Lately I have noticed that I am getting quite used to life without a man around the house. You get to choose what to watch on TV, dinners are healthy but very simple, chores are done by me anyway so I don’t have to bother getting upset that the man in my life isn’t doing them. and I can jump into my pyjama’s at 7pm if I wish to do so. What I say goes and there is no discussion from anyone…not even the kids as they are still young enough to actually listen. (Yes, I do realize this will soon change ! And of course my kids don’t always listen…) I have gathered great knowledge about swimming pool pumps, home electrics, plumbing, and cars. It’s funny how, you learn to do stuff, out of pure necessity. Things you’d never thought you could do let alone understand, become second nature.
In my case it was due to the separation that I became self sufficient in certain fields. But there is also another type of ’emancipation’ in my town. Psychologists even have a name for such women, they are called the ‘green widows’. Green because we are surrounded by parks, forests and nature (and of course huge gardens). And ‘widows’ because many of the husbands in these surroundings are hard working professionals who spend hours, days and weeks away from home to build great careers and even greater businesses. Thus, the wives are ‘left behind’ to fend for themselves, often having to take care of the kids, pets, houses and of course their maids and gardeners. Not to mention the whole army of plumbers, electricians, painters, and handymen they have to meticulously guide around their homes in their ever changing interiors.
It is a thrill to hear of renovation projects, children’s rooms being restyled, gardens remodeled, and entire homes being replaced by newer and more family friendly ones. This in turn seems to also be a trend with the hard working men that hardly see their homes…they start their quest for a ‘home away from home’. This time it doesn’t involve bricks and mortar, but age and beauty.
In the old days you used to be the ‘kept’ woman if you weren’t married to the man in question, but nowadays, it seems the roles have switched, or have they not ?! As I found a definition online of a ‘kept woman’ being; “the woman kept house while the man hunted”. I guess in a way, that is still true, even though it seems to have become a different type of ‘hunting’ !
Anyway as most of us proudly bring up our kids and take on our household chores, life seems to take some shocking turns at around the magic age of 40. We either get fed up of being home alone and having to fend for ourselves on that front, or our beloved spouse decides there is a more adventurous life in fancy faraway places (like the office, or local bars). Funny thing is, that most of these cases are so alike that I have often wondered if someone is secretly handing out booklets on how to set out on this foolishly passionate adventure.
I have a theory about why women leave and why men leave too. You see, I think a woman leaves once she feels unappreciated, unloved and she reaches a point where she is just fed up with it all. A man funnily enough is nearly the same, he too will have felt unappreciated, unloved, but he will have smarlty found a replacement before leaving. Another woman.
No need to explain what happens next I think…once again, someone starts to plan great big renovations, changes are made to the newly aquired house whilst dearest husband works hard long hours, far away to pay for it all, only to help continue the ongoing circle of life’s natural evolution. Divorce and Marriage.
I’m sorry…did I not mention the children anymore ?! Maybe that is because in these cases they are the first to be forgotten….
Hopefully we will have taught them well and they will grow into confident, happy and loving parents and spouses, afterall isn’t that exactly the example we gave them ?!