Sorry, but I have to take a break from my travelogue to unload about something. Sometimes, all too often, human behaviour is such that it just dumbfounds me. We were driving along the beach near Encinatas a couple of evenings ago and I pulled into a parking lot to turn around. There were people everywhere, including a fairly young couple with two kids who were standing at the edge of the lot. I had my window rolled down. As I drove past them, I heard the guy apologizing to his wife for some transgression, real or imagined, as the kids looked on. From the tone of the apology, I suspect that wifey had pulled out the claws and had neutered him right there, in front of the kids and in front of the world.
Listen, my poor, beleaguered friend: If by some miracle of coincidence you happen to stumble across these humble words and recognize yourself, do yourself a favour. Ditch the bitch. Get rid of her. Divorce. Pay whatever it is going to cost to get her out of your life. It ain't going to get any better. Any person, male or female, who will berate his or her spouse in front of the kids and anyone else close enough to notice (in this case dozens of innocent bystanders,) deserves no second chance.
Oh. The kids. Yep, they sure do complicate things, don't they. Kids need both mother and father. If your wife is anything like I think she is, a divorce would be very, very messy and she would take every opportunity to use your kids in every underhanded way possible to get back at you. You might only get to see your kids on weekends and might have to live in the attic over your brother's garage.
I don't know: What is more important, keeping your balls or staying close to your kids?
OK, OK. Give the bitch another chance, but haul yourselves off to a marriage counsellor or something. And don't allow yourself to be pushed around. You won't respect yourself and neither will she. You are going to have a long and thankless life ahead of you if things don't change. Judging by the look in your eyes as you tried to apologize yourself out of a situation I'm sure you didn't even recognize as problematic, you seemed like a nice guy.
Good luck. You're going to need it.
I used to have a very good friend who had a wife who was constantly criticising her husband on all occasions, and had absolutely no respect for the poor guy who never once told her to shut up or f--- off. I said we used to be good friends, but I decided that this personal harangue was too wearying to endure, so I stopped going over to his place. I explained to my pal I had not come over because I couldn't understand why he was putting up with this crap. He replied, "That's what happens if you marry the girl friend you have knocked up."
ReplyDeleteMy "good" idol-worshipping Papist sister is one of those bitches in need of ditching, but it's amazing what some alleged men are willing to endure for the sake of a warm, wet place to stick it.
ReplyDelete"It is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman in a mansion."
You're right, Ted. One problem is that men, stoic creatures that we are, tend to put up with a lot of stuff simply because we can, or are expected to. Who likes a whiny man, after all?
ReplyDelete