322 Some Thoughts About Family

It’s getting close to a very “Family” sort of time of year, with several religious holidays and times which many folks associate with the concept of FAMILY.  It also CAN be (and too often is) a time which leads to intra-family stresses what with lots of folks coming together for big “family” dinners, lots of visiting with family members who don’t get together too often, too many grumpy “political” discussions which can lead to unhappy feelings, etc.

Anyway, I thought I’d try to alleviate at least a bit of the stress which can arise from these situations, with some (hopefully) humorous thoughts relating to everyday family situations and relationships.  So, in that light, I hope that this post helps.

Obviously, the most important relationship in ANY family is between the Husband and the Wife, so it follows that THAT relationship should be considered as primary.  Of course, for many of us men, that relationship is always a bit of a mystery, leading to many comments of this sort.  

It’s almost certainly correct to note that husband’s are notoriously clueless about some things which tends to drive their wives to distraction, which leads to automatic guilt feelings on the part of husbands and so on.  For example, consider this version of every husband’s nightmare from Dustin:

This thought brings to mind an extremely important principle which I believe that every husband should keep in mind on a constant basis.

As a case in point, I offer this from For Better or For Worse:

I guess that means that a smart man knows what to say when he is backed into an emotional corner.  Of course, many of us either forget how to do that, or simply can’t think fast enough to avoid the trap.  Here’s an example of a REALLY smart husband trying to avoid this trap from Dustin.

There are many, many folks who try to offer advice to the clueless (husbands in general), most of whom know that whatever they say won’t be remembered for more than a few minutes, but they DO keep trying, as shown in this from Non Sequitur.

Now, in defense of husbands, I will suggest that MANY of us probably DO improve with age and experience.  It’s the beginners who are likely to have the most difficulty, as demonstrated by these pictures I found somewhere.

I will admit that one of the more traumatic experiences of most husbands (I suspect) IS becoming a FATHER for the first time.  That DOES get a BIT easier with repetition (practice), but it’s still likely to be more than slightly disquieting.  That MAY be a result of the fact that the trauma of childbirth continues (at least for the husband) for quite some time after the actual birth.  For example, unless you have lived through this, NOBODY truly understands this warning from That a Baby.

Now, any husband, if he is smart, needs to be careful in developing his relationship with his wife regarding children.  Wives DO have a tricky way of maintaining a certain degree of control in THAT part of the relationship.  After all, while few men would admit it, without some sort of DNA test, they really CAN’T BE SURE that they actually FATHERED “their” children, witness the “joke(?)” below:

I suspect that any woman who would actually USE this against her husband might end up with a severely stressed relationship, but it remains true that, without testing, it IS hard to actually KNOW.

It IS true, however, that a fairly large number of folks do manage (somehow) to remain married for a good while.  In Bonnie and my case, we’re pushing up close to 60 years shortly after Christmas.  Exactly HOW we’ve accomplished that is something I would be hard pressed to explain, but I suspect that it has something to do with just taking it one day at a time, and having figured out that we really were “Besties” BEFORE we got married.  I’m not sure that this from Pickles helps to explain how we’ve done it, but it might….

Of course, it’s unlikely that this actually explains EVERYTHING about how we’ve made things work for this long.  I suspect, that in ours, as in every marriage, there’s a deal of what’s shown in this strip from For Better or For Worse in our relationship.

Actually, I strongly suspect that, in many cases (mine included), it MIGHT just be as simple as the case that the WIFE (in this next case, Opal Pickles) has it more correct than her husband, Earl, does.  After all, as she frequently demonstrates, the wife often gets the last word, and usually the last laugh.

Well, I’ve probably said more than enough about family “situations” to get myself in more hot water than I set out to do.  So, I should probably just quit before I do something REALLY stupid!  I hope this holiday season brings happiness to everyone’s family, that all the “family” dinners are delicious (and happy) and the season is full of joy.

I expect to be back in a couple of weeks with some thoughts which, I anticipate, MAY focus more specifically on the occasion of Thanksgiving.  But those ideas can wait.  They are for that time, this is sufficient unto this one.

See you in a couple of weeks,

🖖🏼 LLAP,

Dr. B