I Have Myself a House Husband. Do You?

And I actually rather like it!

Hello and welcome!

My husband and I are from very different backgrounds. He had a privileged upbringing and I was born on a council estate. I walked to the comprehensive school just around the corner, usually wearing a second-hand school uniform, handed down from some distant relative. Things were tough.

That was a lifetime ago for us both. We met later in life, and a long-term marriage behind us both. I will never forget the night we met, quite by accident. He was newly single, as was I, but fiercely opposed to a new relationship, having suffered at the hands of a passive-aggressive narcissist for ten years. I was in a bad way, mentally and emotionally; I was very raw.

Anyway, my boss talked me into going to a charity ball with work, he walked into the office that evening looking very dapper in black trousers, a matching dinner jacket and a bow tie and although he caught my eye, I was not in the market for a relationship. When he sat next to me on the mini-bus to the venue, we chatted amicably and I thought, ‘What a lovely guy.’

Three weeks later, he proposed and I accepted. So there you go. I went from not wanting a relationship to pledging myself to this man. How did that happen?! When you know, you know. Besides, we were both of an age that, aside from our respective kids, we didn’t have much else to worry about.

I have never regretted my decision. That was seven years ago and each year, our relationship grows and deepens. He is the kindest, most thoughtful man you could ever wish to meet. He is eight years older than me, which brings me to the title of this piece.

I still work. You can read here all about how I had two interviews at the age of 65 and see what happened. I was flabbergasted.

So now I have to travel much further to work. I leave home at 07:15 and get back at 17:45, so a pretty long day. I drive, then catch a train, walk to the office on arrival and then reverse the whole process at the end of a busy day in a law firm. But I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way.

My husband never cooks, or should I say cooked. Only on Christmas Day. That’s his thing. The first thing he said when I told him about my decision to change jobs, moving from self-employed status to employed, was that he fully supported me and then he announced that he would do the cooking. He retired several years ago and had already taken over the cleaning and doing the laundry. I wasn’t sure how things would turn out. When I get home, pretty tired after my long day, there is a hot meal waiting for me and I am so grateful that I don’t have to start prepping the evening meal. He cleans up afterwards and I am so grateful to this lovely man that I met quite by accident.

The only household chore which falls to me is the ironing, which I honestly don’t mind doing, although it’s not my favourite job. However, after catching a sore throat recently and feeling under the weather, I was thrilled to see that even the ironing pile had magically disappeared. My house husband had done it for me.

I know that if things were reversed, I would do the same for him. But I am so thrilled not to have these extra things to worry about because I can now concentrate on my writing. This is why my house husband is such a huge help to me. His undivided attention to the household chores frees up my time to write more. And he knows just how important that is to me.

Being married is all about teamwork. Sometimes, one of us is up and the other is down. Or vice versa. We are there for each other, always. We laugh together and we cry together. Today, we played a round of golf together and laughed, and I cried with laughter when some weird things happened with some duff shots (not mine, I might add!) But it was great to laugh with each other and not at each other.

Tomorrow, my four-day working merry-go-round of a week starts all over again, but I can relax in the evening and get some writing done, thanks to my kind, thoughtful husband who stepped right up to the plate and offered to take over the household chores. Mind you, he does get a couple of rounds of golf in during the week too. Lucky man!

Have a great week.

Rosy.