DON’T BE A “GONGSTER” WIFE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22778, 14 January 1936, Page 17

DON’T BE A “GONGSTER” WIFE

“Ann has developed a 30-miles-an-hour-speed-limit complex,” said a young husband to me the other day. “ She won’t let me exceed it," he added dejectedly.

Then he explained. When he felt like doing something different, something just a little bit reckless or extravagant, perhaps, his wife sounded the alarm, put the brakes on, and pulled him up (says an exchange). I knew exactly what was happening. Ann was getting into a state of overdeveloped carefulness. She had the house to run and manage. Shopping anti housework in the mornings, cooking lunch for one, dinner for two, and all the odd little jobs in the evenings. She knew that it was her job to do all these things and keep a careful eye on the budget at the same time. But she was allowing the need for carefulness that is so common to all of us these days to dominate her almost completely.

If Brian hurried home from the office and said: “ Darling, we haven’t done a theatre for ages. Let’s go! ” she thought: “The bathroom wants new curtains,” or “He could do with a new shirt,” and said: “ No. Don’t be reckless. We’ll stay in.” And Brian was being made to keep Inside the speed limit all the time. Every wife knows the need for exercising control over her husband. But it isn’t wise to develop into a “ gongster ” wife and sound the gong every time he wants to break out. Men want an outlet after the confined atmosphere of their work, and every now and again they have to do something a little bit reckless.

It’s wise to let them, to join with them in their mood of excitement, and forget everything else for the time being.

Even if your husband wants to be extravagant, it’s good to let him, sometimes, and leave the new curtains to look after themselves.

A few magic hours now and again will recapture and recall the carefree days of courtship, and come as .a delightful interlude in the routine of housework for you and gardening for him.

I knew a husband who hurried home on a rainy day to tell his wife the thrilling news that he had been given a big promotion. He burst in, dripping wet but eager to tell her. He never did. Before he could speak, uncaring for his obvious exhilaration, she said: “ Look at the mess you’re making on the floor I polished this morning,” and the words died on his lips. That first harsh rebuff so damped this young husband’s enthusiasm that in time he learnt to repress his exhilaration over any small excitement whenever his wife was about.

He grew secretive with her, too, and now she complains that she no longer has her husband’s trust. But I am afraid she has only herself to blame. So don’t sound your “gong” all the time. If you have to have a speed limit, don’t be afraid to let your husband exceed it sometimes. If he is like most husbands, you will be well repaid for it. And you, yourself, will feel life is much more cheerful for these occasional outbursts of “fast driving.”