The Superior Wife Syndrome
Why Women Do Everything So Well and Why--for the Sake of Our Marriages--We've Got to Stop
IntroductionSomething is rotten in the state of modern marriage: it's the common expectation that wives should be superior. Wives are supposed to do all, know all, fix all.
Take this regular exchange I have with my husband of several decades. While I'm putting away groceries or cooking dinner or doing laundry, or all three at once, I'll ask him to let the dog out.
"I have to do everything!" he'll answer, in a testy, melodramatic huff, as he reluctantly gets up from the living room couch to open the front door.
The joke is, of course, that I'm the one who does nearly everything, but he pretends to get upset if he has to do one tiny thing. There are several layers of meaning embedded in his banter. First, he's making fun of himself for being upset. Second, he's admitting that he doesn't do anything. Third, he's acknowledging that I am the one who does everything. Finally, he's apologizing for the situation but confessing that there's nothing he can do about it.
All in one brief pun ... read full excerpt from: The Superior Wife Syndrome: Why Women Do Everything So Well and Why--for the Sake of Our Marriages--We've Got to Stop ebook