MANY years ago a friend of mine who I’ve lost touch with, was planning to get married, “She should be a working woman,” he said very definitely. “Why?” I asked, “I’m sure you’re doing well, why do you need her to go out and work?” “For her sake,” he said. “And how’s that?”
“I don’t want her at home, doing nothing!” Ah my dear friend, I don’t know where you are this moment, I don’t even know whether you are married or not or whether she works, but I wish you could read this piece: A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.
The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and in the family room was strewn toys and various items of clothing.
In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife.
He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.
As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, “What happened here today?” She again smiled and answered, “You know every day when you come home from work, you ask me, “What in the world did you do today?”
“Yes,” was his incredulous reply. She answered, “Well, today dear I didn’t!” What fools we men are to think that while we are out working our homes go on automatically; that the beds are made, the clothes washed, the children sent to school, and taught and scrubbed and cleaned by some magic wand. Maybe we need to come home one day and find her curled up in bed with a book and a smile saying, “Today dear I didn’t..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
