The Good Wife Guide #1

The last time I wrote about a Wife-guide, I got into the kind of trouble you never expect, but that has the potential to divide a family until the end of time. In making a point, I didn’t choose my words carefully enough and almost had to stop blogging altogether. So I have been reticent about this post.

DH bought me this book for Christmas. Not, I hasten to add, as an insult or a pointer, but more because he thought it would be good material for the blog. Not to mention funny. I figure I should run with it and see where it goes. It has a lot in common with the ‘witty’ piece that I was given in the run-up to my wedding to the lovely DH:

Anyway, for the next few weeks, I’m going to take one rule at a time and see if a) it’s relevant b) I can do it and c) whether DH notices my attempts at 1950′s wifedom.

Rule #1: A Wife’s Duty
A man’s home is his castle and as such, he ought to be treated like a king. When he returns home from a demanding eight hours on the job (or more!), he rightfully deserves a bit of pampering. It’s every wife’s responsibility to dote upon her hard-working spouse, to show that he is truly appreciated.

Current state of affairs at DG Manor
DH returns home after a demanding more-than-eight-hours at work. (If this miraculously occurs before PD goes to bed, he throws off his coat, says hello to the dog and goes off to deal with PD.) He empties the dishwasher, cooks supper, deals with the laundry and puts the fire on then remembers to say hello to me, at which point I burst into tears of pain and frustration. To be fair this is abnormal: he takes on much more than his fair share when I suffer from SPD. Thank the Lord for Wedding Vows.

Conclusion
I am fully aware that being a stay-at-home-parent is NOT a cop-out, or an easy life. I know that if I wasn’t at home to run the house, look after PD and WH and make sure that DH is fed, clothed and the house runs ‘smoothly’ that he would not be able to concentrate fully on his job, which is demnading of time and brain cells. Still, I am very aware (sometimes I feel quite uncomfortable about this) that he is responsible for earning the cash that I spend making all the above happen. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to recognise this and give him the credit. I do pamper him: I tell him I love him, probably far more than he can really bear and, at the moment particularly, in a slightly clingy fashion. But I do tell him. I do make efforts to give him a lie-in at the weekend and I do get him ‘little somethings’ when I am out and about, to show that I have been thinking about him. That said, when the weekend comes, after 5 days of looking after the PD for 12 hours a day, he gets all the smelly nappies. It’s the 2010′s after all!

Score
Not bad. Obvious disability aside, I’d give myself a solid 7/10 (can’t you just hear Len Goodman?!) for my efforts.