Along the lines of not being able to give a straight answer to a simple question is the fact that they can't just ask a simple direct question. I swear I would happily do 95% of the things my wife asks me to do if she would just say "will you do X?" But no. It's always "Do you want to do X?"
She volunteers at a food pantry once a week, and sometimes when they are understaffed, she will ask me to come along and help out. She ALWAYS asks "Do you want to come with me to food pantry this week?" And then she gets moody if I don't answer with an immediate, enthusiastic yes. I mean... I really don't want to go. There are a dozen other things that I could be doing on a Tuesday evening. But if she just plain asked, "will you come help me at food pantry tonight?" I would very quickly say "yes."
"Do you want to do the laundry?" No. "Will you do the laundry?" Yes. Two different questions with two different answers. One annoys the shit out of me, but one will get me to do shit. I've mentioned this many times, but I've given up hope that it will ever change.