Maggie Gallagher: I am woman, hear me whine
Here are a couple of paragraphs:
Some women routinely treat husbands in ways that, if husbands responded in kind would bring the universal condemnation of all womankind on their heads. You doubt? Pick up a copy of another new book, "The Bastard on the Couch," subtitled "27 Men Try Really Hard to Explain Their Feelings About Love, Loss, Fatherhood and Freedom," by Daniel Jones.
One artist-husband with a high-powered wife notes: "Every day, Gina prepares this list for me, with all the household tasks and details that I am responsible for completing before she arrives home from work that evening." Picking up his son at school, he observes the mothers. "I somehow doubt that any of them are carrying with them a list of chores from their husbands, detailing the various tasks they must perform that day. I would think that any of these women would laugh at her husband if he tried to give her such a list." (Laugh? Only if he's lucky.)
This is just part and parcel of the erroneous idea that if "men were just like women wouldn't the world be a lovelier place" that *some* women and certainly the media have picked up on.
And it's part of the devastating trend toward completely uncommitted men, in my opinion. Who wants to be committed to someone who is going to treat you like either a servant or another child?
Smock and I have talked about this issue. We like men. We like men who aren't Alan Alda types. We like men who AREN'T like women.
We want our hubbies to be who THEY are, in all their God-given maleness.
Who in her right mind wants to be married to the functional equivalent of another girl????? (And no smart remarks from the peanut gallery--you know what I mean!)
Sure, does it make it difficult to understand sometimes? Yeah. But there is nothing like the perspective that PapaC can give me when I'm all upset about something. He's got that "cut to the chase, let's fix the problem" mentality that kicks me out of the emotional uproar.
I think men in general, and husbands in particular, are the most under-appreciated resource in the universe.
So there.
Yep, under-appreciated and disrespected if you ask me. Because of my business, I'm around a lot of SAHMs. It never ceases to amaze me how much criticism I hear of the men who are out working hard so these women have the opportunity to get together on a weekly basis and bash them.
I thank God for my hubby every day! Thanks for the reminder.
Vince Gill has a new country song with a funny title: "It's Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your A$$ Out All Day Long".
I think the song is a riot--and I think it's particularly funny that it is Vince Gill doing it, since he has the rep of being "Mr. Nice Guy" in the CW music bidness. (Note: I'm not saying whether he is or isn't, that's just the rep. I know, I know, I know about Amy Grant and all that.....)
You know Vince's father actually came up with that title. Vince loved it but didn't use it for years.
MamaT, bless you and your husband.
Lists? Lists? I scoff at lists!!! Ok, instead of scoffing, I'd just write my home number on it and pass it to the first fetching stranger of the female persuasion I met upon.
The proper way for a woman to communicate to a man what chores need to be done is by the time honoured tradition of Nagging.
Is it a lost art these days?
Not at my house! ;-)