You Can’t Pay Me Enough!

On my local radio station, the morning team asked what it was that 46% of women have paid their husbands to do. It wasn’t chores. Had nothing to do with sex. Wasn’t associated with gifts or time away with friends. Nearly half of married women have paid, not asked, but paid their husbands to attend a kid’s birthday party. Now, the DJ’s didn’t go into details, if it was their own kid’s party, if it was to accompany the mom to the party or if was to go in their stead.

I have two daughters. And, I have een to plenty of birthday parties. The ones for my girls I didn’t mind, because they were generally at my home. Family was there. We provided the food. And, I got to see the joy in my daughter’s eyes. But, it was the parties of my daughters’ friends that sometimes was like pulling teeth: dozens of screaming kids I didn’t know, parents who I didn’t know that wanted to talk to me about things I didn’t care to talk about, bad cake and activities that lacked creativity.

If I could have gotten out of these parties, I guess I would have. I went anyway, probably because my wife couldn’t make it and I didn’t want to leave my four-year old with a bunch of people I didn’t know. Obviously, there are guys who feel the way I do, but on a much higher level, unwilling to attend the party at all unless Mom pays him (come to think of it, the DJs never mentioned that payment had to be cash…hmmm). 

So, here’s something pretty simple that we fellas can do to make our partners happy…go to the damn parties…. without payment. Look, it’s okay to express to her that you really don’t want to go, but then after saying it, tell her that because you love her and your child, go anyway. Your wife will see you as the man she married, a provider and a good father. Yes, you’ll have to put up with two hours of little ones in a jumper, cheese pizza, cake with too much white icing, a cheap pinata with bad candy and coming home with a goodie bag filled with cheap, plastic choking hazards made in China, but it will be worth it in the long-run for your marriage, not to mention your connection with your kid.

And, I would bet that you will still get paid in another way as a token of your wife’s appreciation.[image error]