Reflections on Marriage

The parents meeting is one of the many occasions that prompts me to contemplate about life in general and marital life in specific. Meeting parents from different places, of different looks, tastes, and attitudes is an interesting experience that makes me think, analyze, and come up with certain impressions and concepts regarding marriage and man-woman relationships.

The appearance of each couple tells to some extent whether they make a happy family or not, whether they match or not, the nature of their relationship and its effect on their children; to the extent that we find answers to many questions that hover around the behavior of some children that is directly and undoubtedly related to the family atmosphere. At many instances we came to a conclusion that with parents like these, how can the child be blamed?

The issue that I'm going to tackle here, however, is not the effect of unsuccessful marriages on children. I'm going to talk about one of the causes of a failed marriage and vanished love.

Among the couples who came to meet us, I can tell that in most cases the men looked prettier and younger than their wives. We wondered how a man like this can accept a wife like that, they just looked odd together. Most of the wives are fat and old fashioned which tells that they don't give themselves any kind of care, and like typical wives, their main concern is focused on their house, children and husband, leaving their beauty, personality, confidence and even femininity to fade away...

Their husbands on the other hand, looked pretty and elegant, well dressed for "the occasion?", obviously prepared for the mission of searching for beauty that they can no more see any trace of in their houses. Hmm, can they be blamed?
Some of them were not really listening to what the teachers had to say about their children, they were only nodding their heads pretending to be concentrating on the speech while their imprudent eyes were concentrating on somewhere else, examining the teacher from top to toe until she finds herself obliged to avoid them and direct her talk to the wives who seemed to be the only ones who cared and who attended the meeting for the real purpose of it.

"Marriage is more complicated than I thought it was" I thought. "What if I became like one of these women after a few years?!". The mere thought of it freaked me out! "NO WAY , there's no way I'm going to neglect myself like that!! There's no way I'm going to engulf myself with the household and then I get fat and ugly, and my husband starts gazing at beautiful ladies, and he may even think of remarrying!! :" :P. And my stream of thoughts goes on before it gets interrupted by the arrival of a new couple.

"Now that is the family that I'm going to have!" I thought to myself whenever I saw a cute happy couple towards whom the looks of admiration were directed. She's the wife who does not put aside the fact that her rule in this life is not restricted within cleaning and cooking, and is well aware of the other things that she needs to pay attention to in order to not leave a space for her husband to lose interest in her and look for his satisfaction else where. And he is the husband who's proud of having a smart, educated, up-to-date and appealing wife. (Knowing that some kind of mean men who can't resist but gaze or even cheat no matter how beautiful and great his wife is!)

We have to admit, even though good looking is not the only thing to admire in a wife, but it is a very important factor to have and take care of. Believe me, it can cause the family to fall apart! It's the man's right to have a wife of at least moderate beauty who takes care of herself if not for her sake then for the sake of her husband, instead of totally neglecting herself and turns into a complete disaster a couple of years after marriage; and then starts lamenting her fate when she finds out that her hubby is having an affair with another woman. It's an inseparable part of the wife's rule in taking care of the family and the husband and work for their satisfaction is to have more time in front of the mirror. Knowing that the husband must take into consideration that his wife has other priorities to take care of and consequently he should not be very demanding.

Moderation after all is the best choice.