Better Half

I got married recently. It’s been just about a year — and I have noticed a trend. Maybe you might have seen it too.

Yesterday, the husband and I were travelling with a mutual friend and while talking she chided him ‘you can’t talk like in front of your wife!’. I forget the context, but this kind of remained with me. Possibly because I have heard versions of this literally everyday, from literally everyone!

Any time someone is talking about their husband or wife or anyone else’s, there is a always a sort of a grimace and a shrug. Like you know ‘the wife will not like it’ or ‘the husband is always like this’ or even ‘now he’s married, he’s not gonna go out without the wife!’ or those n number of sentences we use to communicate just how horrible the married state is.

I don’t understand this. This expectation of everyone that being married is some sort of a lifetime sentence, and we are all very over it but still in it because, society.

Most people get married to people they love, or at least like (even if it is an arranged marriage) — and then you become a team. So if you are talking shit about one member of the team, you’re basically dissing the team. When you are saying that your wife or husband is horrible, you are also saying that you’re a person who chose to be married to a horrible person. And if it is horrible, get out. You have one life. Spend it with someone you like.

The worst part is that most of these people are very happy in their marriages. They love their spouses and go home and probably bitch about everyone else with each other. Then what is this fixation with treating it like the end of life as you know it?

You chose that person. You picked them to spend the rest of your life with. You behaved like an adult, made a commitment, intend to keep it and prioritize it above everything else — like you should.

Don’t let anyone else make you feel bad or like a sap just because they don’t respect their spouse enough to do the same. Treat your better half like they deserve to be treated.

Basically, stop talking smack about the only person who’s gonna help you put on your adult diapers in your 80s and still kiss you.