ever there was a flash of irritation to seek clarification and understand intention before escalation to war.