WHAT TYPE IS YOURS?

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21155, 3 July 1940, Page 4

WHAT TYPE IS YOURS?

Husbands Their Haunts and Habits In attempting to study that curious but useful creature the Husband, in his natural habitat the Home, one is slightly handicapped by the fact that he is hardly ever there, except in the evenings and on Sundays that are too wet for golf. This, according to the cynics, is why the marriage institution still endures, but we cannot go into that now. It is a pretty poor husband, however, whose personality leaves no mark upon his home, even if the business of bread-winning compels him to spend most of his time elsewhere. His influence is not, of course, as great today as it was Fifty years ago, when Father and his gold watch chain so dominated the household that Mother was little better than a yes-woman, scarcely daring to buy an egg-whisk without first getting his consent. However, he contrives to make his presence felt in a variety of ways. It is a debatable point whether a husband who takes too much interest in the workings of his home is more or less desirable.than one who takes too little. Every housewife likes to think that her efforts are appreciated, but interference with her methods is apt to irritate her. Yet even nowadays the Victorian model, master-in-his-own-house husband is not entirely extinct. Here and there a few perfect specimens can still be found—upright, earnest and humourless citizens who keep a keen eye on the tradesmen’s books, hold strong views on the upbringing of children, and take it as a personal affront if the colour of the bath mat is changed without their permission. For the helpless, clinging type of wife, this kind of partner is doubtless the most suitable on the market. But how many helpless, clinging wives are there at large today ? On the other hand, a husband who takes little or no interest in his home can be very trying to a conscientious woman. Of what avail to put his eldest son into his first long trousers, treat the spare room to a new carpet or effect a 25 per cent, reduction in the grocer’s bill, if he observes no improvement until it is brought to his notice ? The Genuinely Helpful Husband About halfway between these two extremes stands that very rare and valuable species, the Genuinely Helpful Husband—so useful about the house, and yet never in the way. Let it but be rumoured about the premises that there is a fuse to be replaced, a dog to be washed, a gate to be painted, a bookshelf to be fixed, a washer to be fitted, or a small child to be amused till bedtime, and instantly the helpful husband is there and on the job. The only danger about men of this type is that their helpfulness is liable to grow on them till it degenerates into a vice. A husband who is always willing to fit a washer or fix a bookshelf, if asked, is one thing; but a husband who is perpetually looking for bookshelves and washers to exercise his skill on, is quite another. Excessive helpfulness, in other words, may easily defeat its own ends. If one may believe what one reads in the papers, the Untidiness of Husbands is a standing joke in modern feminine circles; and in this matter there seem to be two schools of wifely thought. On the one hand are those who hold that a scattering of pipes, papers, boots, and other masculine oddments gives the home a cosy, lived-in appearance'and acts as a deterrent to burglars; on the other are those who maintain that it makes the house look like the day after an unsuccessful rummage sale. The latter, who greatly outnumber the former, are probably right; and they have the satisfaction of knowing that the majority of husbands, if caught young and carefully trained, can be taught to clear up as they go along. On the other hand, tidiness, like helpfulness, can be carried to excess, and a man who is constantly leaping from his chair to straighten a picture, adjust a rug, or punch a cushion into shape, is an exasperating room-mate for anybody who wants to curl up with a good book. Change in Manners Observed The. average husband’s manners, too, seem to benefit by a change of surroundings. Men who would never dream of opening doors for their wives will almost break a blood vessel in their eagerness to perform that office for the wives of others. Husbands whose home life is run on the theory that cigarette ash is good for carpets, and that muddy footmarks lend a pleasing touch of bizarrerie to linoleum, will wipe their shoes like well-trained convicts at anybody else’s door, and become temporary non-smokers rather than sully a host’s Axminster. Freud or Jung, perhaps, could explain this idiosyncrasy, but to the average wife it remains—as does the ease with which the adult male can outgrow the stoutest socks—one of life’s minor mysteries. In coping with her husband’s eccentricities, the average wife is considerably helped (a) by her knowledge that, like all men, he is just a child at heart, and (b) by the fact that his home life is limited to a few hours a day. Of course, it might be argued that a husband who is always at home is preferable to one who never is. That, however, involves considerations far too complicated and dangerous to be debated here.