And believe me, your husband will sleep better knowing his little automaton is happy and thinking only of him. Yes, we here at Happy Wife Industries offer a full-line of Happy Thought accessories to fulfill all your man’s desires.
Remote control with fully functional volume control.
Satellite dish and chest mounted flat screen TV so he can watch the big game anywhere.
GPS positioning and Satellite phone so he can monitor your location and direct commands to you via the remote control no matter where you are.
Triple locked chastity belt to prevent “mishaps”. It’s the ultimate in security, with optional retinal scan technology.
Memory erasure service–rid yourself of all those pesky hopes and dreams.
This sounds GREAT!!! They outlawed the buying and selling of slaves… now you can marry one.
Seriously, having a wife that refused to have her own opinions would be soooooo boring.
Giving women a bad name, she is.
huh.
BTW, I think it would be rude to not swallow.
Of course, if he mises the correct turn, maybe she spits it out at him! Her fault for doing that while he’s driving!
No, it was no gag gift. The only thing I can say for him is that he did not read the book, only the first chapter. We have since reached the conclusion that we are incompatable in areas of attitude and opinions.
We had a thread about it here a while back, called “the Surrendered Wife”, but I don’t have the time at the moment to dig it up.
Never give a self-help book to anyone, unless you have read it first!
At the risk of advancing a heretical opinion here…
…maybe this ain’t so bad.
I stress that this was not what I was looking for in a wife, and Mrs. Bricker most certainly does not fit this profile… (Although she does have a habit of demurely saying, “You’re the boss, dear,” just when I have announced some fatally flawed plan; the fact that she sniggers at me while doing so kinda ruins the moment. But I digress.)
I would offer this observation, though: each couple must make their own relationship. If what works for one couple is the wife ‘surrendering’ her autonomy, and both husband and wife are happier – more power to 'em! By the same token, if a couple is happier and more content if the wife handles the decision-making… more power to them! I am uncomfortable with any approach which purports to be the all-curing answer. But by that same logic, not every couple works well as equal partners.
Couples should apply whatever rules work well for them. Period.
I saw that woman on dateline (or one of those news-type shows). She started out sounding so rational—don’t nag as much, make an effort to be supportive—and then just veered off into the land of Donna Reed. It was when she started with “relinquish all decisions about the children and the finances” that I got really disturbed. Fortunately I discussed it with my boyfriend and he was equally appalled. He knows that if we left the financial decisions to him we’d end up living in a box. (We’d have some really nice electronic equipment, but we’d still be in a cardboard box.)
The kicker about this whole surrendered wives thing though–her husband gave up his job to help her promote her book. So she’s basically his boss, which seems a little against the whole point of her plan.
I admit a lot of this sounds appalling. BUT I do know women who could do a lot for their marriages AND THEMSELVES if they’d follow this technique instead of the way they’re currently behaving.
I know several women who are perpetually dissatisfied with everything their husbands do. They just wait for him to do something they can pounce on so they can be newly exasperated at his incompetence. He opened the french cut greenbeans instead of the whole beans. He chose to take Main Street when everyone knows this time of day it’s jammed. He chose this parking space instead of the closer one in the next row. He liked the blue sofa instead of the green one when any idiot can see it wouldn’t match the drapes. He can’t remember the name of that actress in the hit movie you saw even though she won an Oscar last year. He put the striped shirt on Junior that didn’t match Junior’s pants. He tried to fix your washer and the house flooded.
Great example: My husband is a woodworker. When one friend comes over, instead of seeing his latest project and saying “That’s beautiful!” she says “Roger! Why can’t YOU ever do something like this? I swear, he’d cut off his own arm if he tried it, though. You’re so lucky, Cranky.” Never mind that Roger has talents that Mr. Cranky doesn’t have. Or if we have a nice photo of Cranky Jr up: “Roger, why don’t you ever take a great snapshot like this?” It’s all about what he can’t do.
For these women, their husband is the main character of all their best anecdotes about what an idiot he is, how stupid men are, what a burden it is to be a wife these days and keep the incompetent, bumbling fool from ruining his own life, burning down the house, and losing the kids. They’re continually unhappy with him; they’ve convinced themselves that he’s entirely inadequate and it’s their lot in life to just suffer. When in truth, the men in question have many wonderful traits and if their damn wives would just ease up and back off, everything would be fine.
I’m not making this up–I really know women like this. Mostly, I stay the hell away from them. But do I think THEY could benefit from this book? You betcha.
[addressing article author]
You know, there’s this really broad band between insulting, abusing and harassing your SO, and being totally subservient to him.
It is possible to express your needs, thoughts and perspective positively.
It is possible to be supportive to your sweetie, without giving up your own self-respect.
It is possible to recognize that some things just don’t matter, and let them slide without giving up your integrity.
But, hey, if you don’t feel capable of any of this, go ahead and make yourself into a floormat.
Just don’t be surprised if your SO spends all your money on beer when your children are going hungry. And don’t be surprised if you or your daughters end up verbally and physically abused.
[/addressing article author]
I sent this site to my SO, and he had an interesting take on it. He figures this woman is incredibly manipulative, and when her flat out bossing him around wasn’t working anymore, she had to come up with something else. She’s moved her manipulations underground now, and disguised them as subservience. I suspect this woman is still getting everything her own way; her husband just gladly hands it to her now, because she is just so good to him.
You guys are too negative. I think this is a great idea. In fact, everyone should do it. Wives and husbands. Singles too. Adults and children. Everyone should surrender! You should all surrender! You should all surrender to ME!! THAT’S RIGHT! TO ME!! SURRENDER YOUR FLIMSY WILLS, YOUR PUNY DREAMS!!! I WILL BE KING OF THE WORLD!!!
I beg your pardon, really. I went away for a while, but I’m back now. :D:D:D
